Another task where care homes in evesham worcestershire offer help is with cleaning and laundering your clothes. Below, we talk about how we provide these services at Cedar Lodge Care Home in Evesham.
Laundry Service in Residential Care Homes Evesham
As we get older, the physical effort of washing and drying clothing can become too much of an ordeal. Care labels on clothing may be difficult to read. The rigmarole of ironing or transferring clothes between washing machines, tumble dryers and washing lines can quickly overwhelm. In a residential care home like ours here in Evesham, staff wash all your laundry for you to help alleviate these concerns.
When our care assistants support you with your personal care each morning, we collect up any dirty laundry. We place it in laundry bags so it can be washed that day.
In a similar way, any dirty laundry created throughout the day will be collected for the night staff to wash.
We tumble dry resilient clothing like cotton socks, underwear and linen. Whereas more sensitive items like wool jumpers, trousers and silks are air-dried. We dry these items either in the cellar or out on the lawn in sunny weather. Staff iron all applicable laundry before it returns to you.
On a typical day, you can expect your laundry to therefore return to your wardrobes within 24-48hrs, just like in your own home.
Laundry in a communal environment
Living in a communal environment has its benefits when it comes to doing laundry. For example, laundry duties are part of every shift of the day for staff, so your dirty laundry won’t build up.
However, due to the logistics of living communally, laundry will sometimes get jumbled up in the washing process. So we ask that you please label your clothing when moving into Cedar Lodge. This is to avoid any risk of your clothes going missing or ending up in a different resident’s wardrobe.
In addition, staff are all trained to launder your clothes to the same exacting standard. But our skillset in laundering clothes only extends to the standard settings on our washing machines and dryers.
Do you have a particularly sensitive item of clothing that could become damaged in a normal wash? If so, we ask that you flag this to us. This is so it can be laundered separately. We ask that any clothes that need dry cleaning are sent out to your dry cleaner of choice by a loved one.
How we deal with soiled and infected laundry
To reduce the risk of infection, we follow a specialised laundry process for any clothing which has been soiled. This process is also followed if a resident is suffering from a contagious illness.
The laundry is deposited in a water-soluble red bag to keep it separate from any other laundry. The clothing (including the water-soluble bag that surrounds it) is placed in the washing machine. It is then laundered at 70 degrees Celsius to destroy any trace of infection.
At Cedar Lodge, we ensure all staff are trained in infection control practices to help keep you safe.
Cleaning at Cedar Lodge Care Home Evesham Worcestershire
Care staff in residential care homes also help with cleaning your room and communal spaces. At Cedar Lodge, cleaning and tidying your environment are an intrinsic part of every carer’s role.
Care Assistants will tidy your room and communal spaces as they go about their work. For instance, when they assist you during morning and evening episodes of personal care.
We also have dedicated cleaning shifts throughout the week. This is where we employ a cleaner to carry out a deep clean of your bedroom, ensuite bathroom and corridors on a rolling basis. They also cleanly ad hoc mess that has been made.
At night, care staff will tidy and deep clean the home’s communal spaces – like the lounges and dining room. This is so they are ready for you to enjoy when you wake up in the morning.
Cleaning equipment
As a care home, we have access to specialised cleaning equipment that you may not have at home. We use steam mops to sterilise our hardwood and tiled flooring, and we also have several vax machines that we use to shampoo carpets. We use carpet cleaning solution with our vax machines to lift any dirt or odours from your carpets, so they smell good as new. All cleaning products are kept away from your bedrooms in a secure cleaning cupboard, and these are topped up by regular orders.
Please let us know if you have a particular method of cleaning you’d like us to use in your room. Or if you’re allergic to any cleaning products that you’d like us to refrain from using. As these can be discussed on your arrival at Cedar Lodge and logged in your care plan. We would also make a note in our cleaning rota so all our cleaning staff are aware.
Our cleaning responsibilities
Our care service at Cedar Lodge is regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). CQC have set a series of standards – known as The Fundamental Standards – below which our care must never fall. Good cleaning practice forms one of these standards. The Fundamental Standards state that “the places where you receive care […] and the equipment used it in must be clean”.
We take great care to ensure we’re meeting the standard expected of us. Your feedback on the home’s cleanliness will be sought through regular surveys and spot checks by the management team.
We hope that helps give you insight into how we approach cleaning and laundry at Cedar Lodge Care Home in Evesham. Like other care homes in Evesham, we hope our service allows residents to enjoy clean clothes and environments. Whilst having more time to enjoy the things they like to do!
Searching for care homes Evesham?
Are you looking for care homes in Evesham? If you would like more information on how we clean and launder clothes, contact us today on 01386 293 033.
A recently cleaned room at Cedar Lodge Care Home in Evesham
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