Botelet Cottages Cleaning Guidance
This cleaning list is designed as a prompt to assist with cleaning our cottages here at Botelet. There may be additional jobs that come up with specific cleans - please attend to these using common sense. We wish to provide immaculately clean cottages for our guests’ use, and we really appreciate your help and attention to detail in trying to achieve this.
We recommend using a process of: “ventilate - empty - clean - re-set” to ensure minimal chance of chance of contamination due to cross-over between guests.
Collecting cleaning resources - please pick up the black trugs with fresh bed linen, towels, kitchen resources etc from the Switch Room for your clean, along with putting together a bucket of resources that you will need for cleaning. You will want to include cleaning cloths (please note, there is a box of green sponges that are specifically for use on loos), cleaning products, a metal scrubbie (to use on metal eg oven grill, bbq grill - please note, metal scrubbies are replaced here afterwards rather than left in cottages so guests don’t use them on non-stick pans) along with drying cloths, bin bags, loo roll, kitchen roll, spare newspaper and firelighters (in case these need replacing).
Accessing cottages
Manor Cottage - is normally left unlocked
Cowslip Cottage - the key is left under the mat in the porch. Please lock the cottage and put the key back here when you finish.
Hollowpark Cottage - the key is in the wood shed opposite the cottage front door - as you enter the wood shed, at the back on the left hand side is a shelf at about shoulder height. Please lock the cottage and put the key back here when you finish.
Ventilate cottage
Open up windows to air the cottage when you arrive (be careful if it’s raining not to allow rain in or to dampen curtains) to ventilate the cottage. Close windows again when finished.
Emptying the cottage:
Begin by removing all the old resources from the cottage: bed linen, towels, flowers, any old food etc. This helps to prevent cross-contamination of the old resources, before you start putting out the new.
Strip beds: remove duvet cover, sheet and top pillow cases. There should be a topper on each bed, and an under-pillow case left on below the top pillow case that you strip off. If you find that any of these are stained or soiled, please let me know and I can supply replacement under pillow-cases or toppers for the beds.
Remove towels: all towels, bathroom towels, kitchen towels etc should be removed, along with the kitchen cloth, sponge and washing-up brush. If any towels look completely unused and are still folded, these can be brought up to the farmhouse and left in a trug on top of the washing machine in the greenhouse.
Bins & recycling - indoor & outdoor: ensure bins are emptied into the main outdoor bins, any recycling is placed in appropriate bags. Check that the outdoor bins/recycling area is neat and tidy.
Food: check all cupboards, fridge/freezers etc for leftover food, and remove. If there is any food/drink that you wish to use up yourself, you are free to do so - otherwise please bring it up in a trug or box and leave it in the farmhouse porch - we will use up or compost / give to chickens leftovers as appropriate.
Flowers: please empty vases of old flowers into a hedge (do this discreetly so the old flowers aren’t seen), give the vases a wash out and a dry-off so they are ready for new flowers. If you are heading up to the farmhouse and you know guests are arriving the same day, it’s helpful if you can leave the vases in the porch ready to be refilled.
Cleaning: please ensure each part of the cottage is thoroughly cleaned:
Where possible, we try to use eco-friendly cleaning resources, however if you find any stubborn areas (especially eg in ovens, fridges etc) then feel free to use a stronger cleaner such as Cif to remove stains.
In bedrooms, ensure all cupboards and drawers are checked for any left over property (bring any lost property and leave in a trug on washing machine) and hoovered or dusted out inside, ensure all furniture is dusted down (we use a slightly damp cloth on wooden furniture, rather than furniture polish), hoover/clean behind and underneath furniture, dust over lamps etc. Ensure lamps, electric blankets etc are plugged in to their sockets so ready for guest use.
Bathrooms/shower rooms: please ensure these are thoroughly cleaned in all areas. Please ensure any hairs are removed from sink, bath or shower plug holes. Bins should be emptied, cleaned out and dried off. Showers/baths thoroughly cleaned including pipe work, then a fresh cloth used to dry so there are no water marks left. Please use the green sponge (collected from Switch Room) for cleaning the loo only. Use the loo brush to clean the inside of the loo, and ensure the loo brush holder is also cleaned out and doesn’t have remnants of water inside. Clean mirrors, window sills etc. Ensure any tooth paste marks are washed off the floor.
