housekeeping

noun

house·​keep·​ing ˈhau̇s-ˌkē-piŋ 

1

a

: the management of a house and home affairs

… coming home to husbands who won't share in the housekeeping …

—The Wilson Quarterly

The first defense against insect infestation is good housekeeping (regular vacuuming) to remove eggs and larvae from the fabrics.

—Sara J. Wolf

b

: the work or activity of cleaning and preparing rooms for customers (as in a hotel)

—often used before another noun

housekeeping services

took a housekeeping job at a nearby hotel

also : the department or employees responsible for doing such work

If you need fresh towels you can call housekeeping.

2

: the care and management of property and the provision of equipment and services (as for an industrial organization)

3

: the routine tasks that must be done in order for a system to function or to function efficiently

performing some computer housekeeping by deleting old files

Examples of housekeeping in a Sentence

We took the computer offline to do some basic housekeeping.

Recent Examples on the Web

Hotel housekeeping and restaurant or service jobs, as well as at food manufacturing plants and agricultural processing facilities, are among the most common positions for unauthorized workers. —Sophie Carson, jsonline.com, 7 July 2025

Amenities: Free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, daily housekeeping, multilingual staff, outdoor terrace Hermitage Castelo Casa Chafariz is breathing new life into Lisbon’s oldest neighborhood, Santos-O-Velho (directly translating to Santos the old). —Monica Mendal, Vogue, 1 July 2025

There’s also 24/7 room service, weekly housekeeping and bi-weekly laundry service at no extra cost. —Francesca Street, CNN Money, 26 June 2025

And this being a palace, for an additional cost, the host can arrange services including daily housekeeping, laundry services, linen changes, and the like. —Madeline Weinfield, Architectural Digest, 23 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1529, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing housekeeping

• light housekeeping
• set up housekeeping

Rhymes for housekeeping

• recordkeeping
• beekeeping
• bookkeeping
• gatekeeping
• peacekeeping
• safekeeping
• timekeeping
• beeping
• creeping
• heaping
• keeping
• leaping

Kids Definition

housekeeping

noun

house·​keep·​ing

ˈhau̇-ˌskē-piŋ

: the care and management of a house and home affairs