Hired the local village hall for a birthday party tomorrow. Is it generally expected/courtious to give it a light clean before handling the keys back?

[lynnepot]

So we have Hired the local village hall for a birthday party tomorrow. We've been in today to set up. We found a note for us requesting before we leave to switch the lights and heating off and close the windows. There is nothing asking for any cleaning to done. My mum said its probably curtious to clean down the kitchen surfaces, the toilets, empty the bins and sweep the floor before we hand the keys back. Would you say that is so from previous experience of hiring your local hall?

Yes. Definitely take all rubbish home with you too.

OK so washing up and wiping over the kitchen worktops and sink. Emptying bins. Sweeping the floors. Is mopping the floors really in order? And the toilets? You're all saying no cleaning of the toilets other than checking they are flushed and not soiled? There are six toilets

We never clean the toilets! We sweep and clean the floor though, plus wash up/put away, clean surfaces etc.

I'm a secretary of a village hall and yes, cleaning afterwards is the done thing.
A quick sweep, empty the bin and wipe the tables down. It would be nice to check the bathrooms and pick up mess (tissues on the floor) but you'll not need to do any real cleaning in there. That's definitely the cleaner's area.

A huge number of village halls these days are being dumped off by the council onto management committees of local volunteers who have to do it in order to keep it open.
Council cleaners used to be paid to come clean every day they were needed but unfortunately nowadays the committee will have to fund their own.

OK thank you haud I'm not sure if it's run by the district council or if it's just a village trust type hall with volunteers.

Take a pack of the antibac floor wipes with you, wipe the surfaces with them then stand on a couple of wipes and shuffle round, job done

Agree with others that I would wipe kitchen services; sweep floors; check/tidy bathrooms but not actually clean unless there's an issue (eg I would wipe any paper spills/clear dropped loo rolls etc). Definitely take all rubbish home.

Bear in mind that there isn't a cleaner service between every hall rental, so essentially you are leaving it how the next renter may get it...

I would say not a light clean, a proper clean! That is certainly the expectation in our hall. Any mess you leave will have to be cleaned up by a volunteer in all likelihood, and our hall will refuse to hire to people who've left a mess before.

I would say clean all floors, kitchen surfaces and the toilets, and empty the bins.

Terms and conditions usually state minimum expectations such as bins emptied, floors swept and mopped, kitchen surfaces and sink wiped, toilets checked and flushed, all balloons, streamers etc removed. Supervise children at all times (including toilets) and make sure tables and chairs are stacked as you find them.

Yeah I've just found out that it's a community hall run by volunteers. I guess that changes the matter completely. My mum is probably right.

Can't believe this Is even a question?

If you don't leave it clean and tidy/leave it as you find it you will probably end up losing your deposit and/or not being permitted to hire it again.

In my defence this is the first time I've hired a hall. I dunno any better.

Lynne it was lovely of you to ask. You would not be expected to know the ins and outs of how these places are run.

What ColdCrumpet said. Look at it this way, the people who come in to have a yoga class, a baby and toddler group, a WI meeting, or to cook a Meals on Wheels lunch the next morning, will expect to find it as clean and tidy as you found it — no one will be in to clean between individual hires.

You’re already very lucky to have been able to set up the day before the party — our village hall is so fully booked that you can only set up immediately before a party.

Reminds me of a story our old village hall. Wednesday night dog training. Thursday morning mother and toddler group. There were always floating dog hairs no matter how much sweeping you did.

Have a lovely party.

See if there's an outside dumpster bin when you're there. You may not need to take your rubbish home as lots of community centres have a bin of their own like we do. We ask that our centre users just pop the bags in the outside bin.

One way to figure out what they expect is this: do you have access to the proper cleaning materials in there? Is there a mop and bucket and hall floor specific cleaner? We don't allow users to mop the hall as it needs a special cleaner as it's expensive old wood so the mop and bucket is in the locked cleaning cupboard. The hoover and brush however is left where they can be accessed by anyone.
We leave cloths out and a specific spray cleaner of our own as well as fairy liquid to decrease the likelihood of them putting barely rinsed cups and plates back in the cupboards.

There are a number of H&S rules when running public buildings and we can't have someone for example, cleaning with neat bleach and not rinsing it off food surfaces.

It's not surprising that you wouldn't know about using village halls if you've never used one. It's not like they all have the same rules and even if they did, unless they tell you (either in person, written T&Cs when hiring or with signs/notices in the building itself) you couldn't possibly know.

Yeah since I've found out its a community run hall I've resigned myself to having to do a proper clean. I'm considering if it's feasible to close off some of the toilets so to save having to clean 6 toilets just having one toilet in each of the girls and boys toilets. Joke.

Oh jeez I didn't realise I also need to run a health and safety risk assessment aswell now yeah there was some cleaning materials and dustpan and brush etc in a cupboard.

I would think that it goes without saying that you leave it as you found it.