A clean and organised workplace is a healthy and productive workplace. As such, you need to work out a schedule with your preferred commercial cleaning company to ensure that you can maintain a high level of cleanliness at all times. The question, of course, is how often is enough?
The answer to this question is: it depends. The frequency of cleaning a workplace depends on a variety of factors, such as the following:
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The Size and Type of the Business
The simplest analogy is that the bigger the company and the bigger the space, the more frequent the cleaning. More people means more dirt tracked on the floors and carpets, more uses of the kitchen, and so on. A larger building or office also means more square metres to mop, dust, and scrub. The type of the business also matters. Anything related to health and food, for example, will require more frequent, more thorough cleaning compared to a usual office environment.
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The Type of Occupancy
If your office is in a commercial building shared with other businesses, you may need to have more frequent bookings with your commercial cleaner. On the other hand, if you occupy a space exclusively, your cleaning needs may be different; you’re also freer to customise the schedule as you see fit.
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The Cleaning Tasks Involved
Another factor that you should consider in scheduling sessions with your commercial cleaners would be the type of cleaning you need. Some things need to be conducted daily or at least every other day, while some tasks can be done weekly, monthly, or even yearly.
Speaking of cleaning tasks, it’s easier to create a cleaning schedule if you know what needs to be done. Here’s a quick guide to help you get started:
Daily Cleaning
There are plenty of daily cleaning tasks that should be conducted in every office, no matter the industry. These include things like:
- Sweeping or vacuuming
- Dusting shelves
- Wiping tables and countertops
- Straightening the kitchen and/or break room
- Cleaning mirrors and glass surfaces
- Emptying and re-lining the trash bins
If your office has its own bathroom, you also need to clean it daily. In particular, you need to ensure that the toilet bowls are clean and that the hygiene supplies like soap and toilet paper are always replenished.
For these daily tasks, you should have a few crew members of your commercial cleaners come at the end of the day. If your workplace is running on night shift or multiple shifts, you need to determine a specific time in which cleaners can do their jobs with minimal disruption.
Weekly Cleaning
Some cleaning tasks are too impractical to conduct every day; most of the time, they can be considered to be on an “as needed” basis. However, you also can’t delay these cleaning tasks for too long because they can result in unpleasant, unsanitary conditions.
Ideally, weekly cleaning tasks that should be done during the weekend. This way, people can come into a freshly cleaned office and feel more motivated to work.
- Cleaning glass doors and large pane glass windows
- Polishing floors and other hard surfaces
- Sanitising kitchen appliances
- Scrubbing the toilets
- Vacuuming carpets and rugs
For the first item, you should have glass and mirror surfaces cleaned whenever they look streaked or smudged. The frequency will depend on a variety of conditions, such as if it rained recently. The key is to pay attention and let your commercial cleaners know that some tasks may be added to their daily checklist from time to time.
Monthly Cleaning
Finally, monthly cleaning tasks are those that require the most effort and thoroughness. The good thing is that if you and your cleaners keep up with daily and weekly maintenance, monthly cleaning should be a little easier.
Here are some monthly cleaning tasks that you should include in your checklist:
- Shampooing and conditioning carpets
- Spot-cleaning and/or washing upholstery
- Vacuuming under and behind large furniture
- Vacuuming or changing HVAC filters
- Cleaning out air vents
- Deep-cleaning tile grout
- Polishing hardwood surfaces
- Spot-cleaning walls
- Deep-cleaning toilets
- Polishing water fixtures
If you own your office building, you should also check the walkways, exterior walls, and roofs if they need power-washing.
Conditional Cleaning
There are also conditional cleaning services that you should schedule when needed. For example, a specialised deep clean can be beneficial if there have been recent infections of COVID or other highly communicable diseases within your premises. Meanwhile, if you’ve recently remodelled or renovated a section of your office, you may want to request an extra post-construction cleaning session.
Do note that many if not all conditional or special cleaning requests are usually charged separately from your contract.