Other People's Dirt:
A Housekeeper's Curious Adventures
By Louise Rafkin
1998

Rafkin, even after pursuing a Masters in English, chose housecleaning as her profession. The book "Other People's Dirt" is an amalgam of stories from her days pre-housecleaning that lead her down the path of cleanliness, to her days of housecleaning and finally to her days of spiritually coming to grips with her chosen prfession.

Housecleaning lead her around the world, from Europe to Asia and back home again. She even hd a stint with a corporate houseclaning agency (much the same as Ehrenreich in "Nickel and Dimed") that payed incredibly low wages and expected extremely difficult and lonely working conditions.

During her shrt time with the corporate maids franchise she was chosen to clean the house of a very scholarly and wealthy professor. While dusting his bookshelves she came across a book she had read previously that contained an explanation of the working conditions of the poor. The book was socialist in nature and outlined the housekeeping industry. Rafkin decided to take the book and confront the professor about his hypocrisy with little success.

I found it impressive that Rafkin could be so upbeat about such a lowly job, in most people's eyes. It was illuminating and a fun book to read.

PS: I recently saw a TV commercial (the only one I have ever seen) for Merry Maids. The maids portayed in the commercial were attracive white women, which is NOT how Rafkin or Ehrenreich described their coworkers.