Resume Example · Cleaning
Cleaner Resume Example (Australia)
Illustration by ShiftResume
The short answer: a strong Australian cleaner resume names the types of sites you have cleaned, the size of your run, and the trust signals employers check first — a current police check, safe chemical handling, and experience working alone after hours with keys and alarms. The worked example below shows the full layout for commercial cleaning with home-care experience included.
Key takeaways
- Name the types of sites you have cleaned and the size of your run — offices, medical, schools, homes.
- Put trust signals up top: a current police check, safe chemical handling, and experience working alone after hours with keys and alarms.
- Quantify where you can: areas cleaned per shift, floors, or homes per day.
- State your availability and transport plainly — after-hours cleaning is rostered on both.
Resume support
Three things on this page, in order:
- Copy the blank template — the layout, with brackets showing what goes where.
- Read the worked example — the same template, filled in for a fictional applicant.
- Use the tips and keywords — what to include, and the exact terms employers screen for.
In this guide: a blank template to copy, the full worked example, why it works, the ATS keywords for cleaners, and how to frame after-hours and working-alone shifts.
In this article
The full example resume
This example is for a cleaner with commercial office experience and some NDIS home-care cleaning, applying for regular evening commercial runs. Names and employers are illustrative — replace every detail with your own. Note what is not there: no photo, no date of birth, no full home address, and no equipment or chemical experience the cleaner has not actually had.
Blank template — copy and fill in
[Your Full Name]
[Job title — the role you are applying for]
[Suburb, State] · [Mobile] · [Email]
Professional Summary
[3–4 sentences: your role and years of experience + the setting you work in + your strongest evidence, with numbers where you can + the role you are applying for.]
Checks & Certifications
- [Police check — date issued]
- [Working with Children Check — if held, with expiry]
- [Chemical handling or infection control training — provider, year]
Professional Experience
Write every bullet as: (Strong verb) + what you did + outcome or measured result.
- [Strong verb] + [the task] + [a number, load, volume or result]
- [Strong verb] + [a second core duty] + [who it helped or what it improved]
- Roster line: [your shift pattern — for example, rotating roster across days, evenings and nights]
Education
- [Relevant qualification or training — provider, year]
- [Short courses — chemical safety, infection control, as applicable]
Referees
Available on request — [name the types of referees you can offer, for example your supervisor and a senior colleague].
The worked example, filled in
About this example: it is built from real job ads and award requirements for the role; the person is fictional.
Priya Patel
Cleaner — Commercial & Home-Care Cleaning
Nightcliff NT · 0400 000 000 · priya.patel@example.com · National Police Check (2025)
Professional Summary
Reliable Cleaner with 3+ years of experience across commercial offices, a medical reception area and private homes, including NDIS home-care cleans. Trusted as a key holder on an after-hours office run, working alone to a site checklist with supervisor inspections. Confident with commercial vacuum and floor equipment, correct chemical dilution and safety data sheet procedures. Seeking regular evening commercial cleaning work in the Darwin area.
Checks & Certifications
- National Police Check — current (2025)
- Driver's licence (NT) and own reliable vehicle for multi-site runs
- Chemical handling and infection control training completed with current employer
- First aid certificate — HLTAID011 Provide First Aid (2024)
Professional Experience
- Clean a two-storey office building (14 tenancies, kitchens and 6 bathrooms) on a 4-hour evening run, 5 nights per week, working alone as key holder
- Vacuum, mop hard floors, empty bins, clean glass and disinfect high-touch points to the site checklist; monthly supervisor inspections passed with no re-cleans in the past 12 months
- Mix and label cleaning chemicals to dilution instructions, follow safety data sheets and wear required PPE for each product
- Secure the building on exit: lights, alarm set, doors checked; report faults, leaks and any signs of break-in to the supervisor the same night
- Cover extra sites at short notice, including a medical reception and waiting room cleaned to infection control procedures
- Completed 6–8 regular home cleans per week, including NDIS participant homes, following each client's agreed task list
- Cleaned kitchens and bathrooms, laundered linen and changed beds, noting and reporting any hazards or changes in the home to the coordinator
- Managed own run sheet and keys for repeat clients, with bookings confirmed the day before each visit
Education
- Certificate III in Cleaning Operations — completed 2022
Referees
Available on request — Cleaning Supervisor and Home Services Coordinator contactable.
The model shown is for illustration purposes only, and may require additional formatting to meet accepted standards.
Why this resume works
- Trust signals come first. Commercial and home-care cleaning employers are hiring someone to be alone in other people's buildings and homes. The police check in the contact line and the checks section answer that concern before a single duty is read.
