In short: Spaces that are used daily, such as an office, should get cleaned every working night. Trash, restrooms and high-touch surfaces get cleaned each visit. Offices that are small or not heavily used can often get by with two or three nights a week. Busy office buildings add a day porter during business hours. Carpet extraction and floor refinishing happen on their own schedule, anywhere from monthly to twice a year. RCO Cleaning will schedule your office after a free walkthrough of the space: (248) 849-0000.
The correct answer will vary depending on the volume of people using the space, what they are using it for and outside traffic. Below is a sample planner to get you started; continue reading for tips to customize it.
Build your office cleaning schedule
Office, steady
Start with 5 nights a week
A typical starting point. The free walkthrough sets the real schedule.
Every visit
- Empty trash and recycling
- Clean and restock restrooms
- Wipe kitchen counters, sinks and appliance fronts
- Vacuum walkways and spot-clean carpet
- Wipe door handles, switches and shared desks
Weekly
- Dust reachable ledges and partitions
- Mop hard floors edge to edge
- Clean interior glass and entrance doors
Monthly
- High dusting: vents, tops of cabinets, frames
- Detail baseboards and chair bases
- Wipe walls around switches and kitchen backsplashes
Quarterly
- Carpet extraction in traffic lanes
- Scrub and recoat hard floors
- Exterior window cleaning
The kitchen fridge at work belongs to everyone. We scrub the outside; the science fair projects on the inside are a team decision.
Get a free walkthroughThe planner gets you started. Every building has its idiosyncrasies. A lobby facing the parking lot. A break room shared by three tenants. A training room that sits empty all week and is packed on Thursdays. That's where a walkthrough comes in.
What decides how often an office is cleaned?
Headcount
Higher occupancy results in more garbage, restroom use and fingerprints on door handles. Occupancy typically trumps square footage.
Hours of use
An office that runs 8 to 5 will need one nightly cleaning. A building that has shift workers, or is open evenings and weekends, will need cleanings in between.
Visitors
Lobbies, waiting rooms and showrooms are evaluated by non-employees. Therefore they get cleaned more frequently than back offices do.
Food
Kitchens and break rooms drive the schedule. EPA's guide for office occupants states trash receptacles should be emptied daily to reduce odors and biological contamination.
Season
Michigan winters bring salt, slush and dirt through every doorway. That means entrance floors and mats require extra care until spring.
What the space is for
Doctors' offices and day care rooms often have their own cleaning and disinfecting guidelines. They also require more frequent cleanings.
Typical office cleaning schedules by building type
| Building | Routine cleaning | Often added |
|---|---|---|
| Small office, light use | Light janitorial service 2 or 3 nights per week, with restrooms and trash handled every visit | A monthly detail clean |
| Full-time office | 5 nights a week | Weekly detail dusting, and floor and carpet care on a cycle |
| Multi-tenant building | Common areas nightly; suites as each lease says | A day porter for the lobby, restrooms and elevators |
| Medical or dental office | Every night, with disinfection of restroom and high-touch surfaces | More where the practice's own protocols require it |
| Showroom or dealership | Nightly | Daytime touch-ups of glass, restrooms and the customer lounge |
| School or daycare | Every day classes are held | Daily cleaning and sanitization of all frequently touched surfaces per CDC guidelines. |
Square footage can be a terrible metric to follow. A spare suite of private offices and a bustling open-plan sales floor can be the exact same size, but require totally different schedules. That's because the sales floor will go through trash, restrooms and break room much faster. That's why a reputable cleaning company will ask how many people use the space, and when, before it recommends how many nights.
The deeper cleaning calendar
Every night
Trash removed, restrooms and break rooms cleaned and restocked, frequently touched surfaces wiped down, traffic lanes vacuumed, hard surface floors mopped.
Every week
Detail dusting, interior glass, edges and under desks, trash bins washed.
Every month
Vents and high dusting, baseboards, upholstered chairs, burnishing in busy areas.
