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American Nanny & Home Care's House Manager Tips Manual

All potential house managers are required to read over the following material. You will be queried on the material during the interview process. Thank you.

Daily house check over

We have many seasoned housekeepers who are detailed deep cleaners.

• Daily well being look over in each room of the house, including rooms not in current use.
• Make sure all garbage baskets in bathrooms and rooms are emptied and clean daily.
• Look over includes checking for abnormalities and or changes in room heating, cooling and or humidity.
• Check for burned out light bulbs that need replacement.
• Flush all toilets and run all sinks in all bathrooms on regular basis

Wine celler

• Check regularly to see that temperatures and humidity are functioning within normal range.

Hardware and light bulbs

• Set aside a special area in the home such as one of the larger storage closets where light bulbs and other everyday hardware equipment is stored and organized in neat and orderly fashion in bins.

Laundry

• Someone must be delegated the task of the family laundry as well as the ironing.
• The person assigned to laundry needs to put away the clothes in an organized fashion in the closets and drawers.
• The laundry person should be responsible for keeping the common laundry areas and floor clean.
• Clothes with missing buttons or stains should be gathered for dry cleaner.
• All black tie formal wear for dry cleaning should be catalogued in a notebook or by computer file with a description of the item (usually the label or color description will suffice).before being sent out. Likewise when the clothes return the person should account for each item by checking each off.
• Any missing dry cleaning garments are noted and tracked down with dry cleaners.

Kitchen duty

• One person delegated the duty of throwing out old food from the refrigerator.
• Someone must be designated daily task of making check list of all family favorite foods & staples that need to be stocked in fridge and cabinets.
• Someone designated as regular grocery shopping duties.
• A person to make check list of all cleaning supplies, papers towels, toilet paper & restock when low.

vendors & servicemen

• See HOME SECRURITY BELOW about color copy identifications.
• Keep large box of special paper shoe slippers in convenient location near all entrances.
• Make sure to give the work person the special paper slippers to put over their shoes or boots. These slippers can be bought at any hardware store home depot has larger economy boxes.
• In the case of exceptionally dirty work boots, make sure they remove them and then give them the paper slippers.
• Keep a service log book in which the person doing the work must sign in. Make sure you make note of the time in the book when the person begins the work.
• Always take care that no workmen are wondering away from the work site into different rooms of the house-keep track of them.
• Always oversee that the workers in the home are actually doing the work for the number of hours they have signed in for.
• Sign the workers out in the book when the worker is finished- make sure you include the time and whether he satisfactorily finished the work.
• Pay the worker with a check from the household checking account when work is complete.

Answering the phone protocol

• Never tell anyone who calls the home that the family is out of town. Just tell them they are unavailable.
• Always take a message when no one is home and be sure to get the phone number and the person's name.
• When taking a phone message and you are unsure of how to spell the name of the person calling, politely ask them to please spell it for you.
• Answer the phone: greeting time of day + last name of family + residence. For example, "Good morning, Jones residence."

heating & cooling system

• In the summer check that each room is properly cooled. If one wing or room in the house seems particularly warm and or humid then call in the cooling expert as it may be a sign the air conditioning is not working probably or that the system is not distributing the cool air evenly.
• In winter check that each room is warm enough. If one room is particularly cold, it could be a bad sign that the heating system is not working properly. In this case call in the heating expert. Lack of heating in the winter could cause a water pipe to freeze and break.

zoning

• Always important to allow the employer family privacy.
• When the family is home in one area of the house then work around them by starting in another area of the home.
• Never run any vacuums, buffers or food processors or let the other household staff run any of this equipment within earshot when the family is on a phone or reading or doing any kind of deskwork or entertaining a guest.

organizer book or calender

• Keep a journal, organizer or calendar in order to keep track of the dates and times when the couple is going to be out of town.
• Organizer should be used for dates of events and parties at the house.
• Log in dates for any important engagements - either in or out of town- which the family must attend.
• The date organizer should be used to note any dates with expected vendors, service people, meetings with caterers for upcoming events, invitation people, florists, pool service, gardeners, etc
• Consider using the calendar program on the computer in order to catalogue these dates instead of using an organizer/ paper book by hand.

