cleaning the church

[creekster]

Heh. What would that be? $1.00?

That's only for the used ones.

[Bo Diddley]

That's only for the used ones.

When they sell for $3-5, I'm gonna say a steep discount = $1.

[BigPiney]

We are the only ward in our building and we have a tiny ward. So that means we get assigned once a month to clean. Most weeks nobody comes and does it. I have there have been times when I was the only person to have cleaned the bathrooms that month and that was only during it assigned week. Disgusting.

[Scott R Nelson]

Just finished week one of church cleaning. We had a great turnout and everything got finished fairly quickly. I was trying to come up with a few more tasks for the younger people to do, like vacuuming the chalk dust from all of the erasers.

This calling is definitely going to be be better than the last two times that I've had it. Especially since the Elder's Quorum is in charge of inviting everyone to participate.

[Pelado]

Just finished week one of church cleaning. We had a great turnout and everything got finished fairly quickly. I was trying to come up with a few more tasks for the younger people to do, like vacuuming the chalk dust from all of the erasers.

This calling is definitely going to be be better than the last two times that I've had it. Especially since the Elder's Quorum is in charge of inviting everyone to participate.

Hoorah for Idaho members!

[Bo Diddley]

Our assignment this morning was to clean the chapel. I'm always a little surprised by some of the messes people leave.

As I was vacuuming under the benches, I dislodged a piece of dried gum.

[wally]

Our assignment this morning was to clean the chapel. I'm always a little surprised by some of the messes people leave.

As I was vacuuming under the benches, I dislodged a piece of dried gum.

I cleaned the church building on Saturday, too. I think that cleaning the building is about the dumbest of all assignments. Why can't we pay local members who need supplemental income to do this job? Seems like a no-brainer....

... and it is because I think this is so dumb that I force myself, as an act of humility, to sign up every time volunteers are called for. Similar reason for my participation on cougarstadium.com as a filthy Ute.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I cleaned the church building on Saturday, too. I think that cleaning the building is about the dumbest of all assignments. Why can't we pay local members who need supplemental income to do this job? Seems like a no-brainer....

... and it is because I think this is so dumb that I force myself, as an act of humility, to sign up every time volunteers are called for. Similar reason for my participation on cougarstadium.com as a filthy Ute.

Thank you for your service. Both at the church and here.

Call me crazy, but I kind of enjoy doing the cleaning with my fellow ward members. Seems kind of bonding.

[Omaha 680]

Thank you for your service. Both at the church and here.

Call me crazy, but I kind of enjoy doing the cleaning with my fellow ward members. Seems kind of bonding.

After some PTSD as building coordinator in Harlem, I later came around to this line of thinking. Except for bathrooms. We should absolutely pay cleaners to do those.

[Moliere]

After some PTSD as building coordinator in Harlem, I later came around to this line of thinking. Except for bathrooms. We should absolutely pay cleaners to do those.

Funny anecdotes of church bathrooms. The bathrooms in our stake center were awful. They smelled like piss no matter what you did or what you cleaned with. We complained for years that they needed to be gutted, redone and the ventilation updated. We never got any traction on our requests…until Elder Renlundcame to visit Houston. Then our bathrooms basically got renovated (and quickly) just in time for him to get to use the building with the very nice bathrooms.

Elder Renlund did still get an earful from some members about the status of the buildings

[Northwestcoug]

Thank you for your service. Both at the church and here.

Call me crazy, but I kind of enjoy doing the cleaning with my fellow ward members. Seems kind of bonding.

We brought our kids and they grew to love it. It was fun assigning them to a team and seeing them enjoy cleaning (they certainly weren't nearly as enthusiastic cleaning their rooms ). In Montreal hardly any member knew what it was like to have a paid custodian there, so they had the same attitude as my kids; it's just something everyone does.

I doubt we ever assigned them to bathroom cleaning, so you can't blame my kids for your stinky toilets Moliere!

[Bo Diddley]

Funny anecdotes of church bathrooms. The bathrooms in our stake center were awful. They smelled like piss no matter what you did or what you cleaned with. We complained for years that they needed to be gutted, redone and the ventilation updated. We never got any traction on our requests…until Elder Renlundcame to visit Houston. Then our bathrooms basically got renovated (and quickly) just in time for him to get to use the building with the very nice bathrooms.

Elder Renlund did still get an earful from some members about the status of the buildings

We had a urinal like this when we moved into this other building. It comes from people urinating and then not flushing. People are lazy and gross. You end up with a smelly mineral deposit. I used a special acid, scouring pads and elbow grease, but still couldn't get a satisfactory resolution, so I got them to replace the fixture.

[Donuthole]

I've hinted at this here before, but about 5 years ago I had a semi-spiritual experience while cleaning the church bathrooms late one Friday. Up until this point I had griped frequently and openly about the members being asked to clean when the church has ample resources and/or members who need supplemental income/financial support. So I always showed up, but I did so begrudgingly.

On this particular occasion, our assigned group was planning to show up and clean Saturday morning. However, I had a 7am tee time, and I wasn't about to miss my weekly therapy session. Rather than leave my group in the lurch, I decided to go over late on Friday and clean the bathrooms. Then, I could text my group that the bathrooms were already done, and they could focus their morning cleaning efforts elsewhere.

That night, Mrs. D and I had gone to dinner and done some shopping, so it was nearly 10pm by the time we got home. I went over to the church at about 10:30. I filled the mop bucket and wheeled the cart over to the bathrooms, where I made quick work of the mirrors, sinks, and toilets in both bathrooms. As I was just about finished mopping the floors, I had an acute moment of deja vu. Something about the combination of the scented mop water, the late night in an empty building, and the 90s alternative playlist that was blaring on my headphones, suddenly whisked me back to my high school days working at TCBY Treats, where I spent many a Friday or Saturday night closing up shop from 10:30-11:30pm. Back then, closing the store included a bunch of dishes, but also cleaning the bathrooms followed by mopping the floors.

In an instant, I was overcome by a wave of nostalgia, and, in that moment, I became acutely aware that, even as a husband, a father of four, a relatively successful attorney, and a member of the ward leadership, I was, in fact, the same child of God who had mopped floors for $4.25/hr just a few decades ago. Something about my eternal nature of snapped into focus as I processed this, and it hit me like a ton of bricks: I was once willing to clean bathrooms for minimum wage, so why would I not gladly spend an hour cleaning the church every few months? Legitimately, I felt inspired and uplifted, like God had used this opportunity to teach me about the worth of my soul being the same now and forever.

So yeah, I usually just sign up and clean the bathrooms now. And I enjoy it.

[wally]

LOL! okay, okay, i will change my opinion of this now that i can see that cleaning the ward is the place where i get to see church leaders and respectable high-level professionals condescend to low-level activities among the commoners!

[wally]

We had a urinal like this when we moved into this other building. It comes from people urinating and then not flushing. People are lazy and gross. You end up with a smelly mineral deposit. I used a special acid, scouring pads and elbow grease, but still couldn't get a satisfactory resolution, so I got them to replace the fixture.

Water conservation: If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.