Every quarter
Entrance carpet deep cleaned (the Carpet and Rug Institute says that's the bare minimum for entrances), tile grout in bathrooms, outside windows.
Twice a year
Carpet throughout deep cleaned per CRI semi-annual recommendation. Scrub and recoat most hard floors.
Schedule the deep tasks within scope using a date rather than frequency. "Quarterly" will slip your mind; "the second week of January, April, July and October" will not. Tie your calendar to lease dates in a multi-tenant building so that you give common areas a deep clean before a new tenant's first day, not after.
Signs your office isn't cleaned often enough
Day porters: cleaning while you work
Day porters are cleaners who work on site during business hours. When there's a steady flow of people coming through a building, the porter stocks restrooms, cleans lobby and elevators, cleans up spills and makes sure entrance floors are dry so that the night crew isn't relied upon solely. OSHA's walking-working surfaces standard requires employers to keep floors clean, as dry as feasible and free of hazards such as spills, snow and ice; in a busy lobby during the month of January, that's a full time job. Retail centers employ porters throughout open hours, as demonstrated in our shopping mall cleaning guide.
And keep the definition of clean honest. CDC guidelines for offices and businesses recommend regular cleaning of high-touch surfaces and cleaning other surfaces as they become visibly dirty. A schedule where you get to the door handles twice a week is not keeping pace with the humans touching them.
Night cleaning or day cleaning?
Most offices get cleaned overnight after everyone goes home. The crew has exclusive access to the floors, the vacuums don't disrupt anyone's conversations, and the building is sparkling for the morning rush. Some buildings have shifted part of the cleaning into daytime hours: restrooms, break rooms and trash during the day, leaving only floor machines for the night. A visible crew tends to hear about little issues earlier, and correct them earlier. The downside is noise and tying up work areas, since carpet extraction shouldn't be happening next to someone's conference call.
Some fall in the middle: nighttime crew for the whole list and a day porter for peak times. Whatever you assign, list when each task should occur so day and night crews aren't both wiping down the same bathroom while the lobby glass collects dust.
Office cleaning frequency questions
Is cleaning five nights a week too much for a small office?
Frequently, yes. Twice or thrice per week works well for many light-use small offices, with restrooms and trash done on each visit. See the planner above to find out where your building falls.
Should office restrooms be cleaned every day?
If the office is used every day, yes. Restrooms and trash are the two things that don't get a pass, even if everything else does.
How often should office carpet be deep cleaned?
Vacuum traffic lanes daily. According to the Carpet and Rug Institute, you should deep clean twice a year and entrances once a quarter at minimum.
Do we need to be there when the crew cleans?
No. Night crews typically arrive after hours with keys or access cards and alarm codes that have been pre-agreed in the contract. They will leave the building locked up with the alarm set.
Can we change the schedule later?
You'll want to make sure that it does. Headcount and usage will change, and a schedule reviewed every few months stays the right size for your space.
Who can set up a nightly office cleaning schedule in Metro Detroit?
A commercial cleaning company that walks the building and asks about headcount and hours before throwing out a number of nights. RCO Cleaning will do that free walkthrough in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties and give you a quote within 24 hours: (248) 849-0000.
How RCO Cleaning sets an office cleaning schedule
RCO creates every office cleaning schedule based on a walkthrough of your building. We assess headcount, hours, visitors and floors, craft a cleaning system specific to that building and clean when it works for you: nights, weekends or holidays. The walkthrough is free, you'll have a quote within 24 hours, and the first deep clean is free.
Sources
- CDC: When and how to clean and disinfect a facility
- CDC: Everyday actions for schools to prevent and control the spread of transmissible infections
- EPA: An office building occupant's guide to indoor air quality
- Carpet and Rug Institute: How to extend the life of carpet in your facility
- OSHA: 29 CFR 1910.22, Walking-working surfaces, general requirements
Next guide
Many arguments between cleaners and clients over commercial cleaning supplies begin with a roll of paper towels. RCO Cleaning explains what your cleaning contract should say about supplies, and the chemical paperwork required by law.