pet care routine

• Choose one designated special person who will be responsible for daily feeding and care of animals.
• Live in person is responsible for babysitting the two dogs when family leaves town.
• Learn complete pet care schedule and routine for the two dogs so when family leaves town you will know how to care for them.
• Keep a written record in the house manual of what kind of food they eat - how much they are fed and how often they are fed.
• Find out where to buy the dog food.
• Also included in house manual is written instructions about any special medications or special needs for pets.
• Important to learn schedule for the dogs in regard to exercise and going outside.
• Name, phone number and address of pet groomer. How often they are groomed and any special grooming details.
• The address and phone number of regular veterinarian.
• Address and phone number for nearest all night animal emergency care clinic, etc.

list of the service fix it people

• There must always be a printed list of service people in a handy place (the household manual and on line as a backup) that maintain the home such as air conditioning/ heating --- plumbing -- landscapers-- pool - etc.
• The list of experts should always include company name, names of any favorite service people to ask for at the company, company phone number & address as well as email contact info. , fax numbers, etc.

work out gym & theater

• There is a large work out gym area in the lower level of the home filled with work out equipment. This gym equipment must be wiped down regularly.
• There is also a large screening theater for movies. There are service people who maintain the gym and the special equipment.

landscapers

• Make sure to oversee gardeners when there are special projects which need special attention.

home security protocol

• Always identify any service man or vendor before opening the door.
• Any service person or vendor entering must present identification (driver's license) at the door.
• You take the identification and make a color copy from a copier which is located conveniently near service entrance in the home.
• All copies of service people are then filed away on record.
• All service people working regularly in the home need a fingerprint background check.
• You will need to learn the security code computer system in the home.

pool

• The service people care for the pool on regular basis.
• Check and note if there are leaves building up in drain or algae growth. Make sure you note this to pool caretakers.

garbage

• Find out schedule of when garbage men come so you and or assigned person can get the garbage out on the right days.
• Find out about recycle bags.
• Organize bins or area in the home or garage for recycle items.
• Arrange garbage pails in kitchen area.
• Make sure bathrooms, powder rooms have garbage baskets in handy place.

organize kitchen for move in

• Put away and organize kitchen items.
• Put away glassware in organized fashion in cabinets.
• Put away silverware into drawers.
• Put away and help organize pots and pans.

organize bar area:

• Put away liquor bottles and organize glassware on shelves.

flowers & florist

• Pay the florist monthly account.
• Arrange flowers in vase.
• Change water daily in flower vase.
• Make sure bottom of the vases are dry before setting down on tables.

the household master manual book

• House manager/executive housekeeper will put together a master book that includes many of the day to day details of how the house is cleaned, run and organized.
• The book should include all security protocol for workmen entering home including identification processing.
• The book should be well organized so that any new staff or temporary part time staff brought in to help can see the step by step details of how the house is cleaned and what safe cleaning products are used.
• Tip: each page of the book should be set in plastic covers to avoid deterioration.
• Each page should be updated accordingly.
• The book should contain a list of all the service people and professionals who will service the home which include their names, phone numbers, emergency numbers and addresses.
• The book should also include pet care and all the details listed above under pet care heading including address and phone number of veterinarian, address and number of emergency after hours vet clinic, the kinds of foods the pets eat, where the pet food is purchased, the name and phone number of the pet groomers, how often the pets are to be groomed and any special instructions when grooming etc., how often pets go outside- etc.
• The book should include regular 911 emergency numbers as well as hospital and poison control emergency numbers.
• Each special counter surface (granite, marble), fixtures (brass, gold onyx, etc) crystal fixtures, flooring (limestone, waxed wood), special bar areas, wall coverings, special upholstered furniture, antiques in the home should be accounted for in the book with snapshot along with details of how it is cared for including what kind of product is used.