Why Is It so Important to Keep Your Office Clean?

A couple of swipes of a wet cloth aren’t going to clean the whole office. Cleanliness is a systematic action that involves numerous cleaning sprees but have you ever wondered why it is so important?

Well, with tens and hundreds of people working together, a virus or a disease can spread fast, so it’s essential the office is kept clean using various methods.

Clean tech

When was the last time you cleaned the touchscreen of your smartphone? From computer monitors to portable touchscreens, all screens inside the office need special attention. Instead of using a simple dust cloth, you have to clean them using antistatic microfiber cloths.

It’s important to clean touchscreens as often as possible as they are a breeding ground for bacteria. By simply giving out wet wipes used for cleaning screens, you are helping workers stay healthy, reducing the number of days and boosting productivity.

Common area, common care

When it comes to common areas inside the office, they need to be looked after by everyone using them. Flushing the toilet and cleaning the dishwasher after use might seem trivial but it is details like this that appease all the employees.

A daily routine

When you call in professional cleaners, they clean the entire office. However, you cannot overhaul the office at the end of every workday but you can throw out the trash or sanitize the desktop. In the evening, every worker should plan 10 to 15 they are going to spend on cleaning their desk.

Depending on the size and the layout of the office, the quick cleanup can include vacuuming the floors and stocking office supplies. The more frequent mini cleaning sprees are, the more hygienic the office will be.

Clean floors, cleared corridors

Cleaning the floors is mandatory for every office space but this simple chore becomes essential inside the office. From employees to clients, hundreds of people move through the office, threading the carpets and mats.

Vacuuming the floors should do the trick but don’t forget to replace carpets that are older than a decade, as they are nearly impossible to clean effectively. After you make sure the floors are clean, you need to declutter the corridors.

Disused power cables and bulky apparatus, like the old copier, are trip hazards that the owner needs to address before someone gets seriously hurt. Try to keep the corridor clear from all the obstacles, such as chairs, heaps of copy paper, or disused cabinets.

Dividing duties

Even if you employ a janitor, one person cannot bear the brunt of office cleanliness. All workers should pitch in, as cooperation will get you far. Come up with a schedule of cleaning duties, so all employees clean the office once a week.

Cleaning the windows from the outside

There is hardly anything more impressive than an office building covered in glass panels. Owning or renting an office there is a huge plus but such glamour comes with high maintenance. Namely, it’s not enough to clean the windows from the inside, as exterior cleaning takes precedence.

There are companies that hire professional alpinists and climbers, as exterior window cleaning involves working at height. They are the only ones trained in handling rope rigging necessary for accessing every panel on the façade. 

Do you rent office space?

In most cases, it is the building owner that covers the cost of cleaning the glass panel from the outside. In most cases, office space is rented, so tenants aren’t responsible for fixing everything that might break. However, when the time to relocate comes, you need to think about the end of lease cleaning and how much it will cost.

Work desks and food tables

There aren’t many tables inside a modern office, as desks take priority. The kitchen and the lounge are the only two areas where tables are present and for a good reason. Namely, the kitchen in the office and possibly the cafeteria are the places where workers can eat; their desks should be crumbs-free zones.

This sounds good in theory but in practice, folks find it hard to leave their desks to eat breakfast and lunch while they are in the middle of something. However, every sandwich eaten at the desk means you get a dirty and unhygienic office.

Apart from crumbs popping up all over the place and greasy stains, food leftovers get inside keyboards, serving as breeding grounds for bacteria. For sanitary reasons, encourage employees to take their meal breaks anywhere but at their desks.

Cable jungle

As computers and other tech gizmos are taking our lives, there are more and more wires and cables running the length of the office. Sure thing, wireless technology is becoming more sophisticated but it will be years, if not decades before the first “cable-less” office will emerge. 

Until then, all cables and wires that together look like jungle foliage need to be brought down to the floor. We’ve mentioned earlier that clutter is a major contributor to trips and falls in the office, so cables should be taped to the floor.

If you have wires running up against the wall, consider concealing them using decorative panels that double as notice boards or whiteboards.

More clean = less hazardous

It isn’t an overstatement when new say that cleanliness saves lives. Namely, if the office catches on fire (God forbid), you will be thankful you cleared the corridors from debris. Moreover, if you took out cardboard boxes that office supplies came in, you have actually removed a fire hazard.

Widespread sanitizing

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has taught us that disinfecting and sanitizing are life-saving practices. These two chemical processes kill all the germs and bacteria that could be harmful to human health. 

Essentially, every surface that employees come in contact with should be sanitized at the end of the day. This includes the toilet, door handles, keyboards, as well as the surface of the desk that probably has greasy fingerprints all over it.

The more people touch a single surface during the day, such as the bathroom light switch, the more often it should be sanitized. Speaking of the restroom, there should be hand sanitizer next to the liquid soap dispenser.

Sometimes vacuuming won’t suffice

We have mentioned earlier that you need to vacuum the floors, i.e. carpets. However, vacuuming soft fabrics, such as office chairs and sofas won’t cut it. Such and similar fabrics need to be washed from time to time to stay fresh.

Luckily, professional cleaners offer washing fabrics as part of their service. While they’re there, you can ask them to wash doormats, sofa covers, curtains, cushions, table cloths, removable upholstery, etc. Every piece of fabric inside the office should be nice and clean.

Happiness and focus

Modern capitalism aims to improve productivity by generating happy faces, i.e. generating satisfied workers. Apart from hefty bonuses and extra days off, employees can appreciate a clean and safe working environment.

When an office is clean and orderly, people find it easier to focus on the tasks ahead. In the shipping and manufacturing industry, this also means that every part is easily accessible and labeled. The happier the workers are with the cleanliness of their work station, the more motivated they get.

A clean office is not merely desirable but rather mandatory if you wish to generate profit. From sanitizing door handles to hiring pros to clean the entire place, it’s worth making the effort to keep the office clean.