Facility maintenance has always been a priority for building owners and landlords, but COVID-19 has intensified a focus on building cleanliness. While building visitors can take steps to do their part by using hand sanitizers or disinfecting wipes, sometimes a more thorough deep clean needs to be done. These are some of the steps you should take when deep cleaning an office.
Disinfect and Declutter
Before getting into the deep cleaning, it’s important to do as much surface disinfecting as possible. While personalization of office space is a great way to show individuality and add a homey feel to a rather institutionalized landscape, knickknacks are a great place for germs to land. According to research done at MIT, droplets from sneezes can travel 23 to 27 feet from the source. Now imagine someone sneezes in your office. What kinds of surfaces are now covered in germs? Clutter-free workspaces may be easy to clean with a simple wipedown, but those covered with office supplies, papers, or knickknacks may play host to many unseen, but possibly harmful germs.
Start with High Touch Areas and Revisit Often
Not all areas of a building will have the same level of germy dirt and grime. While it may have been months since anyone has even opened certain cabinets or cupboards, it’s likely that stair railings, elevator buttons, or door handles have been touched multiple times a day. It’s important to pay special attention to the most touched areas when performing a deep clean, but ironically these can be some of the most difficult to remember spaces because we often take them for granted.
High-touch areas to remember to clean:
- Light switches
- Doorknobs (don’t forget both sides!)
- Railings
- Elevator buttons
- Doorbells/Buzzer
- Keyboards
- Computer Mouse
- Watercooler
- Kitchen appliance handles/buttons
- Office machinery (printer, scanners, etc)
- Pens, pencils, styluses
- Countertops
Consider Contactless Options
If you’ve been considering some contactless options for your building, now may be the perfect time. For example, using a lighting setup that relies on motion detection rather than flipping a light switch can reduce both energy waste and the need to touch a light switch while adding an extra layer of security to your building. Additionally, installing automatic doors can assist customers or employees with mobility issues while also serving as another way to reduce high-touch contact points. Many automatic solutions are not a great fit for residential applications, but can be relatively low cost ways to improve commercial spaces.
Hire a Pro
When most people think of deep cleaning, they imagine moving the furniture, hand-scrubbing floors, or even steaming upholstery, and yes, these are great deep cleaning tactics in a home. Offices, however, are different. In addition to different kinds of material and different challenges (hello, expensive electronics!), the volume of people coming through an office or commercial space can pose it’s own challenges. Should you assume Sally in Accounting is going to properly clean and disinfect her areas as well as Jim in H.R.? As a building owner or manager, it’s important to be sure your space is properly deep cleaned and disinfected for the safety of your employees and guests. This makes disinfectant services a must-have to fully protect and disinfect your space. Professionals like those at PurePro One use electrostatically-applied hospital grade disinfectants to cleanse and sanitize every nook and cranny of your building.
Ready to learn more about the disinfectant services offered by PurePro One? Check out our online store to purchase a disinfectant service for your commercial building. Have a space larger than 100,000 square feet? Contact us today for a customized quote!