Proper commercial cleaning has always included disinfecting high-touch surfaces and rooms. Bathrooms, kitchens, break rooms, door handles, and other places where people congregate or touch often should always be disinfected regularly. The COVID-19 pandemic drove home the importance of this, though. Public health agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized the importance of disinfecting surfaces to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
In preparation for flu season ahead, 360clean has created your complete office disinfection checklist! Read on to learn more. And, if you’re in the market for a new commercial cleaning service, remember to contact our team for a free quote!
What Needs to Be Disinfected?
Before you dive into how to disinfect your office properly, you need to know what things need to be disinfected. This can be broken down into several different categories. By approaching it this way, you can ensure that you never miss a high-touch area.
Restrooms
All restrooms in your office need to be disinfected daily. This includes those available for use by the public as well as those used by employees daily. Items that need to be disinfected include:
- Door handles
- Light switches
- Cleaning equipment such as soap, towel, and sanitizer dispensers
- Fixtures
- Toilet handles and seats
- Stalls, latches, and handles
- Trash receptacles
- Floors
Breakroom/Cafeteria
Whether your office has a full-service cafeteria or a breakroom where people eat and congregate, it needs to be disinfected every day. The items that need this attention include:
- Tables and chairs
- Door handles
- Light switches
- Cleaning equipment such as soap, towel, and sanitizer dispensers
- Sinks
- Fixtures
- Refrigerators/freezers
- Utensils (if re-usable)
- Surfaces that food comes into contact with
- Cabinet handles
- Menus (if re-usable)
- Coffee pots
- Serving trays
- Microwave handles
- Sneeze guards (if applicable)
- Floors
Lobby
Whether your office has a lobby where the public waits or just a simple entryway, this area needs to be disinfected every day. The reason is that it is a high-traffic area and, as such, susceptible to the spread of bacteria and viruses. Items that need to be disinfected include:
- Coffee pots/drink stations and cups (if re-usable)
- Door handles
- Elevator doors and buttons
- Chairs and tables
- Light switches
- Railings in stairways
- All flat, horizontal surfaces
- Other high-touch items such as communal magazines
Work Stations
While the areas above have the highest probability for COVID-19 and other viruses and bacteria to spread, you also shouldn’t ignore employee workstations. The opportunity for harmful viruses such as COVID-19 and bacteria to spread can be high in these areas as well. Items that should be disinfected here include:
- Telephones
- Keyboards
- Mice
- Desk surfaces
- Drawers and handles
- Chairs
- Computers/tablets
- Trash and recycling bins
General Areas
Finally, don’t ignore other general areas of the office, including conference rooms. Items that need to be disinfected here include:
- Door handles
- Tables
- Chairs
- Telephones
- Audio-visual equipment
- Any coffee pots or drink stations
- Cups (if re-usable)
- Refrigerators/freezers
In addition to the items listed above, an office environment with clean air is essential. You can take care of this by changing the filters in your HVAC system regularly. There are also safe and effective products that can be sprayed into the air to help remove harmful particles such as the COVID-19 virus that can linger in the air.
What Supplies Will You Need?
Now that you have a checklist of all the areas of the office that need to be disinfected, you can make yourself a checklist of the supplies you’ll need to accomplish the task. You or your commercial cleaning service should go through this supplies checklist before the disinfecting begins to ensure everything needed is already in place. If it’s not, then these items should be acquired before the cleaning begins.
The supplies that you’ll need to properly disinfect the office include:
- Color coded microfiber towels to prevent cross-contamination
- Disinfectant products for surfaces and floors
- Safety gloves to protect cleaners’ hands and prevent the spread of harmful bacteria/COVID-19
- Ventilation masks (if necessary)
- Mops and buckets for floors
- Buckets to place cloths/wipes in after they’ve been used
- Disposable paper towel
- Disposable disinfectant wipes
- Pen, paper, or digital means to record the disinfecting that was done
How Often to Disinfect the Office
As you may have guessed, high-risk areas and high-contact surfaces in your office should be disinfected daily. There shouldn’t be a day that goes by when the restrooms aren’t cleaned and properly disinfected. Typically speaking, it’s best to take care of this at the end of every day when the majority of people who frequent the office have left.
Another wise move is asking your employees to disinfect their workstations before they leave every day. Provide your employees with disinfecting wipes, and have them simply wipe down all the major surfaces and high-touch areas of their workstations. By simply wiping their phones, computers/devices, mice, keyboards, desk surfaces, and handles before they leave, you can significantly decrease the likelihood that harmful viruses or bacteria can spread.
How Should You Prep the Office to Be Disinfected?
Of course, the easier route is to hire a commercial cleaning service to do the work for you. However, if you’re in a crunch and need to take care of the office on your own, a little bit of preparation is needed!
First, it’s always a good idea to block off areas when you are disinfecting them. This is especially true when you are mopping any area. When blocking off an area for cleaning, always remember to put up “wet floor” signs immediately if you will be mopping the area. By doing so, not only will the entire process be completed much more effectively and efficiently, but you’ll also reduce the risk of injuries (for example, a slip and fall).
Another great idea, if possible, is to open the windows when you’re cleaning with any harsh chemicals. Depending on the office and the weather outside–open as many windows as possible when you’re disinfecting the office. This helps to ventilate the air, bringing in fresh air from outside and allowing any impure air from inside to escape. Opening the windows also helps to reduce the smell of disinfectant products, though a reputable commercial cleaning company should be using products that are effective but not harsh.
Other Thoughtful Tips for Keeping Your Office Clean
In an ideal world, keeping your office clean and sparkling would be as simple as having a checklist at hand. However, in the real world, we know that logistics can sometimes get in the way!
- Keep your cleaning supplies in one place so that your team can inform you when inventory is low. If you are supplying things like disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer, the last thing you want to do is run out in the middle of cold and flu season. To combat this, keep all your disinfecting supplies in one common area place. You can then hang a sheet nearby to track inventory when employees check out supplies. Make it a group effort to keep track of how much of each item you have left so that you can restock before you run completely out!
- Make cleaning convenient for your employees. Let’s face it: more people are more likely to do the right thing when it is convenient. For this reason, it’s always wise to make it easy for employees to keep common areas tidy. One little thing that you can do is place sanitizing wipes on tables where employees have lunch. Remind them to wipe down their area after each use to prevent the spread of germs.
- Keep track of when things have been cleaned. If you’re the owner of a small startup and you can’t quite afford to hire a commercial cleaning service to visit every night, then it’s okay! Your employees should understand. But it’s still important to make sure that the office is safe and clean. One smart idea is to create a dated checklist where employees can initial once a task has been completed. You can list tasks here such as taking out the recycling bin or sweeping the kitchen.
Get Ahead of Cold & Flu Season with 360clean
As cold and flu season approaches, we hope this office disinfection checklist helps keep you and your employees safe and healthy! Even before COVID-19 arrived–and long after the pandemic has ended–proper disinfecting has always been the key to stopping the spread of harmful bacteria and viruses. However, we know that accomplishing this daunting task can be a lot to take on all alone. And that’s where 360clean can help.
Ensuring that your commercial cleaning service is consistently and adequately disinfecting your office isn’t just good for employees’ physical health; it gives them a mental boost, too, knowing you have their safety in mind. If you’re ready to get ahead of cold and flu season, contact our team at 360clean today for a free individualized quote! We can’t wait to help you make your office a cleaner and happier place.