As a parent, there’s a good chance you could use someone to offer a little help in two areas: looking after your kids and keeping your house clean. There are only 24 hours in the day, after all, and we’re only human. If you’re considering hiring a household employee to help, you may be wondering which is a better fit — a housekeeper or a nanny — or if there’s a world in which you can find someone to do both.
The truth is that a nanny and a housekeeper are quite different jobs, and each serves a distinct purpose. “I am all about delegating low-joy tasks to the right person, which is why we employ both a housekeeper and nanny in our home,” says Christine Landis, parent of two and founder of Peacock Parent Inc., which offers vetted concierge services for busy parents. “There are some tasks that overlap between the two services, but the Venn diagram of shared responsibilities is small simply because they are each experts in their own management of time.”
How much does a nanny clean the house, exactly? If you’re wondering where the boundaries fall and how to decide which you might benefit from more, a nanny or a housekeeper, experts share the answers here.
Tasks you can expect a nanny to handle
First and foremost, a nanny’s duty is to care for children. “A nanny is primarily focused on all aspects of child care, ensuring the children’s safety, well-being and developmental growth,” says Danielle Sadler, marketing director for Adventure Nannies. Here’s what some of their tasks may look like on a regular basis.
Watch and play with children
A nanny is there to care for and keep an eye on your kids, including keeping them busy and engaged and helping them grow and develop. That can include organizing educational and recreational activities, and sometimes helping with homework, Sadler says.
Cook meals for kids
It’s common for nannies to prepare meals for kids, Sadler says. This may come with a bit of cleaning, too: putting away food, clearing plates, and perhaps washing them or loading the dishwasher.
Bath, bed and naptime
Nannies generally help kids with hygiene practices, Salder says, including helping them through bathtime or pre-bed activities like brushing their teeth. They may also put kids down for naptime or get them in bed at the end of the evening.
Tidying up
Kids can be like tornadoes, and taking care of them often involves a certain level of cleaning in their wake. For example, Landis explains that her nanny cleans kitchen counters, empties and loads the dishwasher, takes out trash and recycling and generally tidies up on a regular basis. “All of these are shorter tasks that can be done more easily with children around to help,” she notes.
“For families needing assistance in both areas, it’s possible to hire a professional capable of fulfilling a hybrid role. This approach, however, emphasizes the importance of clear guidelines to avoid overextending their responsibilities.”
— Vanessa Terra Bossart, founder of Green Terra Cleaning in San Francisco
Tasks you can expect housekeepers to tackle
For starters, it’s worth noting that a housekeeper is different from a professional house cleaner, says Vanessa Terra Bossart, founder of Green Terra Cleaning in San Francisco. “Housekeepers, or maids, typically work on a more regular basis — either daily or a few days a week,” she explains. “This schedule allows them to integrate more seamlessly into the household’s routine, handling daily tasks and organizing along with cleaning. Their roles often extend beyond just cleaning to include tasks like laundry, tidying up living spaces and sometimes even meal preparation or errand running.”
“On the other hand, professional cleaners usually focus on the more intensive aspects of cleaning,” Terra Bossart continues. “They’re often hired for specific tasks or to perform deep cleaning sessions that go beyond the day-to-day upkeep.” Compared to housekeepers, they typically work on a less frequent schedule, often engaged for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly visits, depending on your needs.
Here are some of the duties housekeepers typically handle, according to Terra Bossart.
General cleaning
This includes day-to-day maintenance, like dusting, sweeping, mopping and vacuuming, Terra Bossart says. Housekeepers may also put items away, organize and straighten up.
Kitchen maintenance
“Housekeepers often handle the cleaning of the kitchen, including washing dishes, cleaning appliances and sometimes even organizing pantries and cupboards,” Terra Bossart says. They may also clean dirty dishes or load and empty the dishwasher.
Laundry and bedrooms
Unlike professional house cleaners, housekeepers will often help with laundry, including washing, drying, ironing and folding clothes and linens for the household, Terra Bossart says, They’ll also help with bedroom cleaning, including making beds, changing linens and general tidying.
