Housekeepers are often the unsung heroes, heading into unoccupied guest rooms, empty offices, large-scale venues, and everything in between to refresh and replenish, leaving spaces clean and tidy. But what happens when the spaces are public-facing, attracting regular crowds and daily attention, like at the ROM?

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) first opened its doors in 1914 and features over 13 million works of art, cultural objects, and historic specimens among 40 gallery and exhibition spaces. The uniquely designed building occupies a large block at the corner of Queen’s Park and Bloor in Toronto, and as Canada’s largest museum, the ROM sees hundreds of visitors each day.

With so many spaces and so much traffic, the ROM requires a large housekeeping staff with a particular skillset to navigate its labyrinth-like, ever-changing layout. In fact, the team is made up of 38 full and part-time unionized housekeepers who work 12-hour day and night shifts, so there is always a team member available when needed.

“It’s certainly never a dull moment for the housekeepers,” says Housekeeping Manager, Jeanette Braund. Between the museum’s design, ever-present traffic, and fluctuating layout, cleaning the ROM presents a unique set of challenges for the housekeeping team.

Rising to the challenges

Day and night-shift workers face different demands as they complete their regularly scheduled duties. For the daytime staff, much of the team is focused on cleaning the administrative space and labs located back-of-house, spending their time deep cleaning and filling supplies.

However, the gallery space is also attended to, along with maintaining the washrooms used by visitors. The housekeeping responsibility doesn’t stop there, though. Their day-to-day also means engaging with the public to answer questions, direct patrons to security guards and exhibits, and more. In many venues cleaners are unseen, coming in and out of spaces while everyone has gone home, but the housekeeping team at the ROM are constantly communicating with the public, adding customer service to their extensive list of talents.

Often considered the face of the museum, their uniforms need to be pristine during the day as they push clean carts and act as museum ambassadors. “Wayfinding is an important part of their day, interacting with guests to help them navigate through the museum and make the most of their visit,” says Braund.

Flexibility is the foundation of the housekeepers’ skillset. Physically, cleaning requires distinct movements like twisting, bending, and crawling into tricky spaces. Mental flexibility is also a necessity as circumstances change on a daily basis. Exhibits come and go, and that means housekeepers need to clean the empty space once it’s been vacated, prepare it from top to bottom for the new exhibit, and clean up after the construction once the new exhibit has been created. Along with those tasks, the day shift can regularly be found setting up for evening events, often taking three to four hours to complete the set-up, using a stanchion system to section off areas where they are working. Deep cleaning happens throughout the museum on Mondays, when it is closed, as long as it isn’t a holiday Monday when visitors fill the halls and exhibit spaces.

When the night crew arrives, they take care of other duties around the museum until the event is over, and then they clean up after the party, continuing with their regular tasks to get the museum ready for visitors coming in the morning. The housekeeping team must focus on maximizing their time, keeping optimal routes and limitations in mind.

Each exhibit poses its own unique challenges, requiring a great deal of caution as teams navigate around set-ups, artifacts, art, and photographs to maintain heavily trafficked flooring, glass cases, stainless steel surfaces, and beyond. Staying mindful of factors like HVAC, temperature, and humidity controls is critical as these conditions need to be maintained even during the cleaning process. Something as simple as opening multiple doors can alter these conditions, posing a risk to the gallery and its contents.

Using two-way radios, the housekeepers stay in contact, helping to alert security guards when they need to arm and disarm certain areas throughout the night as housekeepers do their job.

The museum is filled with many narrow spaces that can make cleaning more demanding, where equipment must be handled very carefully. Floor machines are something that challenges cleaners, as they don’t fit everywhere, and require mindful steering to protect the irreplaceable artifacts. Equipment like auto scrubbers, swing machines, and floor machines must be handled carefully, using extreme caution to monitor speed and direction. “It’s a tricky job certainly, but at the end of the day, it’s doable with the right approach and the right training,” says Braund.

This much-loved venue attracts visitors from far and wide, hosting everything from special events to kids’ camps, each posing their own unique trials for the housekeepers. The visitor experience is paramount, so washroom cleanliness and supply stocking remain top priorities, along with high-touch areas like exhibit doors, allowing guests to enjoy a clean and safe museum visit.

Post-pandemic practices

As with most businesses, the museum adjusted its hours and followed mandated protocols during the pandemic, as they struggled to track personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitizer amid ongoing supply chain delays. With so many touch points and well-visited areas, it became a formidable – and vital – task to keep these areas clean and sanitized. Thankfully for the housekeeping team, their expertise remained essential during this time, as they cleaned when the museum was allowed to be open and maintained the space for staff continuing to work like contractors, security guards, and technicians feeding onsite wildlife. Though schedules were reduced to eight-hour shifts, all housekeeping staff remained employed during those trying days.

The hardworking housekeepers were recognized for their efforts through the pandemic, often working alone at the museum, risking their health, and taking responsibility for the safety of the public. “Our team was encouraged to work within their comfort zone, and they did their very best, coming in when needed and getting the job done,” says Braund.

With green cleaning, safe chemical use, and environmentally friendly products already being employed, the team developed strict hygiene and sanitization protocols that remain in practice today. Paying extra attention to points of contact like door handles, swipe clocks, and control rooms is something that the team has included in their daily routine, heightening the cleaning and sanitization in those areas and across the whole museum. “We have not reduced those protocols, recognizing that they are still needed and beneficial as part of our day-to-day practices,” confirms Braund.

Part of the team

It takes dedication, flexibility, and teamwork to take care of the museum every day. The ROM’s housekeepers put in long shifts, working together to tackle their responsibilities, adjusting daily to accommodate for complications ranging from floods to accidents to missing set-ups, as they get pulled into many – often unexpected – directions.

With newcomers being trained by experienced staff, and passing on tricks of the trade, the ROM’s housekeepers are a unique group with a valuable skillset and a dedicated team mentality.

The culture created in the housekeeping department demonstrates that caring starts at the top. “My management team is fabulous, nurturing me so I can nurture my staff,” says Braund, who leads the team with passion and compassion. Explaining the vast housekeeping role succinctly, she says, “We are a vital part of the museum, and our good reputation as housekeepers should walk in before we do.”

This article was originally published as the cover story in the Winter 2024 edition of Facility Cleaning and Maintenance Magazine.

Photo courtesy of ROM©