What Is a Cleaning Checklist?
Staff use a cleaning validation checklist as a companion guide for removing any chemical, bacterial, or otherwise harmful residue that lingers on contaminated surfaces. Within the manufacturing setting, cleaning validation procedures serve as a failsafe to contaminating products via manufacturing equipment.
Office, industrial, and commercial spaces should make a neat and clean impression every time someone walks through the door, whether that be an employee, employer, or customer. This is important not only for a productive and healthy working atmosphere but also to leave a positive impression on customers.
Professional cleaners are subject to strict hygiene and quality standards, which they must adhere to. A cleaning checklist will assist and remind you of the daily cleaning tasks that need to be completed. Only special procedures and cleaning routines can achieve the cleanliness that is required by a professional cleaning company.
This article deals with the following topics:
1. What you’ll find on a cleaning checklist
2. Why you need a cleaning checklist?
3. 3 advantages of a deep cleaning checklist
4. A digital tool will digitize your cleaning checklist
What Does a Cleaning Checklist Include?
Have you ever wondered what a professional office cleaning looks like? What’s so special about paying a secondary service to mop the floors when you can get your employees to do it? There are a few key differences, namely the professionals have the supplies, equipment, personnel, and knowledge on how to go about removing their harmful cleaning chemicals from heavily-used surfaces or removing streaks from a window so visibility is not impaired. After all, they do it eight hours every day, day in and day out, five days a week—they know the tricks of their trade.
A professional office cleaning includes the initial basic cleaning of the premises. From there, a maintenance cleaning and special floor cleaning are carried out. So that cleaning can be accomplished at the correct time intervals, using a checklist as a guide will guarantee no task is left unfinished.
It does not matter whether it is cleaning kits, law firms, offices, or private homes. The basic procedure is the same. Depending on the application, premises, and floors, professional cleaners will adapt to a location’s specific needs. The following is a list of the tasks involved in basic cleaning.
Cleaning Checklist for Tasks
- Cleaning all floors
- Dust mopping on all surfaces
- Disinfection of all areas
- Thorough window cleaning
- Emptying trash cans
- Cleaning the kitchen
- Cleaning unsanitary areas
On the other hand, depending on the area you will be working in, these are the items you should implement in your cleaning checklist:
Daily Office Cleaning Checklist
- Make sure all trash cans are emptied.
- Vacuum clean all carpet.
- Dust all horizontal surfaces. Include chairs, windowsills, and file drawers.
- Wipe coffee rings and sticky substances from surfaces.
- Clean all telephones.
- Dust, mop, and sanitize all hard surfaces and floors.
- Wipe entryways clean to remove fingerprints.
- Spot clean glass partitions.
- Follow up with an inspection to make sure you did not miss anything.
Restroom Cleaning Checklist
- Make sure the office restroom has hand soap, tissues, and clean towels.
- Empty and disinfect all sanitary bins.
- Clean and polish all mirrors.
- Sanitize urinals and toilets.
- Disinfect toilet seats and covers.
- Scour and sanitize washbasins.
- Wipe splash marks from walls.
- Mop and disinfect restroom floors.
Lunch Break Cleaning Checklist
These are cleaning tasks the maintenance staff must repeat during lunch break.
- Mop the dining room and kitchen floors.
- Empty trash cans.
- Wipe countertops, desks, and tables.
- Clean fridges, microwaves, coffee machines, and all kitchen equipment.
- Clean up the coffee machine.
- Replenish utensils, drinking glasses, mugs, and napkins.
Weekly Cleaning Checklists
These are cleaning activities that can’t be done daily; that’s why these must be scheduled weekly.
- Perform deep cleaning.
- Clean inside cabinets.
- Clean floors and apply wax.
- Clean all areas not covered by your daily cleaning checklist.
Monthly Cleaning Checklist
Monthly cleaning must be thorough. It is done to clean all hard surfaces and apply a new finish if necessary.
- Clean and maintain the surface under carpets.
- Wipe door frames, handles, and switches to remove fingerprints.
- Vacuum all upholstered furniture.
Why You Need a Cleaning Checklist?
The bare minimum of office cleaning is not enough to keep germs, bacteria, and viruses away. Your checklist must involve more than just taking out the trash, vacuuming the floors, and wiping desks.
There are more benefits deep cleaning can offer beyond the removal of microbes. This is why the advantages of office cleaning activities far outweigh the costs. Let’s enumerate some of the profound benefits of a cleaning checklist.
