Keeping an office clean is essential when it comes to the productivity, health and wellbeing of your employees. In fact, numerous studies throughout recent years have linked a clean and hygienic workplace with boosted output rates and improved mental and physical health amongst attending employees.

With this in mind, in this article we’re going to give you a guideline as to what you should include in your office cleaning checklist, to ensure that your workplace is a positive and clean place where your employees feel welcome and inspired to create their best work.

Daily Cleaning Checklist

The best way to approach your office cleaning schedule is by splitting it out based on how often you’ll be doing each task. Generally, it’s best to come up with a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal or annual checklist – and we’ll be starting with the daily cleaning checklist here.

Firstly, it’s essential to ensure workstations are being cleaned daily. This includes simple tasks like dusting work surfaces, equipment and furniture, as well as sanitising these areas and cleaning screens.

Secondly, common areas should also be cleaned on a daily basis, so be sure to add this to your daily cleaning checklist. Tasks in this section would include cleaning and disinfecting each surface and piece of furniture in break rooms, kitchens and other communal areas in your office. Everyone in your office uses these rooms, and they are usually where employees go to relax during their downtime, so it’s essential that they’re clean and functional so that employees feel they have a space where they can unwind.

In addition, tackling toilets should be on your list of daily cleaning tasks. This means disinfecting all surfaces, cleaning all sinks and toilets, and doing regular checks on cubicle functionality and locks.

Finally, floors should be vacuumed ideally on a daily basis, especially if you have carpets in your office. This is because, especially when people eat at their desks, crumbs, dust and fluff gather in your carpet every day, which can affect allergy sufferers. That’s why cleaning or vacuuming your office floor on a daily basis is an important task to add to your daily cleaning checklist.

All of the above ensure that your office is as clean as possible, and that your employees have access to the functional and hygienic workspaces and facilities they need to be productive and healthy.

Weekly Cleaning Checklist

Next up, your weekly cleaning checklist is full of tasks which might take a little more time, or simply ones that don’t need to be done on a daily basis.

Firstly, it might be a good idea to do a more thorough, deeper cleaning of your floors on a weekly basis. This could entail washing or shampooing the floor – depending on the type of flooring you have and the cleaning instructions that came with it on installation.

Secondly, cleaning windows from the inside is another thing to add to your weekly cleaning checklist. This can be done easily without the need for any serious equipment, compared to cleaning the outside – especially if you’re in a tall building, where window cleaning can take a lot more effort. Cleaning the inside of your office’s windows weekly can help ensure that as much daylight can get through the windows as possible, which is known to boost employee productivity and mood.

You should also consider adding detailed dusting to your weekly cleaning checklist. This means dusting the tricky nooks and crannies which can often be missed or forgotten about altogether due to being harder to reach. These include light fixtures, air vents and higher shelves.

In addition, cleaning office furniture and upholstery is a task that should be done on a weekly basis. For example – unless you work in the medical or dental industries, where rules apply – doing a weekly clean of your waiting area and reception desk is a good way of keeping on top of your client-facing areas, so that you can make a good first impression to anyone visiting your office for the first time.

This is a great start for your weekly cleaning checklist – and it’s important to take a look at your office and see if there’s anything worth adding in.

Monthly Cleaning Checklist

Another important list to create – when it comes to maintaining your office – is your monthly cleaning checklist.

Generally, this will include the tasks that aren’t as pressing as the daily or weekly ones, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t as important.

To begin, deep sanitisation is an essential to add to your monthly cleaning checklist. This means sanitising all the high-touch areas which aren’t included in your daily and weekly cleaning, including handrails, bannisters, lift buttons and more.

Also, it’s important to keep an eye on the things in your office which could affect your interior air quality. This could range from cleaning air ducts and vents to changing any filters where needed. In turn, this will help ensure that the air your employees are breathing in your office is as clean and pure as possible, which really helps employees with allergies or respiratory conditions.

Finally, it’s a good idea to add general maintenance to your monthly cleaning checklist. Essentially, this means going around your office and looking at all systems, from furniture and equipment to plumbing and electrics. Doing so on a regular monthly basis means, if there are any issues, you can find and rectify them quickly. While this lies more on the maintenance side of things, it’s an essential step to add to your monthly checklist.

Seasonal or Annual Cleaning Checklist

The last cleaning checklist you need to create is the seasonal or annual one – depending on how you think you’ll need to do these tasks. This is based on a few different factors, including the size of your office and your budget, among others.

Firstly, it’s important to add exterior cleaning to your seasonal or annual cleaning checklist. This is where the window cleaning part comes into play – again depending on the nature of your office and the logistics of reaching your exterior windows. This is important, however, as it’ll help more natural light come through your windows, and if the view is appealing, this always helps boost employees’ moods.

Secondly, your seasonal or annual cleaning checklist should include specialised cleaning, which refers to a wide range of areas. For example, you might need your curtains or blinds cleaned or changed seasonally, depending on how often they’re touched or used. In addition, you might need your carpets deep cleaned on an annual basis, as this helps with durability and is therefore more cost-effective in the long run.

Also, pest control is an important thing to consider adding to your seasonal or annual cleaning checklist. Many people use pest control reactively, instead of using these services to do inspections before any infestation is obvious. This way – as is the case with regular maintenance of office systems – if there are any issues, they can be found and dealt with quickly. When it comes to pest control, this is imperative.

Naturally, depending on your office and your particular needs in terms of cleaning and maintenance, you will likely have more to add to your seasonal or annual cleaning checklist, but this is certainly a good place to start, regardless of your industry and circumstances.

Your Office Cleaning Checklists

So, you now have three foundational, time-based checklists in place to start putting into action to ensure your office is clean, keeping your employees happy, healthy and productive. These are a general guide for all offices, and can be chopped, changed and added to based on industry, company and preferences.

As we return to hybrid and on-site work following the Covid-19 pandemic, employees need increasing incentives to return to the office – and providing them with a hygienic and comfortable space to work in is certainly the way to go.