It's winter, in the midst of a pandemic, and many of us are stuck at home. It's the perfect time to tackle a few cleaning projects. But before we pick up our mops and brooms, there's a few pieces of information Reader's Digest would like to impart — specifically about our tidying-up habits.
Are you guilty of these housekeeping mistakes?
Click here to reveal 5 cleaning mistakes you don't even know you're making
Businesses are looking at every penny spent and minimizing the amount they are willing to spend on cleaning and disinfecting their facilities. That mentality that not only affects their image, but the health and welfare of their employees. Sick employees aren't nearly as productive as well employees, and increases in absenteeism definitely impacts the productivity in any work environment.
It is also short sighted to think that cutting back on the frequency of cleanings is the answer! Reducing the weekly cleanings from 5 nights to 3 nights won't work if nobody is doing anything in between those visits. That only results in the professional cleaning company having to charge more per each of the three weekly visits than they were charging per each of the five weekly visits. To say nothing of the overall drop in the facility appearance after the nights when nobody touched the toilets, sinks, or restocked the toilet paper and paper towels.
Building managers can be reluctant to have us clean the windows, but want everything else to look pristine, which is kind of like wrapping a diamond ring in used meat cellophane! Drive up to a building and notice the windows........all it takes is some inclement weather combined with a road construction project in the area to ruin the first impression of a building! And it may indicate that the business isn't as successful as they would have you think.
So what can be done to cut costs and yet maintain the clean and professional appearance? Coming up in the next few weeks I will share how we "partner" with our customers to save them money!
What can be done to cut costs and yet maintain a clean and professional appearance at your facility? Here's the first of five tips we'd like to share based on our experience of over 33 years in the janitorial business.
Time equals money. Reduce the time a cleaning service spends in your facility by asking what you and your employees can handle doing yourselves! Dusting each employee's personal space, especially with an abundance of nick knacks, family photos, etc., is very time consuming. If each employee is responsible for their own desktop and furnishings in their "space", more time can be allotted for tasks that are best left to the pros. And to be honest, cleaning people are always uncomfortable when touching people's mementos, photos, etc., afraid they will either break something, or be accused of breaking something that they didn't!!
Ask for two of the five nightly cleanings to be "touch up" nights, meaning that only the most necessary tasks are scheduled.. For instance, the restrooms could be cleaned and restocked, while throughout the rest of the facility the trash would only be removed where necessary, carpet would be vacuumed only where necessary, and hard floor surfaces would only be "touched up", to remove coffee spills or food messes. If customers visit your facility each day, then customer areas would be of primary concern on those two "touch up" nights. Be prepared, however, to pay a small surcharge during snow days when touching up the floors and carpet may no longer apply!
This is a short one: When it comes to having your windows washed and saving money, consider having just the exterior of the windows washed twice a year and add the interior of the windows once a year or when they become unsightly.
If your budget is tight but your carpet is stained with footprints, coffee, food, or just generally looks dingy, consider having just the "high traffic" areas (main walkways) cleaned twice a year. Then, prioritize those areas where your customers will spend most of their time in your facility, and schedule those areas as your budget permits.
If your facility has the standard 12" square vinyl composite tile (VCT), contrary to what many companies will tell you, you don't have to pay for the more expensive per square footage price of "stripping and waxing" more than once initially, and then thereafter only if the wax becomes damaged and cannot be restored. Instead, tile can look really great with occasional machine scrubbing and the addition of another coat of wax to restore the shine, which is an option that costs less per square foot.
Simply machine scrubbing ceramic tile can make quite a difference in restrooms and entrances, and again, it's an inexpensive way to clean up! Having ceramic tile cleaned while we are in your facility doing other floor work will save you money since we can do that work while waiting for wax to dry on the tile.
Just remember that mopping a floor regularly will never get the ground-in dirt off the floor, especially if the cleaning staff is using dirty water! Machine scrubbing will need to be a part of the regular maintenance in any event.