Kitchen: each area of the kitchen needs a thorough clean, including the oven (ensuring there aren’t crumbs left in the bottom, that the wire racks, grills etc are cleaned, which may involve using a metal scrubbie from the Switch Room), hob, all drawers and cupboards including checking through the pots, pans, crockery, cutlery etc to ensure they have been put away clean - go through and clean them, if they are dirty or grimy. Check that cupboards, cutlery drawers etc don’t have any food remnants in them - if they do, remove the items and get them clean and dry before replacing. Check if the dishwasher needs to be emptied. Fridges and freezers need to be thoroughly cleaned, including checking the corners and edges, and dried after cleaning. Clean out bins (wash out, then dry if needed). Ensure any sinks are not only thoroughly washed down at the end of use, but dried off with a clean cloth.
Sitting room: as well as a general clean of all areas, surfaces, walls, mirrors etc, please pull out furniture to clean under and check if anything has been left, remove cushions from sofas to wipe down (if leather) or clean off if material, fluff up cushions and place neatly back on. Check chairs are neatly arranged, pulled back from any heaters, magazines are left neatly etc.
Woodburners: check if the woodburner has been used. If it has, use a metal bucket to carefully remove the ash from the bottom of the woodburner (checking that it’s not too hot when you remove it) and place ash in a hedge away from the cottage, so it can’t be seen. Woodburners need to be re-set for guests: scrunch up newspaper and place on the bottom, add some smaller pieces of wood/bark on top, along with some fire lighters, then a couple of small/medium size logs on top. Leave the door of the woodburner shut. Ensure the log pile beside the woodburner has some small kindling and some larger logs, ready for guests to use (these can be accessed from the wood stores outside each cottage - if in any doubt about which to use, please ask). Check in the alcove beside the woodburner that there is spare newspaper, matches and firelighters (each cottage has a firelighters tin, and more firelighters can be topped-up from the box in the Switch Room). Ensure the whole area around the woodburner and the alcove behind it is thoroughly vacuumed out so there are no remnants of ash.
Walls: check walls for any marks, use a damp clean cloth to try to work any marks out of the wall, then dry off with a clean cloth. Wall areas that commonly get marks include walls in hallways where people are carrying luggage up the stairs and it bumps into the wall, and near to indoor log piles.
Larder/storage cupboards: please check all storage cupboards are clean (they may well need a hoover out) and any items such as cleaning resources, cots or high chairs, are neatly arranged inside.
Vacuuming & washing floors: goes without saying all floors need to be thoroughly vacuumed, then any non-carpeted floors washed down with a mop and brush afterwards. If you need a new vacuum cleaner bag, these are kept in a box in the Switch Room.
High touch points: pay particular attention to high-touch points such as light switches, hand rails etc as they pick up dirt easily.
Porches/front doors: ensure porches are thoroughly cleaned, door mats shaken out and hoovered, floors washed where appropriate. Do also check the area just outside the front or back doors, to see if the door mat needs shaking out/hoovering and whether you need to brush the area down with a long-handled brush to ensure it’s clean and presentable.
Windows: if there are any obvious marks on windows (eg finger marks, birds mess etc) please clean these off. There are bottles of window cleaner kept in the Switch Room, these work well with a clean cloth. If you find it’s a quicker clean (less people, left well) then going over all the windows can be a useful way of doing some ‘deeper’ clean at a convenient time.
BBQ: check if bbq’s need to be cleaned, if so empty out ashes into a bucket and discard of them discreetly in a hedge that’s not too close to the cottage. Give the grill a thorough clean using hot, soapy water and a metal scrubbie (that can be picked up from the Switch Room).
Garden spaces: check whether outdoor tables need to be cleaned, and that any chairs are clean, and left neatly by tables / whether any deck chairs need to be put away etc so the garden area is left presentable.
Sheds / rubbish & recycling areas: check all rubbish & recycling areas / sheds are left neat and clean.
General cleaning points:
Please ensure all areas that are given a wet-wash are thoroughly dried off with clean cloths afterwards.
In all rooms, please look up as well as down - hoover with the soft brush end, into all corners including ceilings, window sills etc. Living rurally we tend to get quite a lot of spiders/webs, and you need to look and check thoroughly to get rid of these. Using a head torch helps a lot!
Please ensure all cleaning resources that are left in the cottage (eg vacuums, brushes, mops) are neatly put away afterwards.
Re-setting once cottage is clean:
Make up beds. Each bed has a fresh sheet, duvet cover and two new pillow-cases per person (ie four pillows on a double bed). We turn over the top of the duvet, leaving a gap before the two pillows are neatly arranged at the top. If you find a hole or stain in a fresh sheet, please let me know so we can find a replacement. Please take care to make the beds up neatly.
