The Most Overlooked Areas of Your Office that Need Cleaning

For most facility managers, regular carpet cleaning is a no-brainer. You know that you need it. Carpet covers a large area, gets a lot of traction, and is always visible. You can look down and see stains, dirt, or traffic patterns.

But there are other areas of your office that are either less visible or simply blend into the environment. These areas tend to be forgotten when it comes to cleaning. As a result, dust, dirt and grime can build up there.

Just because these areas are out of sight, don’t keep them out of mind. Make it a point to regularly clean these overlooked spots.

8 Areas Where Dirt and Germs Are Hiding in Your Office

Go down the list and ask yourself when the last time was you thoroughly cleaned each of these areas and items. If it has been more than a few months, it’s time to give these spots some attention.

1. Furniture and Upholstery

Whether it’s a couch in the lobby or leather chairs in a conference room, office furniture somehow flies under the radar.  It’s typically a “if it doesn’t look dirty, we don’t need to clean it” scenario.

People often forget that this includes cubicle partitions. These partitions are made of fabric similar to your other office furniture.

The reality is your furniture and cubicle partitions are collecting germs and residue on a daily basis. Even leather furniture can become dusty and oily. Make sure to get your office upholstery and leather furniture regularly cleaned.

2. Under Office Chairs

While the seats and backs of office chairs (which can get visibly icky) are often in the regular cleaning rotation, the undersides often get overlooked. That’s a bad idea because a lot of dust can build up down there.

A quick cleaning of chair bottoms each time your team does the top will make for a cleaner, healthier workspace.

3. Vents and Ducts

Fans and air conditioners move a lot of air around—and with it comes a lot of dirt and debris.

If you aren’t regularly cleaning your vents, ducts, fan blades, and in and around your heating/AC unit, chances are there is A LOT of dust built up there (or worse, mold and mildew). And those elements are blowing around your office constantly, affecting employee health.

4. Computers

Computers are one of the forgotten items of office cleaning. Although they’re right in front of us, we tend to overlook them when it comes to cleaning. That is until you move a tower or reach behind a monitor one day and find a pile of dust bunnies.

As often as you clean your chairs and desks, you’ll also want to move and wipe down your computers and the surrounding area. This will not only keep your office cleaner, it can prevent computer problems down the road.

5. Telephones

There’s one on every desk. And if you were to go look around right now, how many phones would you find with pockets of gunk in the receiver cradle and in between the numbers?

It’s one of those things we don’t give a close look very often but when we do it’s not a pretty picture. This is a tool people touch to their faces on a daily basis, so you want to make sure it gets a good wipe down.

6. Lights

Because they’re out of our eye line, we don’t notice just how dirty lights get. But, as anyone who’s ever cleaned off the top of a ceiling fan can attest, dust is not afraid of heights.

That means, whether you have fixtures or fluorescents, your lights get coated in a layer of dirt on a daily basis. Make sure to work them into your regular cleaning rotation.

7. Curtains and Blinds

You clean your windows regularly, but how often do you clean your curtains and blinds? Like most upholstery, curtains tend to get neglected if they’re not stained—even though particles may be piling up internally.

While blinds are notoriously time-consuming to clean, they collect dust pretty easily and can really start to look dulled. And the longer you wait to clean them, the more that unhealthy dust will spread around your office.

8. Microwave

Perhaps nothing in an office gets used and abused more than the microwave. Splatters and spills are frequent occurrences that employees aren’t always quick to clean up. Left long enough, a dirty microwave can be a breeding ground for bacteria.

As a result, you can get some funky smells along with the dissatisfaction that comes from hungry employees greeted by a food explosion in the microwave. Move your microwave to the top of the cleaning priority list.

Address These Areas to Create a Cleaner, Healthier Work Environment

Dust, dirt and germs love to lurk in the areas we don’t think about (like the inside of carpet). That’s why it’s important to analyze your office and assess those nooks and crannies that may not be getting enough attention.

Cleaning these overlooked areas will not only improve the overall appearance of your workplace and the health of everyone in it, it will help your office stay cleaner for longer.

 

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