5 Simple Ways to Keep High-Traffic Areas in Your Facility Clean
When it comes to keeping your floors clean, there are varying degrees of “dirty.”
High-traffic areas — those with more foot traffic and activity — seem to be especially susceptible to dirt and accidents.
The truth is, we all make a mess sometimes. And, if everyone cleaned up after themselves every time they spilled coffee or tracked in dirt, you may only have to call in a professional once in a blue moon…
But, as you know, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Accidents happen. People are in a hurry. And sometimes, those who make a mess don’t even realize they’ve done so.
There are many reasons certain areas of your facility can get dirty faster than others, but we’ve narrowed it down to these main culprits:
- Coffee stations
- Food service or prep areas
- Main entrances and exits with more foot traffic
- Garbage and/or recycling receptacles
- Areas where chemicals or cosmetics are used
Do These 5 Things to Keep High-Traffic Areas Cleaner
And we’ve identified four key tactics to help you keep high-traffic areas cleaner. Here they are…
1. Use Good Design with Clean in Mind
When you have the option, consider cleanliness in the design of your facility.
For example, consider installing a hard surface at the entrance, then transitioning to carpet once inside the building.
Entrances aren’t the only places you can benefit from installing hard surfaces. Also consider installing hard surfaces in the following locations if they are not currently hard-surfaced…
- Break rooms
- Locker rooms
- Dressing rooms
- Recycling stations
- Kitchen
- Bathroom
Additionally, give people a space to hang their wet coats and store wet, muddy, or otherwise dirty boots and shoes.
Finally, make sure you have a defined cleaning closet with all the necessary cleaning materials, and make sure employees know exactly where this closet is.
2. Install a Walk-Off Mat System at the Entrance of Your Facility
Whether you have hard surface flooring at your entrance or not, it’s important to use walk-off systems at the entrance of your buildings. Walk-off systems help collect dirt and prevents it from entering the rest of the building.
Not only does this contribute to a cleaner facility, it can help extend the life of your carpet and save you money in the long-run.
The most effective types of walk-off mats to install are wiper/scraper mats. These are rigid mats that allow entrants to wipe off the mud, water, or dirt on their shoes. And, because these mats are such high-quality, they only need to be vacuumed once per day.
And if you don’t want to place mats on top of your flooring, you could consider a carpet-tile walk-off system that is custom-cut to your space. This solution adheres to the floor to make a semi-permanent entryway solution with no tripping risk.
3. Add Protection Against Furniture
Foot traffic isn’t the only type of traffic that can wreak havoc on your floor. Furniture being moved or slid over your floor can cause damage as well.
Because of this, we recommend adding floor protection to the furniture in your facility. These floor protection tools can keep your floor from being damaged by moving or sliding furniture.
4. Create a Cleaning Code of Conduct
The goal here is to clearly define who is responsible for cleaning up messes in your facility.
This may sound overly simplistic, but clearly defining expectations for employees can be very powerful.
You can also create guidelines about where food should be consumed — and whether or not it’s allowed outside of the break room. And if you don’t have vendors coming in regularly to clean, implement a cleaning schedule for employees to rotate cleaning certain areas.
5. Get Regular Preventative Maintenance Cleanings
In addition to all of the steps you can take on your own to keep your carpet and hard-surface flooring clean, we also recommend working with a commercial carpet and floor cleaner to conduct regular preventative maintenance cleaning.
Even if you follow all of the previous steps, there’s no escaping the fact that the high-traffic areas in your facility will get dirty. Regular preventive maintenance cleanings will remove the dirt, debris and stains from your carpet or flooring.
For carpet cleaning, a commercial carpet cleaner can also apply a stain guard to help reduce stains and prevent additional wear. At DPM Care, every carpet cleaning includes FiberShield, our proprietary chemistry that prevents dirt and debris from sticking to your carpet by forming a protective shield around the carpet fibers.
Hard surface flooring requires regular buffing or burnishing to keep it looking at its best. And for extra dirty floors, stripping and waxing may be required. Adding a new layer of finish can help protect your floors and keep them looking better, longer.
How to Keep High-Traffic Areas Clean
Keeping high-traffic areas clean requires constant vigilance, along with some help from things like walk-off mats or floor protectors. However, with the right guidance, attitude, and tools, you can keep high-traffic areas clean.