- The run is described in measurable terms. Floors, tenancies, bathrooms, hours and nights per week let a contractor price the worker's experience against the run they need filled — vague “cleaning duties” cannot do that.
- Chemical safety is specific. Dilution, labelling, safety data sheets and PPE are the exact practices supervisors are responsible for. Naming them shows training that generic resumes only claim.
- Inspection results replace self-praise. “No re-cleans in the past 12 months” is evidence. “Excellent attention to detail” is an assertion anyone can type.
- Home-care work is framed professionally. NDIS cleans are described by task list, reporting and run-sheet management — the parts coordinators care about — not by personal details about clients.
ATS keywords for cleaners
National cleaning contractors and facilities companies commonly search application pools by site type, checks and equipment. Pull the exact terms from the specific ad you are answering — but for cleaning roles, these are the phrases that recur. Only include ones that are true for you.
Two rules matter more than the list itself: name the site types the ad names (a school, hospital and office are different searches even when the tasks overlap), and put your police check status where a search will find it — in a headed section, not buried in a paragraph. Contractors shortlisting for secured sites search for exactly that phrase.
Framing after-hours and working-alone shifts
Most commercial cleaning happens when the building is empty, so evening and night availability is not a footnote on a cleaner resume — it is often the whole reason for the hire. State your pattern plainly: “4-hour evening run, 5 nights per week” tells a contractor you already hold the rhythm they are recruiting for. Working alone deserves its own careful wording: name the responsibilities that came with it, such as key holding, alarm setting, lock-up checks and same-night fault reporting, because those duties are how employers judge trust. Cleaner-to-permanent pathways are common in this industry, and our guide to casual-to-permanent job applications explains how to use a cover record of reliable shifts when a permanent run opens up. For the general method of presenting roster history, see showing night shift and roster work on a resume. If you clean in homes, mention working to each client's or coordinator's task list rather than describing clients themselves — discretion is part of the job, and showing it on your resume is a quiet proof of it.
Tips for your cleaner resume
Short, specific habits that make the difference on applications for these roles:
Tip: List specialist tasks separately — strip and seal, carpet cleaning, bond cleans, medical-grade cleaning — they are priced and rostered differently.
Tip: Say whether you hold a driver's licence and your own transport; after-hours runs depend on it.
Tip: Name the check types you hold, with currency years, rather than writing “available on request”.
The bottom line
Site types, run size and trust signals first. A cleaner resume that names its checks, its chemical handling and its after-hours experience answers the three questions every cleaning employer asks before anything else.
Frequently asked questions
Do cleaners in Australia need a police check?
Many employers require one, especially for schools, aged care, NDIS and home-care work and for after-hours commercial sites where you hold keys or an alarm code. If you have a current National Police Check, list it near the top of your resume with its year. If not, write that you are willing to obtain one.
How do I describe cleaning experience without it sounding generic?
Name the site type, the size or number of areas you cleaned, the equipment and chemicals you used and the checks your work passed. Two floors of offices cleaned nightly to a supervisor checklist says far more than responsible for cleaning duties.
Should I mention chemicals and safety data sheets on my resume?
Yes, if you have genuinely worked with them. Employers want cleaners who dilute and label chemicals correctly, follow safety data sheet instructions and wear the right PPE. Phrasing it as chemical handling and SDS awareness matches the wording in many cleaning job ads.
How do I show after-hours and working-alone experience?
Say so directly and name what it involved: key and alarm responsibility, lock-up procedures, check-in calls with a supervisor and reporting faults or break-ins. Trusted to work alone in a secured building is a strong selling point for commercial cleaning roles.
How long should a cleaner resume be?
One page suits most cleaners. Use two pages only if you have several relevant employers, supervisory or team leader duties, or specialist experience such as hospital, school or NDIS home cleaning that the ad asks for.
Sources (4)
- SEEK Career Advice — Australian resume and job application guidance for cleaning roles.
- Safe Work Australia — national guidance on hazardous chemicals, safety data sheets and safe cleaning work practices.
- Fair Work Ombudsman — information on cleaning awards, evening and night allowances, and casual employment.
- Workforce Australia — Australian Government employment services and job search guidance.
Read more
- Security Guard Resume Example — patrols, incident reporting and after-hours site work, the role many cleaners work alongside.
- Chef Resume Example — kitchen experience, food safety and split-shift rosters in a complete worked example.
- Showing Night Shift & Roster Work on a Resume — how to make your roster experience a selling point.