If you are responsible for maintaining your church’s cleanliness for your congregation, then there are many things you need to consider when keeping your place of worship hygienic. Indeed, with the coronavirus pandemic, it’s even more critical than ever that places of worship are clean and safe to ensure that people attending services don’t fall ill after visiting the church. In this post, we take a look at some things you should consider when managing your place of worship or religious office and how a cleaning agency can help you.
When should you clean your church or religious office?
As with every aspect of life regarding the coronavirus pandemic, it’s vitally important to clean regularly to stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep your congregation safe. Although the infection risk from COVID-19 on a contaminated surface decreases over time, it’s still essential to clean comprehensively after a service has been held. This means that all pews should be cleaned after people have sat at them, and the covers of any religious books that have been handled should also be wiped.
Creating a habit of cleaning after service is good practice anyway, as it will support you to keep the church well maintained and fresh. Although we can’t be sure how long COVID-19 stays on surfaces, many predict that it can be up to 48 hours, so regularly cleaning after people have come into contact with your surfaces will reduce the risk of the virus spreading. If you have limited staff at present and some of your workers are on furlough, you may want to consider employing the services of an outside cleaning agency to help you.
What about hand hygiene in particular?
Suppose you’ve started welcoming your congregation back to church. In that case, you should at least provide some hand washing/sanitising facilities and ask people to clean their hands before entering the building. This is fairly standard practice across the UK right now, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you should incorporate this practice into your church or place of worship. It would be best if you placed anti-bacterial hand sanitisers at all entry and exit points of the building to allow people to clean their hands before entering and before leaving.
Who should clean the church?
Although anyone can undertake cleaning within reason, it’s best that people with underlying health conditions, or older people, avoid cleaning where possible. This minimises the risk of them contracting COVID-19 while cleaning. Ideally, you could call in the help of an outside cleaning agency such as ourselves, as we can clean thoroughly for you without you having to worry about PPE and the like. We offer a competitively priced, comprehensive cleaning service that we can tailor to suit your place of worship or religious office.
What about the historical elements of church buildings?
You need to be careful when cleaning your church building as you need to take care of the historical elements and be sure not to damage anything. Regarding cleaning them during the COVID-19 outbreak, if you have only opened specific areas of your church for the congregation, you don’t need to worry too much about cleaning them. Obviously, for areas like the pews in which people will sit and stand, you should make sure these are regularly cleaned, as has been mentioned. You should not use any household cleaning solution or disinfectants containing chlorine on any historical surface, as this could cause major or permanent damage. If in doubt, you can give us a call, and we can advise you accordingly.
Things to consider not related to COVID-19
Although it’s hard to think about the world without COVID-19 right now, things will eventually return to normal. There are many areas of your church or religious office that you should regularly clean. While we’ve already mentioned shared books, you should also focus on cleaning and sanitising areas where shared books are stored. Shared books are essential to the successful delivery of services at churches, but they are one of the main places where germs can spread if you don’t regularly keep them clean. The same can be said for the shelves on which the books are stored. These should be periodically wiped down to remove any bacteria or germs that have contaminated the surfaces.
Another area that should be cleaned regularly is the baptismal tank. A study conducted in Austria found that bacteria had infected a remarkable 86% of church holy water because of poor cleaning practices. This is a worrying statistic but something that can be prevented by regular cleaning. When you consider that many of the people who are baptised or christened in churches are babies, it’s worrying to think that they may be blessed with contaminated holy water.
It goes without saying that all toilet and kitchen areas should also be regularly cleaned. Kitchen and food preparation areas should be cleaned according to regulations, and toilets should be cleaned on a rota basis. Keeping these areas clean within your church or religious office building is of fundamental importance to your building’s overall health. It will keep your congregation safe when they come to your place of worship.
Do you need help with cleaning at your church?
If you’re looking for a reliable, professional cleaning service for your church or religious office, then Clear Choice is here to help you. Our excellent agency cleaners are on hand to provide you with experienced, professional cleaning staff whenever it’s convenient for you. You don’t need to worry about salaries or hiring cleaners on a contract, as are cleaning agency staff are on hand whenever you need them. Our agency cover is unique and has been developed to cover holidays, sickness, or any other gaps that may appear in your team’s work schedule. Whether you’re looking for a part-time or full-time cleaner, we’d be delighted to help you. Just give us a call on 01132 711432, and we can discuss your requirements or why not check our page first to know more about our service?
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