In any workplace, your office kitchen is a hub of activity where you and your coworkers gather to refuel and recharge. Keeping a clean and well-maintained kitchen is crucial for your health and productivity and creating a positive work environment.

Let’s discuss the importance of maintaining a clean office kitchen, the common cleaning mistakes you should avoid, the essential cleaning supplies you’ll need, effective cleaning techniques, setting up a cleaning schedule, and encouraging cleanliness in your workplace.

Whether in a busy office in London or a small startup, these tips will help you keep your kitchen spotless and make your coworkers happy.

The Importance of a Clean Office Kitchen

You need to keep the office kitchen neat and tidy to promote workplace hygiene and create a healthy work environment in your London office. An organised and sparkling-clean kitchen doesn’t just make your office look more professional; it also helps keep your employees healthy and your workplace clean overall.

Benefits for Employee Health and Productivity

Keeping a tidy office kitchen is essential for your health and productivity. It helps reduce the risk of falling ill and makes your work environment more pleasant.

When you keep your workspace tidy and organised, it not only makes you feel proud of your area but also boosts morale for everyone. Knowing that your surroundings are clean makes you more likely to feel motivated and focused on your tasks. This positive atmosphere spreads throughout the office, resulting in fewer sick days and improved work efficiency. Ensuring that communal areas like the kitchen are hygienic helps to establish a culture of health and well-being within your company. Ultimately, this enhances everyone’s productivity levels.

Common Kitchen Cleaning Mistakes

To maintain the hygiene levels in your office kitchen, you need to grasp the importance of recognising and avoiding common kitchen cleaning mistakes.

Identifying and Avoiding Unhygienic Practices

To keep your office kitchen sparkling clean, you must watch out for and avoid everyday unhygienic habits that can lead to contamination and health issues. One big red flag to be mindful of is improper food storage, like leaving perishable items at room temperature for too long. This can create the perfect breeding ground for harmful bacteria and food spoilage.

Also, if you’re not keeping your worktops, utensils, and equipment squeaky clean, you’re rolling out the welcome mat for germs to party in your kitchen. Make sure to sanitise these areas regularly to prevent the spread of bacteria. If you want to ensure your team is on the same page with kitchen cleanliness, consider organising training sessions on food safety and sanitation practices.

Create a cleanliness culture by ensuring everyone has easy access to cleaning supplies and setting clear expectations for maintaining a tidy workspace. Trust me, a little effort in keeping things clean can go a long way in ensuring a healthy kitchen environment for all.

Essential Cleaning Supplies for the Office Kitchen

To keep your office kitchen in tip-top condition, you must make sure it’s stocked with all the essential cleaning supplies. This is crucial to keeping things clean and creating a tidy environment that everyone can enjoy.

Must-Have Products for a Spotless Kitchen

If you want to achieve a spotless kitchen, ensure you have various cleaning supplies to hand. Disinfectants, sponges, and appropriate cleaning agents are vital to keeping things spick and span.

Disinfectants are your best mate for getting rid of germs and bacteria on all those surfaces you touch regularly, like worktops, cupboard handles, and fridge doors. Sponges are perfect for wiping down surfaces and dealing with tough stains, but remember to sanitise or replace them often to prevent bacteria from setting up shop.

Don’t forget about those cleaning agents made for specific surfaces—they’re like the superheroes of the kitchen clean-up team. Whether it’s stainless steel, glass, or tiles, these products will keep your surfaces shining while getting rid of grease, grime, and food muck. Each of these supplies plays a vital role in ensuring your kitchen stays clean and germ-free.

Effective Cleaning Techniques

Using effective cleaning techniques is essential for keeping your office kitchen neat and tidy. Ensure you stay on top of things to maintain a clean and hygienic space for everyone to enjoy.

Step-by-Step Guide to a Thorough Clean

1. Follow this step-by-step guide to ensure that every nook and cranny of your office kitchen sparkles with cleanliness and hygiene.
2. Start by clearing worktops and tables of clutter, throwing away expired food items, and emptying the bin.
3. Then, grab a disinfectant cleaner and wipe down all surfaces to eliminate dust, dirt, and pesky germs. Remember to focus on high-touch spots like door handles, fridge handles, and microwave buttons.
4. Once the surfaces are spotlessly clean, it’s time to sanitise your kitchen appliances, such as the coffee maker, microwave, and fridge, using the appropriate cleaning products.
5. Remember, the key to a tidy kitchen is regularity. Keeping things clean consistently helps prevent the spread of germs and maintains a healthy and happy workspace.

