

Having been here at Diamond Forest Farm Stay for three years now I have a new and real appreciation for the job that cleaners do. I have stayed at motels, cottages, in cabins in caravan parks and hotels on my travels but I’ve never really considered the work that a cleaner puts in. I’ve prided myself on leaving any place I’ve stayed in as neat as the supplied equipment would allow. Now I’m seeing the other side of things.
Yes, we do have cleaners. Two, in fact, that rotate shifts and they work damn hard! Occasionally, though, Mark and I will clean cottages, usually if there is only one cottage to clean or if the cleaner is sick. I can tell you it’s really hard work and quite physical. At times we’ve had to clean two cottages and by the end of them I’m really tired and I have help! Our cleaners will do two cottages as a standard shift and one of our cleaners is in his 70’s. Hats off to the man!
Cleaning chalets for guests may sound simple- well it’s not exactly rocket science- but it’s not quite the same as cleaning your own house. I mean these cottages get cleaned almost every two days. The showers in the cottages almost get cleaned more in one month than mine in the house does each year! It’s the little things, however, that matter most; like crumbs in the cutlery drawer. I bet if you looked in your cutlery drawer there would be crumbs. I know there are in mine. They don’t take long to accumulate. But who wants to pay for a cottage that has someone else’s food crumbs in it?
Now when I visit other accommodation establishments I always notice the cleaning. I now know how much work has potentially gone into having this room ready for me. At times I have been disappointed in the standard of cleaning- again mainly as I compare it to the efforts that we go to and the standard we expect from our cleaners. I also take even more particular care when leaving. Many people would say that ‘this is what the cleaner is paid for ‘ but I can’t help but put a human face to that ‘cleaner ‘ and I don’t want to make their job any harder than it has to be. Probably because from time to time that face behind the scenes is someone like me.

So hats off to our amazing cleaners. We wouldn’t be able to spend as much time looking after our animals or chatting to our guests without them. Thanks to them our cottages are clean and our TripAdvisor reviews keep coming up trumps. It also means that I don’t have to clean all of the cottages all of the time. After chasing alpacas around and doing things like drenching cattle I don’t think I have the energy for that!