A clean office is a happy office, but how do you keep your team happy and save money? Just a few small changes in the office can really make a difference to the ongoing cleaning costs.

Office cleaning is a necessary part of running a business, but it can be incredibly expensive if you don’t know how to keep the day-to-day costs down. As your company grows it becomes even more difficult to keep up with the cost of cleaning.

At Solutions Services Ltd, we understand the need for our clients to stick to a budget, and as a specialised commercial cleaning company, we are frequently asked how to reduce day-to-day spending on cleaning in the office. Your cleaner is an excellent person to ask where they could save time as they do the job regularly but here are some general tips:

1. 1. Cleaning your office regularly: Will help to reduce illness in the workplace and make your office an attractive place to be. Whilst it may be tempting to have only a once or twice a week clean, in between times dirt, dust, stains are building up. It will take less time to keep on top of the cleaning regularly than it will to constantly bring the workplace up to standard on infrequent cleans.

1. 1. Cleanliness reduces sickness: Bacteria thrive in office environments because people spend so much of the day there. Whilst you may spend a little extra on more regular cleaning, keeping your workplace clean will reduce employee sickness and therefore reduce lost workdays, in turn saving money. Adding a tub of anti-bacterial wipes to each worker’s desk (we can provide these) is an outlay to begin but this will reduce absenteeism due to colds and stomach bugs going around the workplace and your cleaner will need less time to clean desks.

1. 1. Introduce a central bin system: Instead of individual desk bins have one recycle and one general rubbish bin per 4 desks or even per room. This not only reduces the amount of time your cleaner spends emptying bins but will use less bin liners – better for the budget and environment.

1. 1. Reduce Washing Up: Washing up is a very time-consuming job – experience has shown that if staff are absolved of responsibility for returning and washing their own items the amount of work for the cleaner increases. Do you really want your cleaner spending large amounts of their time at the sink? Bring in a housekeeping policy that your staff wash their own – or even better buy a dishwasher. Running a full dishwasher on economy wash has been shown to be more hygienic, less time consuming and use less energy than repeatedly running hot water to wash items by hand.

1. 1. Keep It Tidy: It’s understandable employees want to make their desk their own with personal belongings, ornaments and pictures but these items collect dust and it can become difficult for a cleaner to do their job. A cleaner won’t have time to clean these items or individually move them to clean the surrounding area. So ask employees to keep personal clutter to a minimum.

1. 1. Clean desk policy: Employees often get snowed under with work and leave paperwork and other items out on desks ready to start again later. Employ a clear desk policy by setting a day that once-a-week employees clear their desk from the day-to-day clutter, remove or tidy paperwork and return stationary to pots and drawers, so that your cleaner can come along on a specified day and quickly clean and sanitise the area.

1. 1. Use storage where possible: Reduce other office clutter if there is space available within your office furniture design, then consider adding extra storage areas for things like files or paperwork so that cleaners can easily wipe down clear surfaces.

1. 1. Use a centralised break area: When taking breaks rather than snacking and eating at their desks encourage staff to use a specific break area. Not only does this increase your staff’s productivity, as they feel that they have had a break away from their work, it is also far easier and quicker for your cleaner to remove food debris and spillages etc from one central area than from under and on multiple workstations.

1. Speak To Your Neighbours: Due to costs in travel and other overheads, a cleaning company will usually have a minimum cleaning site visit time. If you require less time on regular visits why not team up with your neighbours to make it worthwhile to the contractor, the more hours next to each other the better the price.

Get in touch today to discuss your cleaning requirements and request a free no-obligation quote.