How often should you deep clean an office?

 No commercial cleaning service would be complete without an initial deep clean – but after that, they’re not necessary every week. In fact, you might not need to perform a deep clean of your office very often at all, especially if you’re moving to a hybrid system after coronavirus.

It’s still important to make sure your office does get a deep clean at certain intervals – at least to get into all the places that everyone forgets to clean! So, as a general rule, once every four to six months is a good schedule for an office deep clean, depending on how many people you have working there (and how grubby they make it!).

How to deep clean an office: step by step

It’s a big job – and one that requires a little team effort to get right. But, with a commercial cleaning service on your side, you’ll get an excellent deep clean that can be maintained by a weekly or fortnightly cleaning service.

Step 1: the clearout

This one will need your team to put in a little work, at the end of their working day before the big deep clean! Clear all desks of clutter, and get bags and document folders off the floor – maybe use the opportunity to get rid of any junk that’s built up over time, too. It can even be quite a satisfying experience.

Step 2: the move

Any furniture that can move should be gathered into the middle of the office space, exposing all the edges (and areas where dust has built up). You’ll probably notice the floors are a different colour where they’re regularly cleaned!

Step 3: dust & disinfect

Make sure the office is well ventilated, and get to work with dry dusting all surfaces. Start from the top of the room; light fixtures, rails and high shelving or tall furniture first. You might need a step ladder or a high reach duster to help.

Work your way down to desks and cabinets, being careful not to disturb and spread large accumulations of dust too much. It’s okay if it goes on the floor at this stage. Oh, and remember to dust the blinds, too.

 After any further dust has settled, it’s time to wet dust and disinfect – with either a vinegar/water solution or a streak-free disinfectant cleaner. Again, start with surfaces at the top and work your way down – remembering to clean the insides of windows.

At this point, pay very special attention to the dirtiest places in the office: desks, phones, keyboards, door handles and switches. Clear, disinfect and rub down all the surfaces that are regularly touched.

Step 4: the floor

Now that the dust and grime have been tackled, it’s time to pay attention to the floor. For office spaces with carpets, a run with a vacuum cleaner will do for a weekly clean – but in a deep clean, that’s only the start.

With furniture away from walls and corners, get the vacuum cleaner into every gap and suck up all the dust you can. To deep clean office carpet, specialist equipment is required. Our hot water extraction method cares for fabric while removing dirt and bacteria – even if it’s trodden in.

For hard floors, start with a run of the vacuum cleaner before mopping with disinfectant – paying close attention to the corners and edges that are rarely cleaned.

Step 5: reorganise

Once the deep clean has been completed and floors are dry, it’s time to get everything back in place and reorganised. Put all desks and furniture in their rightful places, plug the computers back in and get ready to enjoy a sparkling-clean office.

All you have to do now is tackle cleaning the office kitchen… but maybe that’s a job for another day!