Establishing a Cleaning Schedule

You should set up a cleaning rota to keep your office kitchen clean and tidy. This will ensure that all areas are attended to regularly and meet your established hygiene standards.

Tips for Maintaining a Clean Kitchen Regularly

To maintain a clean kitchen regularly, you need a combination of good habits, proper organisation, and consistent cleaning efforts.

1. One effective strategy is to clean up as you cook. Put away ingredients and utensils as soon as you’re done with them, and wipe down counters and surfaces right after use to prevent dirt and grime build-up.
2. Use storage containers to keep pantry items neat and organised. This not only saves time but also reduces clutter. Don’t forget to empty the rubbish regularly to keep odours and potential pest problems at bay.

Incorporate these simple practices into your daily routine to ensure your kitchen stays clean and welcoming for your cooking and dining activities.

Promoting Cleanliness in the Workplace

In promoting cleanliness in your workplace, you’ve got to create a vibe of teamwork and responsibility. Ensure all employees are chipping in to keep the shared workspace clean and organised.

Encouraging Employee Participation and Responsibility

Encouraging you and your colleagues to maintain cleanliness actively helps create a sense of responsibility and fosters a collaborative office culture.

Implementing a cleaning rota system where different employees are assigned specific cleaning tasks on a rotational basis can distribute the workload evenly and ensure that everyone plays a part.

In addition, providing incentives such as recognition programmes or small rewards for outstanding cleanliness efforts can further motivate you and your colleagues to keep the workspace tidy.

Emphasising the importance of office etiquette and adherence to workplace cleanliness standards enhances the physical environment and contributes to a more positive and productive work atmosphere.

There is no doubt that an area you live in regularly needs cleaning. We all agree regular cleaning is valuable and desirable for any office or home. What are the benefits of cleaning an office?

1. A sense of professionalism
   When you enter a clean office and feel the pleasant smell of fragrances, you instantly realise that you are in the office of professionals.If you are a visitor, potential employee or customer, this will leave you a positive association with the space and its people. Of course, a clean work environment is not just for customers but for the workers. It will affect the relationship between a positive work environment and productivity, but we will discuss that below.
2. Cosiness is equal to productivity
   When you feel good, you are much more likely to do your best than if you didn’t feel so good.
   Cosiness in the office is one of the steps towards creating a more productive atmosphere. Its radiance provokes the desire to develop and implement creative solutions to problems.
   If you are in a dynamic office environment, the last thing you want is to watch an old coffee stain on the floor.
3. Significantly greater representation
   Having a representative office, especially working with clients or when you are consulting people, can help you convert a potential client into an up-to-date visitor who pays for your services.
   One of the strategies for converting a potential client into a current client is an excellent image and good performance. A dirty office is a sign of a team or company that does not value its space.
4. Less morbidity
   People may not comment on it as often as they should, but the disease from the office space, especially if hay fever or other allergic reactions are present, may be due to poor or insufficient cleaning of the room.
   Therefore, there are professional services that, in addition to a basic cleaning package, also offer an anti-allergic package, which includes complete cleaning of dust and allergens.
   A cleaner work environment means less morbidity. That, in turn, means less loss of productivity, which leads to higher and more consistent incomes.
5. Cleanliness creates harmony and makes work easier
   When a person’s environment is clean and tidy, so are his thoughts. One part of a successful business is keeping your employees, and yourself focused. And you can achieve this even with a week of cleaning by professional teams.
   Purity is the orderliness of thoughts. That leads to the orderliness of the creative process and contributes to better results.
   These points show that cleaning can be much more than just a service. It can be a way to show your professionalism.

Six ways to make the office shine

Office spaces vary considerably, not only in size but also in the premises’ shape. Many modern offices are almost entirely composed of glazed walls – they allow a much easier passage of sunlight, which creates a feeling of much more communication and openness.

