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

The show cancellation came one day before housekeeping found more than $16,000 worth of damage to his hotel room. — Ilana Kaplan, PEOPLE, 23 June 2026

But according to court documents, housekeeping discovered the artist's room in disarray the following day – with the hotel estimating the damage at roughly $16,000. — Lauryn Overhultz, FOXNews.com, 22 June 2026

Workers want pay and benefits in line with what the union says is the new citywide standard, which is a minimum wage of $30 per hour for non-tipped workers by 2028, a 15-room daily quota for housekeeping workers, 18% banquet gratuity and more, the release says. — Laura Fay, CBS News, 21 June 2026

Skip housekeeping for the day and the hotel hands over an $8 credit at Komyuniti. — Christopher Elliott, Forbes.com, 13 June 2026

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