Cleaning and Hygiene Tips to Protect Your Office from Common Viruses & Germs

Viruses and pathogens can spread in commercial premises faster than any other type of property. Because a commercial building like an office or retail store might be visited by hundreds of people coming from different places all over the day, the chances of the spread of infections are much higher. Routine cleaning plus disinfection services of CLEANA office cleaning can help keep pathogens away from your business premises and ensure the safety of your workers, reducing sick days and increasing productivity.

Can cleanliness and hygiene in the office keep germs away?

Studies have revealed that cleaning can actually help reduce the concentration of germs in a building, whether residential or commercial. Businesses that hire an expert office cleaning company like Clean Group office cleaning are more likely to have a safer work environment than those who do not clean their offices with a routine. In addition, maintaining proper hygiene, including hand hygiene, will help limit the spread of infections from contaminated objects or persons to healthy people.

Because commercial premises receive higher average daily foot traffic, they might need more frequent cleaning than residential premises. Despite that, most of us clean our houses daily but forget to do the same when it comes to our business premises.

Here are some easy-to-follow office cleaning and hygiene tips to keep germs away:

Commercial Cleaning & Hygiene Maintenance Tips by Experts

Our cleaning professionals are here to share many valuable tips to help keep harmful bacteria and germs away from your commercial premises. Feel free to reach out to us for a cleaning service.

1. Maintain Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene refers to the practice of maintaining personal cleanliness, including bathing and washing your hands. By maintaining personal hygiene and asking your employees and staff to do the same, you can ensure your people and premises are safe from viruses. 

It is recommended to wash your hands or sanitise them as frequently as possible throughout the day and especially after using the bathroom and before and after eating. In addition, all your workers should take a bath every day and use hand sanitiser as and when needed. You can even consider placing sanitiser at every desk and entry of your office.

2. Disinfect Touchpoints

Touchpoints are surfaces and objects that are touched or used by many people throughout the day. Door handles, lift buttons, switches, and phones are some common examples of touchpoints. In an office space, there are many frequently touched points and surfaces that can contribute to the spread of infections. 

To avoid that, you must consider disinfecting all high-traffic areas and surfaces across your property multiple times a day. These include all hard surfaces, door handles and knobs, light switches, lift buttons, remote, fridge doors, desks, computer keyboards, mouse, phone receivers, printers, coffee machines, kitchen slabs, garbage bins, and toilets.

3. Change Your Clothes Daily

It has been found that many pathogens, including the coronavirus, can survive on fabric surfaces, which is why you should change and wash your daily clothes. Consider using a fresh pair of clothes every day when going to the office. Ask your workers to do the same. If you are doing laundry on your own, make sure to use a laundry disinfectant and wash your hands every time after doing laundry or dishes.

4. Keep Upholstery Clean and Disinfect Routinely

Make sure that your office upholstery, sofa, carpets, towels, kitchen napkins, blinds, and other fabric items are being cleaned or vacuumed routinely or as needed. Consider changing the towels in kitchens and toilets very frequently and get everything disinfected when doing laundry. Instead of using fabric towels in bathrooms and kitchens, you can also consider using disposable paper towels to avoid catching the virus from the use of infected towels.

5. Avoid Touching Your face

Personal hygiene also means doing everything in your power to avoid catching the virus. In 90% of cases, an infectious virus can go inside the body through the eyes, nodes, or mouth, which is why you need to keep these parts of your body clean at all times. Other than that, you should try to avoid touching your face and mouth as much as possible. 

The virus can easily get from an infected surface to your hands and to your mouth or eyes from there. Use a mask, if possible, to keep your mouth and nose covered at all times when in the office. Ask your employees and customers to do the same.

6. Be Extra Careful When Eating

Avoid eating at your desk at all costs. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds every time before you eat. Always use clean utensils for food and clean utensils every time after use. Avoid sharing your food with others or eating from others’ lunch boxes. Wash raw foods like fruits thoroughly before eating and always cook raw meat and veggies at high temperatures. Always check the expiry of packaged food items before purchasing or using them.

