The job, which pays $525 a week, is an odd mix of mundane cleaning tasks and more unusual and glamorous roles – the successful applicant could be cleaning some of Buckingham Palace’s 78 bathrooms one day and helping a visiting monarch dress for dinner the next.
Key tasks are listed as: “personal maiding/valeting for guests and senior royals as required including packing and unpacking, pressing and preparing clothes, arranging dry cleaning, care of jewellery, running baths, assisting with dressing if required and arranging the service of tea and breakfast trays.”
Cleaning windows and changing light bulbs are also key responsibilities, though the listing neglects to mention the palace has some 760 windows and 40,000 bulbs.
In addition to housekeeping experience, discretion is essential, as is the ability to use initiative and a “motivated, proactive attitude”.
Accommodation is included in the package but applicants must be willing to travel to other royal residences, such as Balmoral or Sandringham, for up to three months of the year.