1. Proper Cleaning Contributes to Employee Health and Safety
The health and safety of your employees are of utmost importance. This is the most important benefit you can get from a deep cleaning checklist. When done correctly, office cleaning can eliminate invisible germs, bacteria, bugs, and viruses. Cleaning without the guide of a checklist may make your office look clean. But weekly cleaning checklists ensure that you cover all areas. It makes a substantial difference in your employees’ health.
2. A Thoroughly Clean Office Enhances Productivity
A clean office reduces the risk of employees contracting a disease. A cleaning checklist, therefore, helps minimize sick leaves. Keeping the workplace immaculately clean decreases sick days by 12.5%, according to a study from the University of Norway.
In the U.S., absenteeism due to sickness and health risks costs employers about $2 billion per year. Investing in deep cleaning activities can have a great return on investment (ROI).
3. A Cleaner Office Encourages Employees to Keep Everything Clean
Setting the tone early will make your employees follow suit. You can set cleanliness guidelines, but it is not enough to keep cleanliness ingrained in your employees’ minds. Make it easy for them to keep everything clean by providing anti-bacterial wipes, disinfectants, and antiseptics. These things cost small, but they come with huge benefits.
4. Regular Cleaning Helps Uncover Sanitation Problems
There could be sanitation and health risks that your cleaning staff can discover during the process of deep cleaning. They could find foul smells from the vents and find out what causes them. If there are water stains on the floor, they could check the possible reasons and find a remedy.
5. A Pristine Office Improves Your Brand Image
An untidy office will leave a negative impression on your guests. Effective weekly cleaning checklists will get rid of stains on carpets and floors. So, if you want to keep a positive brand image, you need to make sure your checklist covers all areas in the workplace, especially the ones where guests and clients will stay.
6. It’s Long-Term Cost-Effective
Performing deep cleaning can cost money, but it is a cost-effective investment. And it’s not just because it prevents sickness. It also can prevent damage to your furniture and upholstery. Your furniture will last longer and will look as good as new for a more extended period.
7. Scheduled Deep Cleaning Frees Up Storage Space
A frequent deep cleaning helps get rid of unwanted items lying around in your worksite. Emptying your drawers of unnecessary things means you can use them to store something that is more valuable to your business.
De-clutter, shred and get rid of everything that you don’t need or want. If one item doesn’t work, the cleaning staff can label them for repair. This is true about all items, including equipment, furniture, supplies, and more.
What Are 3 Advantages of Using a Cleaning Checklist?
1. Comprehensive Documentation
With a cleaning checklist, you can work with your team to structure the who, what, when, where, why, and how you’ll complete a cleaning task. Staff will have the right cleaning product or procedure ready for any challenge thanks to extensive reports and documentation of previous cleanings.
2. Reliable & Qualitative Cleaning Procedures
With a cleaning checklist, you’ll perform standardized cleanings. Problems and cleaning deficiencies can be identified more quickly. This makes it easier to see the high quality of cleaning that you and your team will be represented by.
3. An Optimized Workflow
You’ll continually optimize your workflow with digital cleaning checklists. With Lumiform, your inspection flow is completely dynamic, not static like pen and paper. The Lumi-Flow allows you to continuously create new checklists, change individual cleaning orchestrations, add new logic, assign tasks on the fly, and continuously adjust and optimize your quality standards.
A Digital Tool Digitizes Your Cleaning Checklist
With a digital app, you perform daily cleaning tasks in a systematic and well-organized way. You can report issues immediately through the app and assign corrective actions directly to the responsible colleagues. The checkpoints on your cleaning checklist can be easily digitized. The software then guides you step by step through the cleaning process. This ensures that you no longer forget any areas and that quality and cleanliness are constantly optimized.
After each completed cleaning, you will receive a comprehensive final report about all weak points or problems that could not be solved. This way, you and your team can fix specific errors and efficiently reach the desired result.
- Increase the efficiency of your internal processes: Solve incidents up to 4x faster than before through more efficient communication within the team, third parties, and management to gain faster incident reporting.
- Continuous improvement of quality and safety: With the flexible checklist construction kit, you can continuously optimize internal checks. The Lumiform app guides you and your employees through the inspection. No training required.
- All results, images, and comments are automatically bundled in a digital report.
- The flexible checklist builder from Lumiform helps you to convert any individual paper list into a digital checklist without much effort.
Try Lumiform for free
