Question? Guiding on Carpet!

[Loopy]

Hi All

Bit of a strange question, but does anyone run their unit in a carpeted hall? If so, how do you make sure it stays clean?

We're looking for a new hall and have been offered a place that looks great - the only thing is that it's fully carpeted throughout (except the loos). Having always had a floor we could sweep/mop, I'm concerned about how we'd manage to keep carpet clean! Will we have to ban paint and food altogether, or has anyone found a good way to cover it for messy activities?

It would be great to hear what others do!

Thanks
Loopy

 

[catdrew]

We have always had a carpeted floor in both our old and current meeting place. I bought some of those party plastic table covers for the floors. I also tend to do painting and craft stuff on the floor rather than on a table as then if they knock something it is less likely to go flying all over more just tip on the covers.
I also stress to girls they have to keep paint pens etc on the covers.

As to food not quite so easy but can be done moist wipes can help clear up and I guess with a carpet they must have a vacuum cleaner you can suck up flour or glitter etc. depends what you are cooking really.

I also bring in trays and boxes to do stuff inside as well but if you have storage you could keep them there. it's actually much nicer than a hard floor more comfortable to sit on and quieter I find.

Also keep some paper towels or kitchen roll to mop up if necessary.

we have done tie dye, painting rocks and also painting with feet, gluing and sticking colouring and had drinks and pizza. Sometimes we do leave the carpet a bit glittery though but our hall vacuum is a bit rubbish.

failing that outside can add to the fun of certain stuff.

 

[Quack]

We have a carpeted hall. After a while, you don't notice, we use blue tarpaulins under tables for anything really messy, everything else is hoovered up. The only things to keep an eye out for are batter (pancake day) and staples, our Scouts are unable to glue anything and staple everything and they get into the carpet. This causes a problem when the girls take their shoes off, so we have to be strict with that too...

 

[Ech18]

Yes covers for the floor and be strict with food, sit down and eat of the tray/ plate

Golden rule as far as this Guider is concerned is glitter is banned! But I do have Guides so that is an easy cop out no one is really going to argue with. Matellic pens and glitter glue work just fine.

 

[kingfisherblue]

Two previous meeting places have been fully carpeted. No problems cleaning up afterwards (one was Brownies, the other was Rainbows and Brownies). I don't use glitter, though - never did like the stuff!

 

[emmaluvseeyore]

Our Guide hall is fully carpeted and we don't have any issues with it. We have lots of big blue tarpaulins that we put down if we are doing anything messy (cooking, craft, other food related activities). We then shake off the tarps outside to get rid of anything like crumbs, flour etc, or wipe them down. I personally hate glitter, so we don't use it, but other groups do. It is incredibly hard to hoover up, so I would advise against using it unless you put something down on the floor. The Rainbows that meet the day before us used glitter last week, and it was everywhere!

 

[Barmey-cat]

Ours is carpeted, it went down late one October many years ago, and we all still used glitter at Xmas as so used to sweeping it, lets just say the carpet sparkled for a while! We've had spills & mishaps over the years, but for really messy things I get the big tarpaulin out that is kept in the store room. If a lot of groups use the place then they will be used to it. If not, agree on some acceptable rules for required amount of cleaning etc.

 

[jennthedeadfunkyranger]

We have a room with a carpet, which we often use in winter as it's warmer. It's also the room adjoining the kitchen, so food tends to end up in there! We have a vacuum in the hall, so make sure to vacuum well after we've got anything on the carpet.

 

[Loopy]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I'm feeling more comfortable about it now!

The hall we're looking at is part of a school. It's not hired out to anyone else and we'd be looking to use it for all sections (8 units). We'd have no kitchen, so cooking wouldn't really be an issue (the school have offered us use of separate cooking facilities for the occasions we want to use them, which is great), but I'm sure units would still want to do no-cook food activities at other times. I like the idea of trays and tarps and also working on the floor rather than tables for painting etc. I think we'd have to make a "no glitter" policy (I prefer glitter glue anyway!) and keep the really messy activities for outdoors. Luckily there's plenty of outdoor space available.

We're working on storage! We're so used to having our own building that we've all got used to keeping everything up there. We're hoping at least some stuff can be kept there anyway.