There are many small cleaning tasks that need to be completed around a working office.
Whether you hire a commercial cleaning company or ask your employees to regularly carry out these tasks, many hands make light work, so consistency is key.
Let’s be honest though, cleaning likely isn’t your team's speciality. This means that if you’re expecting them to keep everything clean, certain things are likely to be missed.
Let’s look at the most commonly missed cleaning tasks in the office:
Under & Behind Bin Areas
Cleaning and emptying the bins is an obvious one (we hope!), but it isn’t quite enough. As busy people throw tea bags or banana skins in the bin, sometimes while on the phone, the occasional miss is a given. How often do you look behind or under your office bins? This can apply to larger external wheelie bins too.
Surfaces under bins can slowly accumulate a buildup of grime and bacteria. Sometimes this is so thin that it is invisible, but this doesn’t make it any less dangerous as a potential place to harbour bacteria or viruses.
Dont forget to find out more about our Eurobins
Fixtures like Fire Extinguishers, Light Switches, Buttons
While fire extinguishers need to be inspected annually, this clearly isn’t regular enough when it comes to cleaning. Cleaning them once a year will leave them dusty most of the time, making your offices look less appealing and less professional to visitors and employees alike. With dust being a major cause of allergies and respiratory conditions, it is also not impossible that this will increase employee absence.
While fire extinguishers are a common dust problem due to how easy they are to overlook due to always being present in the background, this applies to most small stationary fixtures in your building - such as light switches, power sockets, lift buttons, copies and more.
The Dishwasher
Dishwashers are often the workhorse of the office environment, being filled and emptied by multiple people daily and often going constantly throughout the day. But most people are concerned with their dishes, simply putting them in and coming back later to collect them once cleaned. How many of your staff are thinking about the dishwasher itself? Without regular cleaning, dishes will come out dirty and filled with smelly water. In a longer-term period, they will break down completely. Cleaning a dishwasher can be as simple as emptying the small grate at the bottom and running a self-clean cycle. In some cases you may need to use a cleaning product at most. Overlooking such an easy task can cost you a lot of money, so ensure this is built into your cleaning schedule, no matter who is carrying out the tasks.
Vents, Fans & Extractors
These are another area of the office that can attract a lot of dust. This is even easier to miss than with fire extinguishers as the dust will slowly get sucked into vents where it is invisible and build up over time. Once they get too blocked, they can start blowing dust back into the office, dramatically increasing the dustiness of the working environment.
You will need a lot of specialist equipment for this such as extendable dusters, ladders and bendable pipe cleaners - so it may be one to hire a specialist air vent cleaning company for. Either way though, the most important thing is that it isn’t overlooked, as if it is, increasing respiratory issues are eventually going to become unavoidable.
Blinds
Blinds are very easy to clean. In most cases they only need a quick wipe down. However, if this isn’t done regularly, blinds can build up dust and grime, appearing black and this can make them much more difficult to clean as white blinds get stained dark.
This is one of the most common cleanliness problems in an office environment, as office staff often just simply do not want to clean the blinds.
Under & Behind Office Furniture
Office furniture creates a natural protective environment for dust, as underneath and behind it air flow is limited. It’s also rare that somebody will move the furniture and actually see this space to be aware of how dirty or dusty it has gotten. This is even more the case for very large furniture like entrance hallway couches.
It’s easy to think out of sight means out of mind, but the buildup of dust can have severe issues for air quality and damage office equipment.
Ensure your cleaning schedule is set up to have these pieces of furniture moved and heavily cleaned on a regular basis, and you’ll have a cleaner and more welcoming environment than most.
The Office Kettle
Regular ongoing use of a kettle causes limescale. At home this is rarely an issue as you’re likely using the kettle once or twice a day and replacing it every couple of years. In offices the kettle could be going for different people all day and it’s entirely possible none of them will glance inside to be aware of how bad the limescale problem has gotten.
Limescale and mineral deposits building up in your kettle can make your tea taste worse, cause the heating element of the kettle to overheat, and even reduce teeth whiteness.
Descaling the kettle or simply replacing it should be done every 6 months to a year in an office due to the extreme heavy use it is likely getting.
Hire Professional Specialist Office Cleaning Services
If any of this sounds like too much to get your regular employees to handle, consider hiring a professional cleaning company. Here at phs we are the UK’s leading provider of commercial cleaning services and our highly trained team can enter your premises, carry out all of the above tasks and many more, and leave with zero interruption. All of this will allow your staff to focus on what they do best - growing your business!