7. Maintain Social Distancing in the Office

To start with, get the workers' desks arranged such that there is plenty of gap between two consecutive seats. Also, instruct your employees and staff to follow social distancing at all times when in the office and do the same yourself. If the space in your office is limited and cannot accommodate to sit employees at a distance, you can alternatively consider asking some of your employees to work from home for the period or during the pandemic.

8. Throw Extra Packaging and Boxes Away

Extra packaging, plastic bags, cloth bags, cardboard boxes, and paper bags can carry germs from outside to your office when brought along with items such as groceries, eatables, etc. While you should try to avoid using extra packaging as far as possible, make sure to throw away any extra packaging immediately after unboxing.

9. Waste Management

Get all the garbage cans across your building emptied and cleaned daily without fail. Make sure that all employees have their personal waste bins under their respective desks and that all bins are being emptied daily. Keep dry and wet waste separate. Use bin liners and keep the bins covered at all times except for when they are being emptied or cleaned. Do not just throw the garbage away but manage waste carefully and smartly to not let it cause any harm to your people. Do recycle as much waste as possible.

10. Sterilise Utensils and Kitchenware

In offices and other commercial properties, kitchens should be paid special attention when cleaning because this is where you can expect to find a lot of germs. If you or your workers are leaving dishes unwashed or tables uncleaned, the chances of the spread of germs get multiplied. 

Besides getting your office kitchens cleaned and high-traffic surfaces disinfected routinely, you must also arrange for sterilising any kitchenware, toys, etc. which are used by kids and children in a childcare or similar facility. Kids tend to chew their toys and will put in mouth anything they can get their hands on, which is why childcare centre owners must take extra precautions to keep their premises clean and avoid an infection.

How to Disinfect Your Office by Yourself

Though it is recommend to always hire a professional cleaner or disinfecting service when looking to get your commercial property disinfected to keep germs away, there are many high-traffic places and frequently-used items in an office that might need more frequent cleaning than others and which you can do yourself by following these simple steps and tips.

Routine disinfecting of your place is a great way to reduce the number of germs and limit the spread of infections. Besides disinfecting all rooms, cabins, floors, surfaces, and all other office areas at least once daily, you should also consider disinfecting frequently-used places multiple times a day. This is something you can do yourself without requiring professional assistance.

To start with, make sure that your cleaners are using a disinfectant when cleaning or washing the floors and other hard surfaces around the property as a large number of pathogens will be killed with that one practice. For disinfecting other places such as door handles, water taps, phones, switch boards and other touchpoints, you can use any regular store-bought disinfectant, which is toxin-free, or a home-made solution such as diluted bleach. 

Apply the disinfectant on the surface to cover it completely and let it sit for a few minutes before you wipe the disinfectant off using a clean cloth or let it dry out on its own (see the package for and follow manufacturer’s instructions of use for the best results). 

Alternatively, you can use disinfectant wipes to quickly and safely clean off germs from electronics, such as TV remote, mobile phones, office phones, printers, coffee machines, water dispensers, etc. Other than that, disinfectant wipes can also be provided to workers to allow them to clean and disinfect their respective desks and items as and when needed.

Hiring a Professional Office Cleaning & Disinfecting Service

For routine disinfection of your office and commercial premises, it is best to hire a professional cleaning company in Sydney. These technicians have years of cleaning experience and bring and use the best quality supplies for up to 100% virus removal from your premises. 

Professional cleaning companies use advanced methods such as electrostatic disinfection for quick and comprehensive decontamination of commercial buildings, leaving no places unattended. The cleaners have the eye to identify and clean even the most inaccessible areas and will remove all kinds of pathogens, from germs to viruses and bacteria.

Ready to book a professional disinfecting service? Call us today!