Bathroom cleaning
Sanitizing bathrooms, including wiping down and scrubbing toilets, showers, tubs and sinks, is a common responsibility for housekeepers, Terra Bossart says.
Occasional deep cleaning tasks
“Periodically, housekeepers might undertake deeper cleaning tasks such as window washing, oven cleaning and dealing with hard-to-reach areas that require more attention than in the regular cleaning routine,” Terra Bossart says.
Why some nannies might choose to do housekeeping duties
It’s possible your nanny will be up for tackling housekeeping duties in addition to their nannying tasks. “While nannies are fundamentally focused on child care, there are nuanced scenarios where their roles can extend to include specific housekeeping duties — especially in cases where the children have regular nap schedules,” Terra Bossart says. “This can be an opportune time for nannies to undertake light cleaning tasks.”
These light cleaning tasks typically revolve around the children’s immediate environment and needs, such as tidying up the playroom, cleaning up after activities, managing the children’s laundry and washing dishes after meal preparation, she says.
Some nannies choose to do housekeeping duties to fill downtime or earn extra cash. In fact, some families will leave an optional list of “chores” for a nanny and offer them extra pay per task completed.
Why some nannies don’t take on housekeeping duties
It’s extremely valid for a nanny to say “no” to doing extra housework. “It’s important to recognize that a nanny’s primary role is child care,” Sadler says. They may do some light cleaning or upkeep that directly relates to childcare, but beyond that, “extensive house cleaning or primary housekeeping responsibilities fall outside the scope of a nanny’s duties,” she says.
Job creep — the tendency for someone to increasingly perform tasks that are outside their role or the agreed scope of their job — can happen no matter which industry you work in. Nanny job creep is one of the reasons that some child caretakers may shy away from taking on cleaning duties, as one or two tasks can easily evolve into more. For example, loading the child’s dishes into the dishwasher may turn into unloading the clean dishes that may be inside, cleaning anything else that may be in the sink and wiping down the counter and sink. Depending on the duties you initially negotiated and how much attention and care the children need, this could be more than a nanny agreed to.
“It’s important to recognize that a nanny’s primary role is child care.”
— Danielle Sadler, marketing director for Adventure Nannies
How to discuss housekeeping duties with a potential or current nanny
If you haven’t yet hired a nanny, you have the perfect opportunity to find the exact type of nanny who can do everything you need, such as a nanny housekeeper or live-in nanny. “For families needing assistance in both areas, it’s possible to hire a professional capable of fulfilling a hybrid role,” Terra Bossart says. “This approach, however, emphasizes the importance of clear guidelines to avoid overextending their responsibilities.”
If you’re looking to hire a nanny who will also perform cleaning tasks, you should establish clear expectations in the nanny job description or listing, and then, use a nanny contract to make sure all parties agree on responsibilities, Sadler says. And finally, you should make sure they’re compensated accordingly. (Here’s more on how much nannies cost.)
If you already work with a nanny and are interested in expanding their duties into housekeeping tasks, open and transparent communication is crucial, Sadler says.
“It’s essential to discuss the changes openly, adjust the contract to reflect the new duties and compensation, and ensure that both parties are in agreement to maintain a positive and respectful working relationship,” she explains.
You’ll also want to develop and share a clear plan for how your nanny should perform these additional tasks while caring for your child. For example, perhaps they should tackle them after bedtime or while kids are doing homework.
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The bottom line on nannies and housekeepers
By considering the duties of a nanny versus a housekeeper as well as ways in which their job duties might overlap, you should have a better sense of which is a better fit for your family’s needs. Rest assured that if you’re looking for someone who can do a little bit of both — such as someone who takes on the hybrid role of a housekeeper nanny — that’s something you can certainly explore. In this case, it’s just important to agree on the employee’s responsibilities ahead of time and make sure everyone’s on the same page — as well as compensated accordingly.
As Landis concludes, “As long as there are clear expectations, the right pay and genuine appreciation for the work performed. I find nannies and housekeepers don’t get too stuck in a job description and are willing to help out in other areas when needed.”
