'Housekeeping' and 'Clean House' Mean More Than Cleaning
2023-05-14
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1And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.
2Spring is a time of the year when many people take time to clean.
3They straighten up messy areas of their homes. They tidy up!
4Spring cleaning is a popular activity for many people.
5It is a chance to get rid of unnecessary items and get their homes clean and organized.
6Spring cleaning usually involves big projects, such as taking down and washing curtains, shaking out rugs and cleaning carpets, perhaps clearing out and cleaning up cabinets and closets.
7Spring cleaning is a thorough cleaning inside and out.
8So, on today's program we are going to clean house, too!
9Daily cleaning tasks like doing the laundry or dishes are not considered spring cleaning.
10That is often called housekeeping or cleaning house. We use both of these terms in idiomatic ways.
11First, let's talk about cleaning house.
12When an organization, business or other group clean house, it gets rid of people or policies that make trouble or that do not work.
13Here's an example.
14My friend has a company that is suffering from troublemaking and non-productive employees.
15If the owner wants the company to succeed, she may need to clean house and fire anyone not contributing.
16Cleaning house can also mean to wipe out corruption or inefficiency.
17When we use it this way, we are often talking about a political party or a governmental office.
18Here's an example for that situation:
19The city official in charge of education reform made cleaning house on corruption and waste the first item on his to-do list.
20Sometimes we put words in between "clean" and "house" to make the expression more specific, as in this example:
21To help their company succeed, the business partners needed to clean their financial house.
22And that meant hiring a new financial manager - one that wouldn't steal from them.
23If you research the expression online, you may find another meaning for "cleaning house" - to punish or to give a beating.
24For example, the bully threatened to clean house on anyone who disagreed with him.
25But this usage is not as common as getting rid of ineffectual, troublesome or wasteful elements in a group.
26Now let's talk about housekeeping.
27Housekeeping defines the act of managing a household.
28Cleaning, organizing, paying the bills, and keeping food stocked can all be called housekeeping.
29Sometimes we call this putting our house in order.
30When we put our house in order we make sure it is running smoothly.
31It can also mean to organize your finances and other responsibilities, especially when preparing for a life-changing event.
32Used as a noun, housekeeping is also the department at a hotel in charge of keeping your room clean and stocked with necessary items like towels and soap.
33Housekeeping also describes any repeated tasks that keep a business or organization running smoothly.
34So, housekeeping issues for a business could be managing and scheduling resources.
35It could also be tasks like keeping your computer up and running or updating staff on events or policy changes.
36So, think of it this way. Housekeeping issues are the day-to-day, ongoing tasks and responsibilities that keep a business, home, or organization running smoothly.
37And cleaning house is to get rid of anything that is not working or is creating a mess - either literally or figuratively.
38As for usage, both of these expressions can be used in formal and informal situations.
39That's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories.
40Until next time ... I'm Anna Matteo!