The holiday period is a hectic time for many businesses, and cleaning might be the last thing on your mind! Some businesses will be open throughout Christmas and New Year, while others will have an extra busy few weeks before they close down for the year. Not to mention the Christmas parties and other fun holiday activities – there’s always plenty going on!
During this time of year, many business owners use commercial cleaning services to take care of the additional cleaning demands. The following are some other handy tips for managing the Christmas and New Year tidy up:
Prepare and plan
Getting prepared ahead of time is always a good idea. This means planning Christmas and New Year activities well in advance, as well as having the staff leave roster in place early. This ensures you know what events are happening when and who will be around to take care of tidying up.
If you are having Christmas parties onsite, you might want to consider a one-off commercial clean to take care of the clean up. If you already have a regular cleaning crew – make sure you advise them about the extra work this is going to create so they can be prepared, too!
It’s also a good idea to have air fresheners or odour neutralisers on hand for the office party clean up. The alcohol and food smells can linger, especially if the building is closed up over the break and there is no fresh air circulating through. We recommend natural and eco-friendly air fresheners and odour neutralisers that are less harmful to the environment. You should also make sure you have plenty of rubbish and recycling bags or bins ready for the party and the clean up.
Over this time, there might also be some changes to your rubbish and recycling collection schedule. If your business or office uses kerbside collection services, make sure you check to see if the public holidays are going to impact them. If your business is going to be closed over the holidays, be sure to get rid of rubbish and recycling so that it doesn’t create odour or attract flies. That’s not a nice thing to come back to on the New Year!
You might also be planning maintenance work to take place while everyone is away for the break. This might be recarpeting, repainting, or general refurbishing. Maintenance work also creates a lot of dust and other mess, so it’s good to tie this all into one big end of year clean up.
Keep on top of clutter
You might only end up with a few days around Christmas and New Year to get things clean and organised, especially if you work in hospitality and remain open over the holiday period. Help out your future self by staying on top of clutter and mess throughout the year, and especially in the couple of months leading up to the busy season.
Minimising clutter and mess before the busy season hits makes the holiday cleaning much more manageable. Having effective storage solutions means that workspaces don’t get covered in paperwork, stationery, utensils or tools. This makes it much easier to clean surfaces as they are already clear of clutter and will only require a wiping down.
Work as a team
A commercial cleaning team isn’t in everyone’s budget, so you might need to bring some of your staff members together to help out. Before your employees head off on leave, have them all tidy and clean up their own desk or workspace. If all the work areas are already clean, that only leaves the communal spaces to worry about.
You will probably find that most people won’t enthusiastically volunteer to help with end of year or post-Christmas cleaning. Working out a cleaning roster for these areas will ensure that everything gets done – and many hands make light work! For the staff members helping out with the cleaning, perhaps a team coffee shout or morning tea can be their incentive!
Call the professionals
The end of year or post Christmas clean can be a pretty big job, especially if you have a large building or area to cover. Commercial cleaning services are so helpful at this time of year, as they can do a lot of the hard work for you. Then you are free to focus on getting your business through the busy season and ready for the next year!
Crewcare can help with all of your cleaning needs for your office, restaurant, early education centre, or school. We cover all general cleaning including rubbish and recycling removal. We can also take care of the bigger jobs such as floor and window cleaning, which is great to get done while the staff are out of the office on holiday.