This is the seventh in a series of posts that explain the details and the how and why we do Friday Nights. You can find links to all of the previous posts here.

Clean Up

The dreaded part of any event is the clean up after the fun is over. Cleaning up the mess, washing dishes, taking the trash outside, reorganizing the table and chairs is not the part anyone looks forward to. By the time you get to this part of any event, you start to wonder if the party was worth it. Ugh…the clean up!

We experienced this feeling the first couple months of Friday Nights. But with six kids, we just learned to master it and clean up is typically finished in less than ten minutes. We each play a part, do what needs to be done and get it finished quickly. It’s family teamwork at its finest. Our kids have finally realized the benefits of this weekly gathering and they’ve decided they need to participate in the clean up at the end.

Why? Because they believe in Friday Nights.

To make it easier, we decided on the following processes. We always use paper plates and plastic Solo cups. No washing! If we have put processes in place to reuse left over beans (if there are some) and made the clean up almost systematic.

Sometimes people ask about helping with clean up. We don’t mind extra help, but we’d rather you just relax and enjoy the fact that Friday Nights is NOT at your house! In addition, it’s simply good experience for our kids. They need to understand that putting on an event has benefits and consequences. Sometimes, those consequences are indeed worth the effort!

Every once and a while, when we do a special event, the mess is massive…like after pumpkin carving with 62 people! During those times, we ask for help…because that stuff is just nasty.

Community helps with messes. But sometimes, people in your community just need to relax and let others provide for them. We love to clean up our weekly mess so you can have true community.