How to be a courteous hotel guest.

I’m weird.We all know this.

But I am obsessed with leaving hotel rooms as clean as I possibly can before checking out.

I realize that it’s not necessarily my job-

that hotels have staff members devoted to that very task.

But I’ve been there-I was once a fresh-faced 18 year old who thought housekeeping in a tourist town for the summer would be a survivable job.

My best friend got hired at the same time.We were ready for some fun.

We were ready to clean rooms across the street from the beauty that is Lake Superior.

Then, reality hit.

It’s a really hard, thankless, physically tiring job.

You’re on your feet all day.You don’t get breaks (at least we didn’t).There is never enough time.

Or towels.There were never, ever enough towels to stock each room.

You’d have to scavenge through housekeeping closets throughout the day, make pit stops in the laundry room, or God forbid, steal some from a fellow housekeeper.

I once made a big mistake while cleaning a room.

I turned the TV on, set the station to MTV, and sat on the bed for a minute or five to rest my feet as I stuffed pillows into their freshly cleaned cases.

I thought that was reasonable enough.My feet ached, and I was still getting something done.

Wrong.В  Fail.I was busted by a housekeeping nutcase who took her job seriously with a capital в