House rules that survive staff changes
A good housekeeper knows a hundred small things: which cloth goes on the marble, how the children's lunchboxes are packed, when the pool pump runs, which door sticks in winter. When they leave, most of that leaves with them — and the next person learns it again from your corrections.
House rules written down once change that. Not a thick manual nobody opens, but short notes that live where the work happens.
1. Start with what you repeat
For one week, note every instruction you give twice. Those are your first rules. Start with a short list of the instructions you repeat most often.
2. One rule per topic, attached to a place
- “Kitchen: marble and stone”, “Children: lunch and allergies”, “Pool: weekly routine”, “Closing the house”.
- Each rule belongs to a home, a car or a person — the villa's pool rules are not the flat's.
- Steps, not essays: what, with what, how often, what never to do.
3. Photos where words fail
Where the stopcock is, how the guest towels are folded, what “tidy” means in the playroom. Photos make instructions easier to follow; add short explanations where the details matter.
4. Separate “how” from “how often”
How to clean the oven is an instruction. That the oven is cleaned every two weeks is a maintenance schedule. Keep instructions and schedules separate, and update each when equipment, routines or needs change.
5. Everyone reads in their own language
A rule that is not understood is not a rule. If your staff are more comfortable in another language, make sure they can read the rules in it — and keep one original so changes don't drift.
6. Confirm, then update
Ask new staff to confirm they have read the rules on their first day. When something changes, change the rule itself — not a message in the chat that nobody will find in three months.
7. Handover is part of the rules
Keys, codes, open tasks, what happened this week. A short handover checklist, confirmed by both people, is the rule that protects all the others when someone leaves. Here is our full checklist.
This guide is about organising daily work. Employment contracts and notice rules for household staff depend on your country — check the local rules or ask an adviser.
In Domiq, house instructions are attached to each home, car, pet or child, and maintenance schedules are kept apart. Once invited and given access, new staff can read the relevant instructions and confirm they have read them; the app is available in English, Spanish and Russian. Creating new instructions is available on the Home plan and above.