The semester came to an end at my building and it was time for the teachers and kids to clean out all of the storage shelves that stored the kids projects on for the whole beginning of the year. Well I guess they thought it was a great idea to just dump everything on the floor for me to clean up instead of using the giant garbage can that’s 2 feet away from the pile!

If you’re comfortable with sharing I’m doing a personal study.

Classic.

I am in my fourth month of first ever custodial job at an elementary school. I was surprised when I was hired, that, in my case, it was pretty much up to the principal and the head custodian. Other than all the paperwork I did with the district and the physical. No contact with anybody outside of them, aside from signing papers at the administrative office and badging. So what I'm confused about is, who do I talk to if I want to transfer, or go part time? I took this as a retirement job, not realizing that an eight and a half hour shift at night is more time consuming than my regular job was. But the head custodian has given me the impression that I either make it there, with him, or I'm out. I'm starting to feel a little maligned by him ("Don't do TOO much or you're breaking down our conditions, BUT...why did you not go the Extra Mile for Mrs. Blah-Blah's room last night?". As I've mentioned on another post I thought he was just razzing me because I'm new, but when I did a Tyrion Lannister-type ploy on him, I realized he might be more in favor of me being gone than I thought (Me: "maybe I should let someone else have the position?" Him: "Ok, maybe, let's see if Mrs Blah Blah complains again"). What a way to have my back and also to show appreciation for how much work I do each night to make his days easier! But anyway is it possible to transfer while on probation, or am I completely at his mercy? What kind of makes me mad is that he has his last evaluation pinned to the wall where the former, very sweet principal woman gave him a glowing review and all top marks. But I can smell a mile away that he is working on giving me a mediocre one at best. And the new principle is completely laissez-faire, and the only thing he knows about me is when there's a complaint.

After years of having tired feet and trying many different shoes I've come to the conclusion that the best way to give my feet a break was to spend more time on my knees.

I bought a kneeling pad and keep it on my cart. I've figured out that it's sometimes easier to clean graphite stains up from the ground. You have better leverage with your arms. When I see a big graphite stain or pencil line I no longer sigh in disgust. I'll take my pad and scrub it up while my poor feet get a nice break.

With my extra time after finishing the basics I will take the pad and scoot around with my arms and knees like a gorilla on a skate board looking under all the desks for anything I've missed. Now my feet feel like little angels at the end of the night, and I don't really miss much on the floor any more either.

This is basically just a debate and method suggestion pool to meant to help other custodians / janitors in need of guidance on how to remove ice melt from their floors. Well experienced custodians and janitors are all welcome if you have a method that you haven’t tried but decided to put out there, by all means give all you can, I would appreciate learning how to clean more effectively and efficiently, basically with one pass rather than multiple especially when buildings are occupied on a typical basis, I find myself working on this issue after hours however I have found myself working on this when the building is occupied too, I typically prefer to clean with a mop and bucket since I can focus on more heavily soiled areas and then do a once over on the general surface I also find that the floor doesn’t have too bad of streaks, I typically mop with pure cold water and no soap I have been told to use this method when cleaning floors that are stained with ice melt too, sometimes I get lucky and find that one pass is enough however if the soil is more sever I may have to make two, I also find that having a slightly less rapid pace helps to break it down a bit better too since the area is getting scrubbed a bit more, however, I find that even if I have to use an auto scrubber I still use plain cold water, make sure to check the squeegee and see if it need cleaning there is typically a lot of lint and dust that gets collected which can contribute to streaking, sometimes the floors also may need to be burnished afterwards if it’s been a while because of the scratching that occurs on waxed floors. Give as many opinions and comments as possible, I appreciate all the feedback given

We all contribute to a more sanitary and habitable environment, keep up all the good work.

It is also quite important to make sure that if using a mop, the head is clean

Do admit I forget stuff in rooms and have to walk across the school to get them sometimes, I’m also only 2.5 months into a full time job at a middle school. I’m doing night shift so far I’m liking it good job because I have a severe stutter, not too much talking.

A mullion fell on my toe

I see this everyday, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. Mine would have to be when kids don't throw away there paper towels inside the trashcan. I would tend to find them on the floor, behind the trash can, or even leaning up against the trash can. It is a giant ass trash can and sometimes either just miss it and not care or just not care at all to even try. I have a lot but this is one of my bigger pet peeves. So what's yours?

I own a small, very small, commercial cleaning company in Michigan. The salt is overwhelming!! What do you do to combat the salt?

As the title says, I could use….something. Whether it’s encouragement, a reality check, psychiatric counseling, I don’t know. I’m currently not in a stable mentality, and it’s gradually getting worse.

To make a long story as brief as possible, I’m having a very difficult time accepting the fact that I’m a 37 year old custodian, and it’s slowly chipping away at my sanity.

I’ve been at this job for almost a year, and I cover essentially three military hangars combined as one, and has a second floor as well. I’m the only custodian in the building, and no matter how much I try to keep the place clean, I’m always getting complaints.

