Collegiate Times

Clean toilets, clean sinks, clean showers ? our lives would be miserable without them. Imagine living in on-campus housing alongside 800 other students without the luxury of a housekeeper. We were all taught to be responsible young men and women, but why is it that when we arrive at college, it suddenly becomes acceptable to throw a macaroni and cheese dish on the floor of the hallway instead of into the garbage can once the weekend hits? The dreaded bathroom ? where the sound of the sink still running from the night before echoes through each stall. The Charmin bears took it upon themselves to run throughout the entire bathroom with streamers of toilet paper, celebrating the weekend so you can depart the bathroom with a rather embarrassing trail of toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Stall one, un-flushed and leaking around the bowl ? skip it. Stall two ... upon opening the door Hades himself greets you from the underworld ? control the gag reflex and just walk away. Stall three, finally a somewhat clean-looking area, but of course, no toilet paper. Stall four, the last and final hope. It seems to look OK; toilet paper is intact, no hazardous material insight, go for the gold.

What if the bathrooms were like this all the time? Often it seems we take for granted the wonderful members of the Virginia Tech housekeeping staff. Five days a week, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., these Tech employees work their butts off to keep our buildings clean and sanitary. Dusting, mopping, vacuuming ? any type of cleaning task you can think of, these housekeepers complete.

Kelly Cahill, a New York native, came to Blacksburg 10 years ago and has been working for Tech housekeeping for the past four years. She can be found making the halls spotless in either East or West Ambler-Johnston Hall. Just like any other employed person, regardless of trade, Cahill admits the worst day to come into work is on Monday. But the circumstances are a bit different for a housekeeper than, say, a professor. Walking into trash-filled hallways and soiled bathrooms and showers is not necessarily the greatest way to start the week.

She has many challenging tasks, but the hardest is cleaning the showers. ?They take a lot of time, a lot of scrubbing. There?s a lot of work to the showers,? Cahill said.

It takes nearly a full hour to sufficiently clean one of the bigger shower rooms in the dorm. After that, the housekeepers must clean the rest of the bathrooms, hallways and all the entrance lobbies. Now that?s a hard workday.

The camaraderie formed among co-workers is what Cahill loves best. She admits she jokes around with other housekeepers, making her surroundings more entertaining and comfortable. Brenda Blankenship, another Tech housekeeper, works in special purpose housing, otherwise known as the Oak Lane community. Her warm-hearted friendliness is evident as she walks through the houses, saying hello to students with a kind smile and hearty laugh. Unlike Cahill and other on-campus housekeepers, Blankenship is able to form actual bonds and friendships with the students that reside in the two adjoining houses she cleans. Currently living in Harrisburg, Blankenship commutes to Blacksburg five days a week and enjoys spending time with her grandchildren on the weekend.

Chatting in her office, the bright sun spilled into the room, touching on the little toy figurines perched on the windowsill. Country music plays softly in the background and a sense of fresh cleanliness overwhelms the atmosphere. Wearing her Hokie-maroon uniform, Blankenship admits she doesn?t mind her commute to Blacksburg and loves her work. ?Actually, I enjoy it, getting up and coming here. Every house out here is great. I?m used to cleaning, and I like my job, I like doing it.?

Different from the dorms, Oak Lane units contain a large kitchen, a great room, a study lounge on each floor, a common bathroom and individual rooms adjacent to a personal bathroom, forming a suite. Every day, Blankenship cleans, sweeps and mops the kitchen and bathroom in her two assigned houses. She also dusts and straightens the great rooms, making sure all couch pillows are intact.

Each personal room and bathroom is a different story. Once a week she will go into the rooms and clean the sinks, which are located in the actual room and then clean the showers and toilets.

Blankenship truly loves what she does. ?I love to clean the house and the girls and boys are always nice and friendly,? she said.

But she does admit that cleaning her own house isn?t quite as enjoyable, and says that weekends are a pain when she has to clean her own bathroom. ?It?s a big difference going home and cleaning your own,? she said. Blankenship enjoys when students come up to her and say hi; most know her by name. She admits it?s hard to remember all of the students? names, but she certainly remembers their faces. ?I prefer it out here (in Oak Lane) because it?s their house and I like taking care of their house, because they notice things that I do,? she said.

Cleaning an entire building certainly requires a lot of hard work and effort, but it?s even harder when it holds over 800 residents. Virginia Tech?s housekeepers deserve a huge ? and that?s an understatement ? amount of credit. Their hard work, often taken for granted, allows us to live in the clean environment we inhabit every day.