January 26, 2022

How to Keep Your Office Clean and Safe in Post-pandemic Times

After months of remote work, it’s crucial to make the back-to-office adaptation as safe for your employees as possible. If, before the pandemic, we used to explain the need to keep our offices clean with productivity and first-impression arguments, COVID-19 shifted priorities to safety concerns. Whether you hire a professional office cleaning service or clean your office on your own, you should adjust your office cleaning checklist to coronavirus-proof your office. White Glove Cleaner explains how proper cleaning and disinfecting helps soothe your employees’ natural health concerns and create a safe workspace.     

What’s Different About Office Cleaning Now?

Office cleaning is no longer about just bathroom sanitizing, dusting, and vacuuming. Today, we need to pay more attention to disinfecting. Unlike cleaning and sanitizing, which help remove dirt and lower the number of germs, disinfecting is aimed at killing germs and stopping their spread.

Even though the risk of getting infected from touching a surface is low if a person washes their hands with soap or uses a hand sanitizer, you can never guarantee that your office workers will be diligent in their personal hygiene. That is why keeping high-traffic and high-touch office areas cleaned and disinfected daily helps create a safe and healthy working environment.

What Office Areas Require More Diligent Cleaning and Disinfection? 

Coronavirus infection doesn’t spread evenly throughout the office. Some places are more prone to accumulating viruses. Your focus must be on:

• High-risk areas 

Here belong high-traffic and poorly ventilated areas, zones where people with increased risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness work or where washing hands or using a hand sanitizer is impossible.

• High-touch items  

First of all, these are handrails, doorknobs, light switches, handles, counters, desks, tables, and high-touch office equipment (keyboards, phones, sensor panels, smartphones, tablets, etc.). 

Tips on how to clean and disinfect your office during the COVID-19 pandemic   

1. Take care of air quality.

Coronavirus is an airborne infection that effortlessly spreads in enclosed and crowded areas, so air purity is key to maintaining a healthy working environment. Open windows frequently to let the healthy air in and ensure your HVAC works properly and provides good air circulation. If your office space allows, increase the distance between your office desks to prevent crowding. Also, adding succulents to your office is a cool idea! They’re not only great for decoration, but they also help clean the air, making your workspace feel fresh and lively.     

2. Clean office at least once a day.

Daily cleaning is effective enough to prevent infection from spreading in your office. It must include dusting, vacuuming the floors, carpets and furniture, mopping, sanitizing hard surfaces, and ventilating workspaces. However, if you have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases in your office, careful daily disinfection must take place.

3. Clean surfaces before applying a disinfectant. 

If the product label doesn’t say that this product is suitable for both cleaning and disinfecting, clean the surface with another product (soap or detergent) and then move on to disinfecting. This way, you increase the disinfection effectiveness. Remember that disinfecting must be an add-on to your office cleaning routine, not its substitution.  

4. Use EPA-approved disinfectants.

Not all cleaning products have good disinfecting properties. Instead of trusting marketing, opt for disinfectants from the EPA’s List N. If you don’t have access to products from this list, you can use a bleach solution, but only if it is safe for this particular kind of surface. 

5. Make cleaning safe

This may sound contradictory as we clean to stay safe. However, the use of cleaning and disinfecting products can also expose us to some health risks, and your staff must be aware of them. Train your personnel in the following safety precautions while cleaning: 

• Don’t involve people diagnosed with asthma in cleaning and disinfecting, as some products can trigger the attack. 

• Ensure that your personnel reads the instruction, uses protective gloves and glasses, and keep areas well-ventilated (for example, keep the window open) during cleaning.

• Never mix two or more disinfectants because the chemical reaction can release toxic fumes that can harm your health or cause corrosion of the surface you clean. Whatever the popular bloggers recommend, it’s always better to stay on the safe side and follow the product instruction.   

• Avoid using chemical cleaning products as sanitizers on human or pet skin. 

• After removing the protective gloves, wash your hands with soap or use a hand sanitizer (better alcohol-based).

6. Follow the instruction carefully

It is important not only for your safety but also for the sake of effectiveness. For example, some product labels may indicate that after applying the disinfectant, you should keep the surface wet for some time to boost the disinfecting effect. 

Office cleaning in New York can be very time-consuming and distract your staff from working on what really matters to your business. So if keeping your office clean and healthy takes too much effort, think about hiring professionals.