Office Cleaning: How To Do It Well

Granted there aren’t many who aspire to work for a commercial cleaning service, but it’s a good job and for many it fits in very neatly around family and a social life. Personally, when I clean I rather enjoy the relaxation in the tidying, polishing and vacuuming, and I have great satisfaction when I close the door. I know that the company’s employees will come to work in the morning to find a clean, clear office and feel inspired to do a good day’s work.

If you’re just starting out office cleaning you’ll hopefully have a training session, but this isn’t something that all cleaning companies offer (though they should).
What should you do when you clean an office?
Well there are things that are expected, but there are also some that aren’t expected that put a smile on the employees’ faces, and will impress the company. An impressed company means you will have an office cleaning job for as long as you want it.
So, what to do? As with any cleaning job, getting a routine in place is vital. I always empty the bins first, then clean the toilets, clean the mirrors and windows, dust and wipe, then vacuum or mop (depending, obviously, on the type of floor). I’m take you through the process step-by-step over the next couple of articles.
First: The Bins
Go around with an industrial-size bin bag and empty all the bins into that (not the sanitary bins which an outsourced company empties). Check on the floor and under the desk for any obvious bits of rubbish that has missed the bin. Wipe the bins out with a cloth; if they’re especially mucky wash them out and leave them to dry. Having a bin bag in each bin certainly stops them getting too mucky. Wipe the outside of the bin and put it on the desk.
Second: The Toilets
Your commercial cleaning company should provide you with the products you need. To clean the toilets find the toilet cleaner, disinfectant, 2 wet cloths, dry cloth, window cleaner and microfibre glass cloth and a mop.
Using the disinfectant and wet cloth clean the whole cistern, then the toilet seat top and bottom, all around the fixtures, the outside and underside of the bowl. Leave the toilet seat up and squirt toilet duck around the rim and in the water. Leave no part untouched. It takes me about a minute per toilet, but those toilets are wonderfully clean.
With a different cloth wash the sinks and counters down, not forgetting the underside and any exposed pipes, and dry them with a dry cloth so you don’t get tidemarks. This leaves the sink area glistening.
In the next article I’ll talk you through cleaning the office mirrors and windows, but window cleaner also does marvellous things to stainless steel, so use the window cleaner on the taps, soap dispenser, toilet roll holders and any other dispenser in the toilet. Don’t forget to clean the top of the dispensers, because they gather dust.
When you clean the mirror make sure you clean the WHOLE mirror. Focus on the top half for untouched dust, and on the bottom for splashed water marks.
Before you mop the floor, and if you feel like going that extra mile, fold the toilet paper into a ‘v’ shape, and pull the next tissue out of the tissue box, align the taps and fold the towel nicely (or pull it to the next dry bit). Finally put all the toilet seats down.
When you mop do the corners and edges first then work backwards towards the door. If you’re using a traditional mop move it in a figure-of-8; if you have a straight mop keep the dirty edge leading so that all the mess is collected before the cleaner part of the mop actually cleans.
As you reach the door use your disinfectant cloth to wipe the handles and surrounding area on both sides. Wipe the light switch carefully, turn off the lights and close the door.
With window cleaner and microfibre cloth in hand you’re off to clean the office windows…