Broken dishes happen. A chipped vase is unfortunate but understandable. But when your housekeeper has broken multiple items over the past few months and doesn’t seem to be getting more careful, you’ve got a pattern that needs to be addressed. The challenge is figuring out whether you’re dealing with carelessness that can be corrected, inadequate training, genuine accidents in a household full of fragile items, or someone who just isn’t cut out for this kind of detailed work.
At Seaside Staffing Company, we help families navigate this conversation regularly, and it’s tricky because broken items feel personal even when they’re not expensive. Your grandmother’s serving platter matters to you regardless of its monetary value, and having your housekeeper break it creates feelings that go beyond the cost of replacement. Meanwhile, your housekeeper is probably mortified every time something breaks and might be getting increasingly anxious, which makes them more likely to have accidents. The tension builds on both sides until someone addresses it directly.
Start by looking at what’s actually breaking and how often. Is your housekeeper breaking one or two items per month in a household packed with antiques, delicate decorative objects, and fine china? Or are they breaking something every few days? Is everything that breaks genuinely fragile, or are they also breaking sturdy items that shouldn’t break under normal use? The frequency and type of breakage tells you whether this is a reasonable accident rate for your household or a genuine problem.
Consider whether your home is realistically cleanable without some breakage. If you’ve got glass shelves full of delicate figurines, tables covered in small decorative objects, and every surface displaying fragile items, you’re creating an environment where breakage is almost inevitable. Some homes are set up for showroom perfection but not for actual daily cleaning by someone who needs to move things, dust around them, and put them back. If you want museum-quality display of fragile items and also want aggressive cleaning, those goals might conflict.
At Seaside Staffing Company, we tell families that household staff aren’t professional art handlers. They’re doing their best to clean your home without damaging your belongings, but they’re not trained in moving valuable or extremely delicate items. If you have things that are genuinely irreplaceable or extremely valuable, either put them somewhere your housekeeper doesn’t need to clean around them, or accept that occasional breakage is part of having someone clean your home.
That said, excessive breakage or careless handling is a legitimate performance issue. If your housekeeper is rushing through tasks without being careful, if they’re not paying attention to what they’re doing, or if they’re handling things roughly, that’s something you can and should address. The question is how to have that conversation without making them so anxious that they get worse instead of better.
Start by acknowledging that accidents happen and you understand cleaning involves some risk of breakage. Then be specific about the pattern you’re seeing. “I’ve noticed that we’ve had several items break over the past couple months – the vase last week, the picture frame before that, and the serving dish last month. I wanted to talk about what we can do to prevent this going forward.” You’re not accusing them of being careless, you’re opening a conversation about problem-solving.
Ask them what they think is causing the breakage. Sometimes you’ll discover useful information. Maybe they’re rushing because they think you want them to finish faster. Maybe certain areas of your home are genuinely difficult to clean safely and they need different tools or approaches. Maybe they have vision problems they’re embarrassed to mention. Maybe they’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of delicate items and don’t know which ones are actually valuable versus which ones are okay to handle more casually.
Talk about whether there are items or areas they’re uncomfortable cleaning. Some housekeepers will tell you they’d rather not touch certain things if given permission to say so. Your housekeeper might be happy to dust around your crystal collection without moving every piece if you tell them that’s acceptable. Or they might appreciate you moving extremely fragile items before they come so they don’t have to worry about them.
Consider whether you need to adjust your expectations or your environment. If you want someone to deep clean your house weekly, you probably can’t also have every surface covered in delicate items they need to move and replace perfectly. Something has to give – either your cleaning standards, your decorating approach, or your acceptance of occasional breakage. Trying to have it all three ways is setting your housekeeper up for failure.
Provide proper equipment if that’s part of the problem. Does your housekeeper have appropriate cleaning tools, stable step stools, good lighting, and what they need to work safely? Sometimes breakage happens because someone’s using inadequate equipment and trying to make do. A $50 investment in better tools might eliminate the breakage problem entirely.
Be clear about consequences if breakage continues. “I understand accidents happen, but I need to see more careful handling of household items going forward. If the breakage continues at this rate, we’ll need to have a more serious conversation about whether this is the right fit.” You’re not threatening them, but you are establishing that this can’t continue indefinitely without consequences.
Some families have policies about who pays for broken items. At Seaside Staffing Company, we generally think asking household staff to pay for accidents is a bad idea unless the breakage was caused by genuine negligence or misconduct. Accidents are part of the job, and making staff pay for every broken dish creates an environment where they’re terrified to touch anything. However, if someone breaks a $2000 vase because they were being reckless or ignoring clear instructions, that’s different from breaking a $20 plate while doing normal cleaning.
Pay attention to how your housekeeper responds to the conversation. Do they take it seriously and make visible efforts to be more careful? Do they start asking questions about how to handle things safely? Or do they get defensive and act like you’re being unreasonable? The response tells you a lot about whether this is fixable or whether you’ve got someone who either can’t or won’t work more carefully.
After the conversation, give it a month and evaluate whether things improve. You should see immediate change – more careful handling, slower pace around delicate items, questions about how to clean tricky areas safely. If the breakage continues at the same rate despite your conversation, you’re dealing with someone who either doesn’t have the temperament for working with fragile items or who doesn’t take the feedback seriously enough to change.
At Seaside Staffing Company, we’ve seen this go both ways. Sometimes a simple conversation about being more careful completely solves the problem because the housekeeper didn’t realize it was bothering you or didn’t understand how much the items mattered. Other times you discover you’ve got someone who’s fundamentally not suited to working in homes with a lot of delicate items, and you’re better off finding someone else who’s naturally more careful.
Consider whether this person is otherwise excellent at their job. If they’re fantastic at cleaning, reliable, trustworthy, and this is the only issue, it might be worth accommodating by reducing the number of fragile items they need to handle. If the breakage is just one of multiple performance issues, it’s probably time to find someone else.
Some families solve this by having their housekeeper focus on floors, bathrooms, kitchens, and general cleaning while the family handles dusting and arranging delicate decorative items themselves. This isn’t ideal, but it works if you want to keep someone who’s good at the core cleaning tasks but struggles with detailed object handling.
The goal is to end up with either a housekeeper who works more carefully and stops breaking things, or clarity that you need someone else who’s better suited to working in a home with valuable or delicate items. Both outcomes are fine – what’s not fine is letting the problem continue indefinitely while you get increasingly frustrated and your housekeeper gets increasingly anxious. Address it directly, give them a fair chance to improve, and make a decision based on whether things actually get better.
