A Day in the Life of an RDC Housekeeper
7:30 AM Stop in at the dining hall for breakfast. So much to choose from! Eggs, waffles, bacon, home fries. hot & cold cereal, bagels, fruit, yogurt, fresh squeezed oj. (orange juice), cappuccino ...
8:00 AM SHARP!! There are consequences for being late! At housekeeping pick up cleaning bag and head out with partner to clean weekly assigned common area. Common areas usually need to be swept, dusted, trash emptied and bathrooms cleaned. Split these duties with partner
8:30AM Back at housekeeping building collect 2 or 3 cottages worth of clean towels (already packed in labeled bags the day before) and walk or take a push cart to the first of 6 - 8 cottages you and your partner are responsible for. The Head Housekeeper will take the rest of your bags of towels and drop them off at the appropriate cottage. At each cottage you and your partner will split up the duties of daily servicing- sweeping, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, making beds, collect dirty towels and replace with clean ones, emptying trashcans, refilling paper supplies, spot checking the windows for washing and talk with the guests and find out if they need anything. (Two days' a week cottages get full service. Full service includes all the daily service duties’ plus vacuuming the living room rug and moping the floors.) Green bags of dirty towels are left out by the side of the road for pick up. On daily service days all cottages are done by lunch.
12 PM Lunchtime! Meet the rest of the staff at the dining hall for a half hour lunch! More hard decisions on what to eat! Save room for ice cream, 6 hard flavors available plus a cooler full of novelty ice cream and Popsicle treats.
12:30 PM Meet back at the housekeeping building and check in with the Head Housekeeper for afternoon projects. These include refilling cleaning supplies; more thorough cleaning of common areas that will be used for an activity later in the day, general straightening up around the housekeeping building, helping out in the laundry or answering special request from guests. If you had a full service day, finish up the cottages then start on afternoon project. Before signing out for the day, make sure that your cleaning bag is ready for the next mornings common areas, your bags of clean towels are packed and ready for the next morning and that the golf carts and push carts are cleaned up.
4 PM Sign out on your time sheet and the rest of the day is yours! There are many ways to spend your late afternoon. Usually there is an ultimate frisbee game starting at 4:15 PM that all levels of players are encouraged to play, canoe along the lakeshore, swim out to the Needle Point float, hike up one of the many trails close by; read on the dock or get a group together and head off camp for some shopping at the area's many factory outlets. Don't miss another round at the dining hall, dinner starts at 5:30 PM. Have a really good sleep in the night, to recharge your muscles with energy and get ready for your next day in housekeeping
Once a week 1 from each housekeeping team has a night shift that starts at 5:00 PM and ends at 9:00 PM.
This is not a “on-call” shift, but a regular shift with specific duties. Sign out for the golf cart. You are responsible for it during your shift….if it gets damaged in any way, fill out an accident form and return this at the end of your shift to the night watchman when you turn in the key. Don’t forget to plug the cart in!
Housekeepers have a half-day off each week followed by a whole day off. Half-days start at 12:00PM
Saturdays are "Turn Over" days when "old" guests leave after a week at camp and new ones arrive. Saturdays are very busy and the schedule for most of the staff is 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM with a half-hour lunch from 12:00 to 12:30 PM. Duties on Saturdays are similar to full service days with the addition of changing sheets on all the beds. There is a lot of work to be done in a short period of time.
The key to Saturdays is to maintain a positive and flexible attitude!