Keeping your office clean should always be prioritized. It’s a space where you and your staff spend upwards of 40 hours a week. While it’s easy to let the mess spiral as the days go by, it is possible to conduct commercial building cleaning without compromising company time and energy. But you need to go about it the right way. Proper cleaning can improve employee satisfaction and ensure their health and safety, which in these times, is greatly necessary. So, if you want to maintain high standards of cleanliness for your office, it’s helpful to know what some of the biggest, most common mistakes are. And more importantly, how to avoid them…
1. Only Cleaning What You See
One of the most common commercial building cleaning mistakes is the tendency to relish in an “out of sight, out of mind” concept of cleanliness. You should be cleaning more than just the visible surfaces of your office space. Spot cleaning does not result in a healthy, safe environment. Bacteria and germs love to hide in the hard-to-reach places you miss. So, while your office may look tidy at first glance, there could be disease festering in the nooks and crannies of your workspace.
2. Using the Wrong Cleaning Supplies
A variety of tools and solutions are needed for different types of cleaning. Many surfaces, such as granite, glass, wood, and fabrics, require very specific cleaning solutions. Therefore, using the wrong products could not only render your efforts ineffective, but even worse, could cause severe damage to the surfaces around your office.
3. Missing High-Touch Points
Surfaces such as handrails, doorknobs, keyboards, elevator buttons, and phones are some of the most highly touched areas of the office. However, despite frequent use, you’d be surprised how often these surfaces are missed come cleaning day. Since these areas are so regularly used, they’re a hot spot for germs and bacteria. Therefore, these high-touch points require frequent cleaning to prevent the spread of illness around the office.
4. Forgetting to Disinfect
Sure, it may be habit to wipe food crumbs off your desk or clean up spilled drinks in the communal kitchen. However, what’s often forgotten is the highly important disinfecting process. Cleaning and disinfecting are two different things. Simply wiping down areas with a cloth is not going to cut it in terms of health and safety. To minimize, even eliminate the chances of infection spreading through the office, disinfecting is a crucial step that cannot be neglected.
5. Asking Your Employees to Clean
Some employers think it’s more cost-effective to include janitorial duties in their staff’s list of to-dos. While it’s fair to expect your employees to keep their personal workstations clean, asking them to take on commercial building cleaning tasks is a huge mistake. Not only does this steal their time, energy, and expertise from doing their actual job, it results in a less-than-thorough clean. Additionally, relying on them for cleaning could impede upon their job satisfaction, which is the last thing you want spreading through your office.
6. Failing to Get Rid of Waste Regularly
The trash needs to be taken out daily. By missing this step, you’re increasing the odds of attaining a severe pest control problem in your office. On top of this, you and your staff will have to suffer the foul odours that rotting garbage brings, as well as the harmful particles and microorganisms than can spread through the air. To improve the health, safety, and mood of your office, ensure any trash and waste is taken out daily.
7. Not Hiring Commercial Building Cleaning Experts
One of the biggest mistakes an office can make is failing to hire a team of commercial building cleaning professionals. At Total Commercial Solutions, we have the expertise, supplies, and experience to ensure your office is clean, disinfected, and maintained. Improve the workability of your commercial office and request a quote today!