I took my annual pilgrimage to a very nice island in the Med recently and a jully time was had by my hostess and me. No housekeeping to speak of, just a quick flick of the lightweight quilt and a quck sweep up of dust and leaves around the pool.   My hostess has a cleaning lady come in weekly, although it always looks easy to manage, with marble and stone floors, no carpets to vacuum and no children or pets leaving muck and debris around.

Unlike at home whilst I sojourned – my daughter brought her pups over to stay at mine whilst her pad was made ultra clean ready for putting on the housing market – couldn’t have an agent taking busy couples around.  She needed to take drastic action and hired a cleaning company to ensure nothing got overlooked.  It was so good, she’s booking them for regular top up cleans.