Temple Cleaning Experience

This past week I was able to help clean the temple for the first time. This is more of a post for myself than anything so feel free to skip over it. But if you've never cleaned the temple before, it might be helpful if you ever do. It sounds crazy but I enjoy cleaning and was eager to clean the temple. I don't know if you have ever done this before but I wanted to share some thoughts and insights about my experience. First off, clothing. I knew I needed to wear all white but that's all I knew. I thought for sure I had to wear long sleeves but didn't think beyond that. I clean my house with my pajama's on or something comfy. I didn't think my bright colored, comfy pajama's were appropriate so I opted for the beautiful and elegant temple dress, hoes and all! Once I got to the temple, I looked around at the ladies and men and thought, "I guess I didn't need to wear my temple dress with hoes (lol)." The dress code, in case you go and clean the temple, is pretty simple. All white!! Most people who regularly clean the temple were wearing short sleeve all white scrubs with white tennis shoes or temple dress shoes. I even saw someone wearing capri pants but I wouldn't be brave enough for that. I felt silly in my temple dress surrounded by people in sweat pants and scrubs but I guess you learn. It was a really neat experience. A sister in my ward and I cleaned one of the Sealing Rooms. Next, cleaning materials. They have very specific cleaning rags to use on each type of surface. They used microfiber rags, a supercloth (like a Sham-Wow rag), an extended swifer, a duster, a vacuum, "A" cleaner which is the only liquid used to help clean the temple, and a white terry cloth towel to be used with the "A" cleaner. I was glad I got assigned to vacuum because you can't really mess up vacuuming, can you? I didn't mess up so I was happy with that. We moved the chairs and vacuumed under neath them. It was tough to put the furniture back because it needed to go back exactly where it was. Luckily there was still carpet marks where the furniture was. There was a specific area that didn't get vacuumed because of the detail in the carpet but that wasn't in the room I cleaned. The last part of cleaning the temple was how to execute your cleaning skills. Their are very specific instructions when cleaning any part of the temple because of the materials used. I found that vacuuming wasn't necessarily easy like it is at home because you have to go so slow in order not to scratch the furniture. I felt so bad when I did bump the furniture. I blame the vacuum...it was hard to handle. I learned how to better clean my own home and that cleaning more often makes it easier to clean. It didn't take long to clean the room because it was pretty clean to start with. I hope I will appreciate the beauty of the temple in all it's fine detail and go and clean the House of the Lord another time. It was a great experience, in it's own way. It was a spiritually edifying experience in a different way than any temple session. Well, that's all. Good bye for now.

-Jessica