So for those of you that don’t know, I hold a voluntary position at the British Heart Foundation, as their Shop Facilities Manager. (Basically I am a Caretaker with a fancy title.) I actually have done Caretaking before, so am not new to it. I was a volunteer in the last place, looking after a Church, Church Hall and Grounds.
So the BHF has me cleaning the store, I keep things tidy and I do a lot more, that would take up too many pages! It’s a very busy job and I am there every day of the week, 11.30 – 3 Mon – Sat and 11.30 – 4 on Sundays.
Deep Cleaning is needed, often where a normal clean will not get rid of the dirt. Before I continue, I must stress, that the cleanliness of the shop it is not the fault of the staff or volunteers. We had no one that could do the cleaning regularly, until I came along. My boss and even the Area Manager, have said that I have really turned the shop round in the space of a week!
So today’s task, was the toilet. (Not the nicest of jobs) but it needed deep cleaning. Using my Vel Mop (a mop with a fluffy flat head) I got down all the dust and cobwebs off the walls. I dipped my pads in the bucket and then wrung it out. Then when it was reattached to the head, I used it to wipe down the walls. On a ladder, I then went right up to the area above the window and used a microfibre cloth to clean round the top of the window and get the fan clean. The bucket contained disinfectant and water, which I used to rinse the cloth and the Vel Mop Pad in.)
Next came the floor. Now the floor is Safety Lino, so it is a real pain in the neck to get clean. (This is because the lino has grips, which the dirt can easily get stuck in. To clean the floor, I had to mop the floor with neat floor cleaner to get it damp, then use a stiff brush and scrub the floor. This meant removing the Sanitary Bin and the normal bin, while I did this. Then I mopped the floor to clear off the suds. Once done, I was able to put the wet floor sign in place, to warn everyone that the floor was wet and leave it to dry, before coming back later and doing another toilet clean. (I cleaned the toilet during the deep clean, cleaning all surfaces, including the sink, toilet, door handles, toilet paper holder etc) The 2nd clean was carried out at the end of my shift. The deep cleaning, took me most of my shift, because there was so much to be done.
I still managed to get down on the shop floor and spot clean the floor, as well as hoovering through, making cups of tea and having the odd “fresh air break!”
