All Pro Cleaning Systems sends cleaning crews to all sorts of properties. We clean offices, medical buildings, retail outlets, restaurants in bars, and even industrial and manufacturing spaces. While each property’s cleaning needs are somewhat different, every property has something in common: tidying up at the end of the day can make an enormous difference in business cleaning.
Tidying up is the practice of on-site workers tidying up their workspace at the end of the shift. In an office environment, this might mean straightening up one’s desk and making sure all trash is in the proper receptacle. In a machine shop, tidying up could mean emptying metal waste bins and damp mopping the floor around one’s immediate work area.
The core concept of tidying up should be easy enough to understand. Each worker taking a few minutes at the end of the day to get things in order makes life easier on the cleaning crews who will come in behind them.
Why It’s Worth Implementing
A workplace without a policy for daily tidying would do well to consider implementing such a policy. There are definite benefits to doing so. Here are just some of them:
- Tidying up prevents clutter accumulation.
- It reduces stress among employees and management.
- It promotes a ‘keep it clean’ mindset.
- It makes after-hours cleaning easier.
- It eliminates the need for cleaning crews to handle such basic tasks.
A typical cleaning crew has its plate full with tasks like cleaning and sanitizing bathrooms and vacuuming carpets. If they don’t have to spend time straightening desks and addressing clutter, they can concentrate on more important things.
Tidying Up: Key Principles
It should be fairly easy to implement a tidying policy for most businesses. Remember that business cleaning is all about making sure that the work environment stays as clean and clutter-free as possible. When spaces involve public-facing operations, cleanliness plays a significant role in making sure that guests have a positive experience.
Here are the key principles of tidying up:
- Immediate Action – Training employees to take immediate action is a good idea. For example, items no longer being used should be put away as soon as employees are done with them. As soon as a piece of trash is identified, someone should immediately pick it up and throw it in the waste bin.
- Room-by-room Strategy – Daily tidying at the end of the day could benefit from a room-by-room strategy. Employees start with their own workspaces and then move together to common spaces, like break rooms and conference rooms.
- Tidying Techniques – Use the right techniques for each space. For instance, employees should wipe down kitchen counters with a microfiber cloth and an all-purpose cleaner after preparing food. That is the right technique for that particular surface.
- Time Considerations – Daily tidying up is not the same thing as nightly cleaning. To help employees distinguish between what they should do as opposed to what is left for cleaning crews, establish time considerations. Perhaps anything that takes longer than 5-10 minutes is a cleaning crew task.
The long-term impact on daily tidying is quite noticeable in most facilities. Whether it’s a medical office, retail space, or multi-floor office environment, tidying up on a daily basis reduces the overall time spent on cleaning and maintenance. Cleaning crews can concentrate on what matters most while the company actually spends less on professional cleaning services.
Convincing employees to tidy up at the end of the day can be difficult if they aren’t doing it already. But implementing a daily tidying policy is well worth it. Consider trying it.
