You’ll no doubt be familiar by now with my belief that it’s largely up to us, as members of the general public, how hard our cleaners have to work and also how much they’ll enjoy their work, depending upon how we choose to leave spaces and facilities we’ve visited, and how we interact with them when our paths cross. ‘Leave no trace’ and interact kindly, appreciatively, and with warmth, and we’ll help make their day… Leave an unwarranted mess that we could so easily sort ourselves and/or ignore their efforts - and perhaps obstruct them in their work - and we’ll bring them down. 

 

If you’re one of our thousands of overseas readers you may not be familiar with the phrase ‘it warmed the cockles of my heart’ but it’s something you may well have felt yourself if watching the World Cup and seeing the fans from Ghana cleaning up any mess left in the stadium after beating South Korea and perhaps even more surprisingly (because their team had just been defeated) the Japanese fans clearing up AND sorting the recycling after their team played South Korea - having already done so not only for their own group stage match against Germany, Costa Rica and Spain but also during the World Cup opening match between Qatar and Ecuador. 

I’m sure that after their defeat they’ll have wanted to slope off in dismay but they didn’t. All I can say is that all these considerate people are a credit to themselves, their families and their countries, and I hope that the fine example they’ve set is noted by those amongst us who feel it’s their right to leave a trail of devastation for others to clear up! Forgive me if I’ve missed any good deeds and do please let me know if I have, because people who go out of their way to clean up behind themselves so others don’t have to do so, deserve recognition for their efforts.