Other People's Dirt

[tejolote]

I found a book at the library yesterday called Other People's Dirt It is written by a housecleaner and is essentially a book of essays, exploring various aspects of cleaning for people. The strange intimacies, the things you discover about clients, her own feelings about being a housecleaner and why she does it. She talks about the Mexican cleaner her family had when she was young, how she worries about the toxicity of cleaning solutions, and how their old cleaner died of lung cancer. She also explores other aspects of cleaning, like cleaning companies (Merry Maids, which she renames Happy Maids to dodge a lawsuit), where she works for a whole week before going back to freelancing, topless and nude cleaning (she interviews both men and women) and people who clean up after deaths. She also gives rules for people who want to hire a cleaner.

It's all very interesting, and I think, important reading, most especially the chapter on McCleaning.