Of course, like everything else, this has drawbacks, especially the more complex and demanding cleaning.
To help you achieve more sustainable cleaning results, we will share with you six tricks on how to make your office shine:

1. Use more mirrors and paintings
   The reflective surfaces are one thing that certainly impacts the feeling of brilliance, space and purity. In interior design, glass or reflective surfaces are one of the techniques for creating a sense of spaciousness. If you use paintings with more interesting frames or a reflective surface, you can refract the light and create a feeling of purity. Of course, after that, there is a need for maintenance and cleanliness, but we will address this below.
2. Remove the carpet
   Removing carpets is one of the best decisions you can make for your business. Although it softens the footsteps, the carpet collects an incredible amount of dust, which spreads and lifts.
   Of course, this happens if you do not clean often enough, but it takes a lot of effort, time, and money. If you remove the carpet and put in laminate flooring, you will get much better results with the cleaning, as you will mainly remove the hairs that catch dust.
3. Use floor protection agents
   Using special floor cleaners with a protective function for surfaces is a relatively easy and quick way to save yourself frequent cleaning. For every consumer, such detergents are available on the market and classified as cleaning and protective. You can use many brands on the market just as successfully as even combinations.
4. Allow yourself to renew the floors – polishing/cycling
   Sometimes there is nothing better than renovating your flooring. It can be as simple as old linoleum, which needs a deep cleaning. Sometimes, however, it requires more serious intervention, such as polishing marble or granite. It may even be about cycling – whatever you choose, the results will be brilliant.
5. Use professional services
   If you use professional cleaning services, you guarantee the complete cleaning of the space you consider the best. If you want to clean only one room of your office, you can get it, and if you want a complete cleaning, this is entirely possible.
6. Do not allow the carpet to get dirty
   If you decide not to remove the carpet because the circumstances dictate it or because you like it more, our advice is to keep it from accumulating dirt. Cleaning it is quite possible, but it takes time and effort. If you clean it often or schedule a weekly cleaning, you guarantee a more pleasant working atmosphere.

Seven tips for choosing a professional cleaning company

Selecting a professional cleaner can be a simple, easy, and much more complex job.

1. You need to make a list of everything you want to clean
   First, it is good to understand ​​what you need to tend to organise an external cleaning. It is best to make a detailed list of everything you want the company to clean. Then see if they have achieved it.
   If the company has done everything on your list, you can trust them.
2. Choose a service that covers all your needs
   Once you know what you want to do in your office, you should choose a cleaning company that offers what you need. If you want a complete cleaning of the facade and windows, you will need a company with experience. Buildings over 10 meters high use towers and specialised equipment, which only some average cleaning companies have.
3. If the work is a lot, divide the cleaning into days
   It is good to work with professionals who can fully meet your needs. Sometimes cleaning takes a long time, even for a professional – if you need more than a full working day, you can divide the cleaning into one or two consecutive days. Starting top-down is always good, but carpets are sometimes a priority.
4. Be sure to ask about cleaning with bio-detergents
   Cleaning with bio-detergents is becoming a standard approach to maintaining clean homes and offices. Ask your company if it offers such a service and with what detergents it cleans.
5. When washing carpets, insoles are placed on the furniture
   The cleaning company must remove the furniture or ask you to do so if you will clean the carpets.
   After washing, if the furniture is put back on the carpet, it is mandatory to put insoles on the feet to prevent the overflow of colours from the furniture on the carpet.
6. Choose a service that can clean whenever you want
   Combining your schedule with your cleaning company requires good communication with cleaners. They should provide you with flexible working hours to suit your needs. Choose a service that offers weekly subscription cleaning.
7. Be sure to check what people think of professionals
   It is also good to check what people think about the company itself. If it is a well-known company that often cleans in your city, people may know about them. That indicates they offer a good service, especially if people talk about them and mention their brands.

When you have a business, you want it to be at a high level. Part of that is keeping it clean. Finding a cleaning company or person to do this may be your decision.

Owning a business is a big responsibility. Most of the time, your job is to please your customers and show them that you are a professional company. That means many things, but one is to keep your business clean in every way. In this case, you may need to hire an individual or company to clean the office. When choosing a person or company, you will want references and verification. You will want someone or a company that has a professional attitude.

You may want to ask other companies to see who they are using. Sometimes people will come looking for a freelance job like this that can be reliable, but an operating company is more likely to insure their business. Reputation is critical, so research should give you a good idea.

Recommendations

Recommendations and checks on the activities of a person or company will give you a good idea of ​​what they are. If a person does not have a good work ethic, we hope someone who knows him or whom he has worked with will mention this. The inspection has something to do with their criminal record. It is essential because you will not want to hire someone with a criminal record to work for you.

