Over the past year alone I have visited countless offices throughout the Twin Cities area and written more quotes for commercial cleaning than I could ever imagine. So, I decided to write a series of articles named The “Ultimate Cleaning Guide”. I have written the series for businesses that either can’t afford commercial cleaning services or have contracted cleaning services and want to know “where to set the bar”. The first article “The Basic Facts” will set the starting point, which means that you will not have headaches later on.
Every business goes through the “start-up” phase and cleaning is either neglected due to lack of funds, time or staff. To be honest, most business can afford some level of professional cleaning but if you do want to tackle this yourself, or you don’t know what to expect from your cleaning service, then hopefully this series of articles will help you.
Understanding the “cleaning” task
People judge cleanliness with 2 senses – Sight and Smell: The work area must not only BE clean and LOOK clean, it should SMELL clean as well. This is not hard to do. The “Ultimate Cleaning Guide” is a series of articles I will give you a few tips on how to achieve this effectively..
Cleaning an office is NOT the same as cleaning a home: The traffic in a normal office is far greater than any home. The work spaces, break rooms and restrooms see more traffic in 1 day than the average home would see in a week. At home people (sometimes) clean their own mess. In the office, they expect someone else to do it. Most people don’t understand the difference. Like many other jobs, cleaning requires organization. If a person is disorganized, cleaning an office can be overwhelming and they are less likely perform this task effectively. Hopefully, my guide to cleaning will help.
Not everyone knows how to clean
DO NOT expect staff to know how to clean: Some businesses do not hire professional cleaning services and choose delegate the cleaning tasks to various staff members. This is understandable because it is seen as just another paid task. Remember that you hired your staff to do a specific job that demands a specific skill set. When you hired them you probably did not ask them if they know how to clean! Like every other job, this one requires instruction or training. Also, strange as it may seem, some people prefer to clean bathrooms rather than vacuum carpets. If you are going to delegate a task, keep this in mind. Ask your staff which task they would prefer to undertake. You are more likely to get a better result.
Cleaning is NOT magic: We go to the office. We make a mess. We go home. When we return the next day, its clean! That is NOT magic, its CLEANING. Trust me, we can ALL tell when the magic doesn’t happen! For the amazing transformation to occur we need two principle ingredients: TIME and KNOWLEDGE. Be aware of this when delegating tasks or hiring cleaners. It takes BOTH time and training to do the job properly.
Cleaning – “You get what you pay for”
Cleaners are trained and staff can BE trained to clean. However, the issue is that most people have an unrealistic idea about the amount of time it takes to clean. An example: An individual said to me, “… it would take 2 minutes to mop this floor…”. I agree. However, someone must fetch the mop and bucket, fill it with water and add the appropriate chemical(s). Take it to “said location”. Mop the floor for 2 minutes. Return the mop and bucket. Empty the dirty water. Clean the mop and bucket and leave them to dry properly or they will smell and develop mold. Have I made my point? If you use professional cleaners, try to understand the process/logistics and not just the task.
If you are interested…
The “Ultimate Cleaning Guide” articles will explain the what, when and how of commercial cleaning. I welcome your feedback on this and my following articles. I hope that you find them useful.