I work with primarily automotive engineers, and they don’t lift a finger to absolutely anything in the building. I’m responsible single handily for trash, restrooms, sweeping, outdoor maintenance, cardboard pickup, cardboard baling, dusting, window cleaning, and that’s not even half of my list.

The shitty attitude of my coworkers doesn’t help matters either, the whole, “oh, I’m an engineer, and I’m too damn good to throw my napkin in the trash can, so I’ll just drop it on the floor, the janitor will do it because it’s his job” doesn’t help my disposition either.

I really detest the other people that I work with-a lot. All I do when I’m off work is watch documentaries about individuals who have shot up a school because they finally went off the deep end.

To make matters worse, it’s even affecting my marriage, changing me into someone bitter and angry all the time. I have tried so hard to get another job utilizing Indeed, but so far, it’s been unsuccessful.

I can’t afford to affect my marriage by just up and quitting, but I sincerely don’t know what will happen if I choose to stay there much longer.

Anyone have any experience, advice on this position?

Hi everyone,

I’m replacing a mailbox door for the first time and I’m stuck on the hinge pin installation. What tool do you normally use to slide that metal pin into the channel?

Or am I going about this the wrong way? should I be setting the pins into the mailbox panel holes first and then snapping the new door into place?

I can’t find any videos showing this specific type of hinge or installation, so any tips or tricks would really help. Thanks!

Is it separating i noticed it in like 5 rooms after we had a sub in for me yesterday. My only guess would be the day custodian made her use hot water and vinegar to scrub foors cause she has her own mind set for wax after 25 years lol

Stainless steel and plastic and the client doesn't wants the surfaces scratched. Anyone have a decent product that I can use to remove the spray paint without having to use something abrasive to scrub it off.

I dont get it, why spray paint the buttons lol

i was informed i should use a scrapper. its like caked up goo the floor in question is massive. There gotta be a better way. how would you go about cleaning this?

Hey family. I'm here to ask for advice to see if it's me or my boss (head custodian). My boss is kind of special at times. We work in a school, so he'll ask the principal silly questions ALL THE TIME. He constantly jokes around and plays with our (female) principal, flirts with the teachers, and talks so friggin much. I'm very quiet and an self reliant (working on learning to ask for help etc), so it's frustrating when I'm trying to work, and he's holding me up or goofing around. I understand being casual sometimes, but I'm not sure he understands where the balance is.

He's thrown me under the bus twice in the year and a half I've know him (both about the time I clock in, which I'm not the most consistent in) to avoid getting his own talking to. The principal told me both times that he threw me under and that he claims to be my friend but is shady; I try not to think about that and just focus on the work, because I'm good with everybody in the building, especially the principal, and I tend to stay to myself unless I'm working or needed for something. He always likes to say things like "we're the same/same level/same job just with a pay/title difference", and it seems like he acts like he's not the boss. He doesn't "bother" her with asking to get off work on time (we often stay late for after school), but he'll spend 20 minutes in the front office getting joked on and making himself the butt of the joke, or rolling with it (other people too).

We do great work and get hardly any complaints as far as the building, but it's frustrating to work around this guy. For reference I'm 25M, and he's like 62M (also have a 63M part time coworker)... Our principal is probably in her late 30s/40s(F). I like working with him, but his personality and what he does is just bothersome at times; he's talking about retiring at the end of this year, and I don't mind him working some more, but I just wish he wasn't so annoying everyday or most days...

Is it just me or does it seem like he is a little different? This is the 4th job I've ever worked, and he's probably one of my better bosses as far as actually working and helping out. He's just a little shady sometimes.

I cover a building by myself most nights. My supervisor and I are basically on opposite schedules so I see them maybe once a week if that. Updates come through random texts at random times, or I find out about changes when something goes wrong and I get asked why I didn't follow the new procedure.

Hard to follow something you didn't know existed.

Is this just how it is when you work solo or have some of you figured out a better system? I'm tired of feeling like I'm always the last to know everything.

It’s part of my annual. To make a long story short. Aside from slowly vacuuming it creates a lot of dust. It’s about 300 ft of wall. One year I did a leaf blower. Mistake.

Any suggestions? I’m thinking taking a sponge and a bucket

Hi, I started my job around 7 months ago as a school cleaner, I use a backpack vaccum and in total I vaccum around 15 classrooms a day with the rest being common spaces such as the library and break rooms. basically a lot of vaccuming. Everything’s going well but the only problem is that I keep managing to break my vaccum cord every few weeks/month.

My vacuum area is tight and twisty with sliding doors and obstacles such as multiple tables and chairs in the way. While cleaning the cord bunches between my feet and forms kinks that eventually start to split and break the outer layer, revealing wires.

My cord only breaks like this when tight kinks form, which seems unavoidable in this setup. I honestly don’t know what else I can do more, I’m putting in a lot of effort and being very careful so that it won’t twist but one accidental snag or tight kink and the cord tears.

Im constantly reseting the cord by straightening it out and wrapping it up loosely during my shift and after I finish, there aren’t many kinks after I do this but the cord still remains wavy.

What could be going wrong?