Professionalism

Professionalism is another crucial aspect of a good company. Part of professionalism is to have business cards and a good image as a manager. The person you hire can also look professional when wearing a uniform or neat and clean clothes. Another aspect of professionalism is good conversation.

You need to take the time to make sure of the qualities and abilities of the candidates. After doing your research, you may want to offer a job to the person or company, but tell them that you will only keep them if the way they clean is what you are looking for. That means being sure and telling them what you expect. It will bring clarity, and you can refuse the service if you are unsatisfied.

Compare and decide

As you look at the pros and cons of different companies or individuals, you can develop a chart to help you compare. If you are a smaller business, you will need to consider the amount of pay. Choosing a person or company to clean offices that charge the least is not wise because this can affect their work. Nor is the opposite good. You will need to consider what your company can afford.

While looking for an office cleaning company or an individual to hire for your business, you’ll probably want to ask other companies to see who they’re using. Recommendations and inspections are essential. They give a correct view of the activities of the person or company performing the cleaning. It may take some time, but it’s worth a look.

The business is looking for opportunities to optimize its activities in every aspect. In this regard, it is undergoing some changes. That led to the moment when a team of professional employees of an external cleaning company took over the hygienists’ role in medium and large companies. Various factors make cleaning companies increasingly crucial for business.

The price for cleaning services

Often, the offers by cleaning companies are significantly cheaper, therefore preferred to hiring an employee as a “hygienist” under an employment contract. Of course, the volume and specifics of the cleaning work, the type of enterprise, the area, etc., are also significant here. If your office building needs cleaning once or twice a week, a cleaning company will offer you a much better price for this time of engagement than hiring a hygienist on a contract basis.

The quality of cleaning services

The high level of cleaning quality is one of the main reasons companies trust cleaning companies. The reason is that the employees in such a company have the appropriate equipment and experience – advantages that provide more efficient cleaning per unit of time and area. Medium and large manufacturing companies tend to trust cleaning companies, as they pay for the cleaning service. And all other work processes, like personnel management, equipment, etc., are in the hands of the cleaning company manager.

Today, we do not need regular household vacuum cleaners, brooms and floor rags for cleaning administrative buildings and commercial premises. The reason is that many company offices and retail outlets have parquet, marble, granite or ceramic flooring. It requires a change in the necessary tools for cleaning offices and industrial premises, which every cleaning company must obtain.

Choice of several cleaning companies

It is best to ask friends first. They may have used such a company. Whether for washing windows or washing carpets. If they have impressions of the company, let them share. Gather information about several companies in this way and if the opinions are entirely positive, make a list of company names. Go to Google and search for some more companies to complete the list.

Open the site of the selected company and look for the following:

• Reviews from customers of the company. Read them slowly and evaluate how real they are.
• Look for the “References” section – maybe the company has issued references from another business using one of their services.
• How they perform their services – go to the cleaning service you need, and look for detailed information on how they function and by what means and methods. You don’t have to study the whole sciences, but you can’t get an idea if you just read five lines.
• If everything has passed your approval, call the cleaning company to ask the interviewer about what you read above. Ask additional questions that excite you about the service. This company is off your list if they sound insecure, stuttering, and find it difficult to present information.

We do not claim that these general rules are complete and are the best starting point. Still, certainly choosing by such criteria, the probability of finding a good cleaning company increases significantly.

What is the most energy-consuming commercial cleaning job? In my experience, it is the after-builders clean-ups – it usually involves not just the proper cleaning of the property but waste disposal, paint and stain removal, and intense dusting as well. 

Make no mistake – builders are arguably the messiest beings in the universe. I believe they feel some perverse satisfaction in leaving a construction site as dirty and chaotic as possible. I have had post-construction bookings for restaurants and large department stores after redecoration – they looked like a war zone or a post-apocalyptic Hollywood movie. 

So how do approach the task to save time and energy? 

• Whatever you do, do not attempt post-construction cleaning alone! Even if the premises are relatively small, you will need a team of at least three people to do the job quickly and effectively.
• Start with waste disposal first. There is no point in sweeping the floors or doing any dusting and polishing before you take the junk out. 
• Bring the heavy artillery. After-builders cleaning involves a multitude of rough-and-rugged tasks that you do not want to do manually. Bring the heavy-duty cleaning machines with you to help you with paint removal or particularly persistent stains.
• Leave metal polishing and window cleaning for last!