Footmen clean houses? I guess the real point of my post was: ARE there men who clean buildings for a living? (I'm assuming that the male voice I heard was either a customer or a maintenance...man (speaking of stereotypes). Housekeeper would indeed cover both; but for the life of me, I could not think of a single instance that I had ever read about or heard of where hired housecleaning service was performed by a male. Certainly I can't think of a word that, in the way we know instantly what a maid does, would mean the same work but done by a man. Come to think of it, I've never known much about what a footman does other than help people in and out of carriages.