The three office areas that need the most cleaning attention

When it comes to facilities management, cleaning is an essential part of creating a healthy environment for all employees. For starters, as an employer, you have a legal obligation to provide a clean and safe work space for all of your members of staff. Further to this, a clean space shows that you care about your staff and that their welfare is important to you. This is a great motivator for your team – employees care about a business that cares for them. Lastly, it’s a great way to present your work space. Presentation matters and a clean space will impress all visitors, clients and customers that may visit your premises.

With this in mind, it goes without saying that regular cleaning is the best way to maintain health and hygiene standards. Wherever people go, we tend to bring mess with us, and our workspaces are no exception. The entire workspace needs to be cleaned on a regular basis however there are certain areas that require more attention than others – the dirtiest areas in the office (cue dramatic music).

Below, you’ll find the three office areas that need the most cleaning attention:

1. High Traffic Areas

These are the most obvious areas in the office that need regular attention. The reason being is they have a high number of people moving through them on a regular basis and multiple touch points. What this means is that as people come and go about their business, they are touching multiple surfaces and bringing germs and other unfriendly substances along with them. The two most obvious high traffic areas are:

– The Kitchen.

– The Bathroom.

These two spaces are where people eat and take care of other forms of business, so there are obvious reasons for the importance of cleaning. One area to concentrate on in both of these areas are the taps and sink. These may be where people wash their hands, but they touch the taps with the same dirty hands first.

Sinks are unhygienic too as even though they may get washed with water, many bacteria can still be left behind.

It’s important that daily sanitation, with safe products, is undertaken everyday.

2. Work Areas

Our spaces, like our desks, are where we spend most of our time over the work day. This is why these areas get so dirty. Did you know that your desk can be home to nearly 400 times more bacteria than a toilet seat?

Might be time to rethink where you eat your lunch!

You will be relieved to know that most of this will be found on your phone (yes, that thing you hold against your face for extended periods of time) however there are other locations that are quite concentrated as well, like your keyboard and mouse.

It’s important that these are cleaned regularly. It can be helpful to provide cleaning products so your staff can clean their desks themselves.

3. Unnoticed Areas

One of the biggest contributors to poor cleanliness is the areas that miss and go unnoticed. These are the less obvious spots that build bacteria purely because they go unnoticed. The main culprits in this area are:

– Lights, lamps and fixtures.

– Power outlets.

– Blinds, curtains and window fixtures.

– Phones and headsets.

– Air conditioning systems.

– Microwaves and fridges.

These areas, if left unclean, can have a large build up of bacteria, dirt,and other matter that can make an office unhygienic.

Phones and headsets should be wiped down regularly with antibacterial spray or wipes. We don’t think we need to remind you just how dirty these areas can get.

Air Conditioning systems and their ducts are terrible for collecting dust. This can build up over time so make sure they are dusted regularly.

One of the most common things that can happen in offices is people warming up their food, accidently making a mess, and not cleaning the microwave. If this is left to build up over time, this can lead to the presence of a number of harmful bacteria. A similar issue can occur in fridges if they are not cleaned regularly.

To make sure these areas are cleaned regularly, put a cleaning checklist in place.

Final Thoughts

Maintaining office cleanliness is incredibly important, so make sure you stay on top of these areas. Your staff will appreciate it more than you know.