They crowd into a dark theater following the little light on the steps to their assigned row. They jimmy past the legs of the others in the row muttering “excuse me” as they go. The five of them plop down into the comfortable seats excited to see the movie everyone had been talking about. The lights eventually dim and as the movie begins they too begin to eat all the food that they had brought inside. A little popcorn here, a sip of soda there, a twizzler or two and before you know it the movie is at the credits. The scene before the group resembles a mini war-zone with popcorn buckets and soda cups scattered around, as mere monuments to the feeding frenzy. As the lights come on, the five of them look to each other as they examine the mess before them. They sheepishly grab a popcorn bucket and a couple cups, but leave the rest after all that’s the movie theater cleaner’s job.

Unfortunately, many people feel that when someone is being paid to clean the space that they are in, they have a bit of right to make a mess. There are many problems with this assumption. While that person is paid to clean up, it doesn’t mean that someone needs to be the reason they have to. Also, the main focus of the cleaning should be picking up things that people can’t clean up by themselves, like in the movie example: a spilled soda. So, when someone leaves their popcorn bucket behind it just adds unnecessary work to their job. This also isn’t just a thing in movie theaters, but in many other places where people can make messes. In these places the little things like putting an item on a random shelf in a store because something better popped up are types of actions that can be avoided. Sure, it takes a little more time, but in the end that’s a little bit of time that some other person didn’t have to spend cleaning and can spend doing other things in their job, perhaps even things that will make the experience even better.

Some people may say that these little bits of disarray are just that, little. However, when a few people think this way those little messes add up pretty quick and before you know it, there’s a full-blown mess. In the end, let’s all just picture ourselves as the one that has to clean up the messes and just go by the golden rule and treat people the way we would want to be treated.

Jack Renning

Opinion Writer