[Noisebridge-discuss] HOWTO clean the floor

[Andy Isaacson]

This weekend I picked up, swept, and mopped a large section of the floor
at the front of Noisebridge.  Here's what I learned.

First, push stuff out of the way.  There were many chairs and tables and
boxes of crap^Wcool stuff.  I spent 15 minutes pushing chairs around,
moving tables, putting boxes on shelves, and so on.

Once the floor has no stuff on it, use the dust mop to sweep up the dust
and screws and random paper and other assorted detritus.  The dust mop
looks more or less like this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZJQCUI

Try not to leave piles of dirt in the corners and under shelves.  (You
won't succeed entirely, but try.)

After sweeping dust into a pile, use a smaller broom to sweep it into a
dustpan.  We have a nice big 10" metal dustpan that works well for this.
Dump the dirt into a garbage bag.

Once you have swept off the dirt you'll find there are sticky spots that
the dust mop didn't sweep up.  Fill the mop bucket with about 2 gallons
of water (hot is better, but cold is fine) and dump in a reasonable
amount of your favorite cleaning product.  I like Pine-Sol or Murphy's
Oil Soap; there are plenty of other reasonable choices.  About 1/4 cup
to 1/2 cup of either product is appropriate.

Use a rag mop to mop the floor, using the squeezer on the mop bucket to
keep the rag mop from getting too much water on the floor.  Your mop
bucket will rapidly turn an evil brown/grey color; eventually you should
change the water.  Ask someone at the space if you have problems with
this system -- the mop bucket can take a little getting used to.

When you change the water, be careful when lifting the mop bucket --
its handle is poorly placed and it's easy to spill the water, as I
learned to my dismay.  Take the squeezer off the bucket before lifting,
and use both hands to steady it.

After mopping (perhaps twice), let the floor dry before walking on it.
You may want to mop again with the dust mop to speed the drying, but
this is optional.  Yellow caution tape can help keep others off the wet
floor.

Finally, enjoy the newly clean floor.

-andy