Good Morning Stampers. Many of you offer to help clean up after attending an event. Thank you for the offer, but I got this! I have a system I use between events that involves disinfect spray, wipes, hot soapy water and fresh air. Yes, I open the windows except on blizzard days;)

Here is what I do:

1) The stamps and blocks are rinsed under the wash tub faucet to remove excess ink. Stamps are removed from the block and cleaned with stampin mist on the stampin scrub and set aside to dry. Blocks are dunked in hot, soapy water until the rest of the clean up is done. They get a good 30 minute soak:) They are rinsed in hot water and then air dried.

2) Open the windows, in part to reduce the cleaning agents smell. I am sensitive to all smells and is why you won’t smell perfume when you enter my house.

3) Unroll a wad of paper towels. Wipe down all the ink pads, community utensils, big shot and big shot accessories with disinfectant. Now is a great time to invest in your own utensils so you don’t have to use the community ones.

4) Wipe down the door handles with disinfectant.

5) Wipe down tables and chairs with disinfectant.

6) Vacuum the floors. I frequently steam clean the carpets and ask that your shoes be removed.

7) All Done!

My cleaning protocol has been in place almost as long as my Stampin’ Up! business of close to 17 years. Germs have never been my friend since I am the one most likely to get sick after a gathering with people. Perhaps I was fighting cancer all those years so germs took a backseat in the fight. We will never know. Since my cancer treatment was severely harsh, it’s been a long fight back to relative health. I am ever vigilant about germs since I know I can barely fight my own, let alone the ones other people carry. I have taken steps to rebuild my immune system but it will never return to optimal levels that most of the population enjoys. When I get sick with a cold, it takes me weeks and many boxes of kleenex to recover from effects that are noticeable. I am sure the cellular level is still working hard long after the sniffles are gone. That’s why I drink kombucha, teas and eat mostly things that grow out of the earth.

I am a scientist so understand the world we can only see under a microscope and even smaller than that. Tiny molecules that can only be detected with very expensive and large equipment. I worked first in an environmental lab cleaning up Super Fund sites where gasoline tanks were leaking. I moved on to working in a pharmaceutical lab; testing the drugs I would later take to combat my cancer. Since I understand how germs work, my cleaning protocol has been in place since the beginning of my business, keeping you and me at relative safety from the germs. Doing what I can for sickness prevention is the best way to keep living life on track.

Please know that you can ask me about my cancer journey since I don’t bring it up in conversation. If you are curious to learn what my experience was and is like, I can answer questions. I can tell you that all the weight that I lost has found me again;)

Until we meet, stay well!

Super Awesome Stamper Shirley