Grime-fighter to open cleaning museum
posted by admin in Gutter CleaningIf cleanliness is next to godliness, Don Aslett’s new museum might be the next best thing to a cathedral.
Aslett, who parlayed his penchant for cleanliness into an international janitorial business, plans to open Don Aslett’s Cleaning Museum in the fall of 2008 in this southeastern Idaho city.
“I’ve sold clean as a culture,” Aslett told the Idaho State Journal. “When you hear Pocatello, you’re going to think clean.”
The history of clean at the museum begins with a giant model of Noah’s Ark, a reference to the worldwide cleaning of Biblical proportions.
“This will be Pocatello’s biggest draw,” said Pocatello Mayor Roger Chase. “People will come just to see the building.”
As a student at Idaho State University 50 years ago, Aslett launched Varsity Contractors, a construction, facility services and janitorial company. The company now has annual sales exceeding $250 million and branches in all 50 states and Canada, while Aslett has a growing sideline as a speaker and author of cleaning handbooks.
The $6 million museum now under construction in a renovated downtown building will contain more than 6,000 items, including a two-ton horse-drawn street sweeper and what museum officials say will be the largest antique vacuum cleaner collection in the world, with 300 devices on display.
Other exhibits include 2,000-year-old water vessel used by Romans to wash up, and a 30-foot high, three-story globe called Kid’s Clean World where children can take part in interactive exhibits teaching them how to wash their hands, make their bed and clean their room.
The 50,000-square-foot, five-story building, completed in 1916, was previously a dairy. Aslett said he wants the remodel to set the standard for green construction.
A rooftop garden will filter rain water and offer insulation. An asphalt alley is being converted into a greenbelt.
“A lot of people are talking green, but few are actually doing it,” Aslett said.
A solar wall will help heat the building in the winter and cool it in summer. Light pollution will be reduced by having outside lights shine down. Water conservation features will be used as part of the attractions for museum visitors.
The third floor of the building will be used as a training center.
“We’re going to bring tons and tons of people here,” Aslett said.
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