By Theresa Peterson
Peterson’s Maid To Order
House cleaning is as old as the original man. Even the cavemen did rudimentary cleaning of their caves, as they soon found that the remnants of food and feces left around the cave attracted animals of all kinds into their shelters.
House Cleaning for hire soon turned into forms of indentured slavery. Whereas those with the money essentially bought those without and forced them to work long and tiring hours to make ready the homes occupied by the master. Often families would sell their daughters at an early age to the wealthy and these young women were forced to work for the purchaser as maids until they either died or ran away.
Times were hard and work was plenty. The work was back breaking, tedious, and non- stop. Luxuries such as running water were non-existent. Tools were poor to say the least. Many of the concoctions used for cleaning were made of hazardous materials such as kerosene and lye. Often a maid was injured, maimed or died while working off her indenture for her employer. But bodies were plenty and no one seemed to care if the maid was hobbled at the ripe old age of 14. Therefore this practice stayed in existence for Centuries, world wide until rather recently. In fact in some of the lesser developed countries of the world it is still practiced in some forms.
We however in the United States with the rise of the industrial revolution started to make changes in the structure of how people worked in every day jobs. What With the advent of the child labor laws, the formation of unions and the governing of labor by the politicians, there soon became the need to import cheaper, more mature labor from other countries for the menial jobs such as house cleaning.
As time progressed this field attracted only those who were un-educated, or inexperienced. Often cleaning homes, doing laundry and being a nanny were the only options open to women who found themselves without support due to a husband dying.
It wasn’t until recently in history that house keeper / cleaner was appreciated and actually looked upon as being worthy of any form of respect. This transition started to happen some time in the late forties, early fifties. This is when it became more acceptable to find women who by choice, worked for their clients rather than being forced to work to pay off debts.
Most of these women who labored as housekeepers and maids at this time still tended to be ethnic of origin, immigrants, or poorly educated. They still tended to have to work on average of 12 to 14 hour days for families that could afford to have them, often for pennies per hour. All the while the Mistress of the home was doing little. It was not uncommon for the housekeeper to be a combination cleaner/ cook/ nanny/ laundress for the home. Arriving early in the morning so they could prepare breakfast and leaving late at night only after all was cleaned up from the dinner.
It wasn’t until the Sexual revolution of the 60’s, when more and more women demanded the “right” to work outside of the home that the house cleaning industry, as we know today really began to evolve. When women left their family homes in droves for the work place it soon became apparent that women could not do it all. With their new found freedom to work at risk, and extra disposable income in hand, Families began to offer the jobs that they thought were menial to others, such as their house cleaning and child care.
Steadily over the years each of these fields evolved into what they are today, multi-billion dollar industries. In the short time span 15 years from 1985 to 2000 the rate of pay received for cleaning a home went from an approximate minimum charge of $12 per hour to $25 per hour for a licensed and insured cleaning company. This was due in part to the lack of cleaners in the field at the time. Now that the field has become more popular the rate of pay is leveling off some due to higher saturations of available help, as well as the influx of the unlicensed/ uninsured “trunk slammers” as they are so readily called, who will undercut the pricing of a legitimate cleaner in a heartbeat.
As the industry evolved so did the titles of those working within the industry. Those who were originally called Maids are now steering clear of the title and prefer to be known as House Cleaners. It is often heard now that the terminology “Maid “ denotes one who is willing to be worked harder by having to do the more menial tasks such as picking up after family members, serving meals, and doing laundry. It is hoped that by changing the names a certain amount of respect is brought into the job that has never been there before.
House Cleaners as they define themselves today are a breed unto themselves. They are proud persons of either sex who have broken the barrier of the stigma that lingers the history of maids. They strive to be professional. They are concerned with the how’s and why’s of residential cleaning. Many are branching out into areas of the field that include the science of chemistry for cleaning, for the betterment of health.
As the old saying goes ~ “You’ve come a long way baby”
Theresa Peterson
Maid to Order House Cleaning