Having friends over is fun but once they’ve left the chore of cleaning is left to you. Cleaning even the smallest of houses is a mission thanks to the nooks and crannies that need dusting and disinfecting. Imagine cleaning Buckingham Palace after a birthday party. The Duchess of Cambridge recently celebrated her 30th birthday, and if all her friends – including the likes of Hollywood’s who’s who – partied the night away at Buckingham Palace, the palace cleaners would’ve been in for quite a job the next day, and possibly night. Considering Buckingham is the palace used for state occasions and royal hospitality, the cleaning staff have a considerable amount of buffing to do after all of these events.

Buckingham Palace Rooms

The sheer size of Buckingham Palace is mind-boggling. With a huge footprint that is three-storeys high, the entire building measures just about 77,000m² of space, the palace has 775 rooms, which include 50 guest and royal bedrooms, 78 bathrooms and 19 state rooms – to name a few . The rooms are adorned with priceless antiques and paintings that require cleaning and dusting very often. When state functions take place all 19 state rooms are used and that in itself is an exhausting thought for any person who cleans Buckingham Palace after the party. The ballroom is the largest room in Buckingham Palace measuring 36m in length, 18m wide and 14 m high. The ceiling of the ballroom boasts beautiful chandeliers that would make any cleaner cry at the pure thought of getting up there to dust and buff it back to brilliance.

There are 760 windows that require cleaning and 1,514 doors that would need regular polishing. The cleaning staff at Buckingham Palace certainly have their work cut out for them. With the amount of hardwood floors, priceless rugs and carpets they probably go through their fair share of cleaning fluid, brooms, gloves and cloths.

Added Benefits

Being a royal is in itself an added benefit upon birth, but living in a palace that has a cinema, chapel, post office and staff cafeteria is quite something, and that’s just the inside. The outside of Buckingham Palace is still the beautiful garden that covers just over 40 acres. Boasting a helipad, lake and tennis court, this is the ultimate garden to take a walk in. With Prince Charles’ love of gardening it’s no wonder the flora and fauna boasts more than 300 different types of flowers, over 30 bird species all of which are introduced to guests at the royal garden parties.

Cleaning a palace is no small order and the state of the garden needs to be continuously maintained. Clearly the staff who see to cleaning Buckingham Palace are doing a tremendous job because the palace and its grounds always look impeccable. They’ve clearly invested in decent floor steam cleaners, squeegees, lawnmowers and a lifetime supply of cleaning fluid for those hard to reach nooks atop the chandeliers. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

Vida Denning is a keen writer that enjoys writing on a wide variety of topics.