Leave 1 x bath (large) towel and 1 x hand towel per person, neatly arranged either on the end of the bed, or on a chair in the bedroom.
In bathrooms, leave a hand towel neatly over the towel rail. Place the coloured bath mat on the floor, and neatly hang the smaller, white bath mat over the bath panel.
Loo roll - if the loo roll on the holder is at least half full, we leave it there, otherwise please remove it and place a fresh one in the holder (leave the used one in a trug on top of the washing machine at the farmhouse, at the end of the clean). We place one extra, still-packaged loo roll in each bath/shower room for guest use, they buy any more they want after that themselves.
Check if hand wash in bathrooms needs to be topped up - if so, you can top it up from the big tub that’s kept in the Switch Room.
In the kitchen, leave a fresh dish cloth, sponge and washing up brush neatly arranged at the sink. We supply:
Two tea towels and a hand towels at each changeover - these are hung up, ready for guests to use. Please also check there are a couple of spare tea towels in a kitchen drawer.
Ensure there is a kitchen roll on the side, if it is at least 1/4 full we leave it there, otherwise replace it with a new one and place the nearly-used one in a trug on top of the washing machine in the farmhouse at the end.
Spare dishwasher tablets in cupboard under sink (top-ups can be found on the shelf in the greenhouse, up at the farmhouse, in the brown/pink boxes)
Spare laundry tablets by washing machine (top-ups can be found on the shelf in the greenhouse, up at the farmhouse, in the brown/green boxes)
Bins - ensure these are clean and dry, then place a new bin bag inside, for some bins these need to be tied at the top. Ensure there are a couple of spare bin bags in a kitchen drawer.
In the kitchen we supply: washing up liquid (ensure this is at least half full, otherwise top up from the Switch Room), salt and pepper, tea, a selection of herbal teas, sugar and olive oil. If you notice any of these are in short supply (ie less than half full), please message me during the clean to let me know and I can top them up. It’s helpful if you’re able to bring the empty vessels to be topped up, to the farmhouse porch. I keep these top-ups in the farmhouse as they tend to get damp in the Switch Room.
In general, leave things like lamps, appliances etc plugged in and switched on at the wall, so they are ready for guests to use.
Cots & high chairs: if the guests require a cot and high chair, these are left in each of the cottages (either in cupboards, or in Cowslip the cot is left under the bed in the single room, the high chair is dismantled and left on top of/legs are beside the fridge in the pantry). Ensure they are erected, clean and ready to go (ie high chair placed at the dining table, cot set up with a cot sheet on the bottom). We ask guest to bring any bedding other than a cot sheet that they require, and we supply a towel for the baby in the cot, which is left slung neatly over the end of the cot.
Flowers: we supply a vase of fresh flowers from the farm on the day of arrival for each of the cottages - one vase for each of the three bedrooms, and a vase for the dining table. We normally make these up - myself (Tia) or my mother in law (Barbara) - however there may be an odd occasion when we are not here when we ask you to do this, in which case we will give guidance on which flowers to use.
Finishing up at the cottage:
Leave bedroom doors open, this maintains a feeling of open-ness and prevents rooms from getting damp
Ensure windows are closed
If guests are arriving that day, leave a couple of ‘welcome’ lamps on
Lock door (Cowslip and Hollowpark Cottages only) and replace key
Sort out cleaning resources and used linen etc back at the farmhouse (see note below)
Replacing cleaning resources - at the farmhouse:
At the end of your clean, please bring everything up to the farmhouse and put neatly away.
Dirty washing is taken to the ‘greenhouse’ (at the near end of the farmhouse) - white sheets and pillow cases in the far left box, white towels in the box just to the left of the drier, coloured towels, sheets, duvet covers etc in the box to the right of the washing machine.
In the box on the shelf above the coloured towels and linen, place all used cloths, drying cloths, tea towels, dish cloths, washing-up brushes etc.
If there are any ‘left over’ items eg clean towels or bed linen that’s not needed, lost property clothing etc, please leave these in a trug on top of the washing machine in the greenhouse.
Please replace any bottles, clean cloths, buckets etc to Switch Room.
If at any point during a clean you have a query, please do contact me - Tia (07968 501 384) or pop up to the farmhouse and talk to myself or Richard.
If you have any questions about the information above, do let me (Tia) know. Likewise, if you have any suggestions for how we can improve our systems, any cleaning products or resources that you think would be helpful, please let me know.
Thank you so much for your help, and for enabling us to offer a fantastic experience to our guests.