How to Keep Offices Clean During the Holiday Season

The holidays are a time when offices should try to provide an especially festive and inviting environment for everyone. Between the office parties and the regular wear and tear of daily office work, though, trash and dirty floors can leave your workplace in need of more than just regular cleaning.

Even though festivities help make the end of the year special in the office, letting cleaning standards slip can affect your office’s reputation and even make employees or clients sick. That’s why we’re going to examine some great ways to maintain good office cleanliness standards – even during the Christmas season.

Determine Holiday Cleaning Needs

Decorations may look great, but using them in an office setting often means extra cleaning will be required to keep the environment as neat as possible. Remember that decorations can affect how clients view your office, so having messy decorations like artificial snow is probably more trouble than it’s worth. If you really want to add decorations to the office, make sure they’re tasteful and easy to clean, like a wreath on the door or a small tree inside. Choosing simple, paired-down decorations is an important part of ensuring your facility stays clean without a lot of extra hassle.

Beyond just decorating for the holiday season, remember to also prepare your facility for winter. This is crucial. For instance, a heavy snowfall or icy conditions can affect how your HVAC systems work. Winter weather conditions can also cause injuries due to frozen driveways and other hazards.

So, use easy-to-clean decorations if you want to make the office more festive, but most of all, focus on increasing maintenance and cleaning standards to avoid injuries.

Extra Cleaning is Needed After Office Parties

A lot of employees look forward to the holiday season because it includes office parties. But even though this season brings joy and good cheer, it also brings the need for more cleaning. From Christmas decorations to empty plastic cups and spills on the carpeting, offices may be in serious need of a deep clean before the next workday. So, plan for this!

If there’s an office party already scheduled on the calendar, consider booking a cleaning session for immediately after the party. This will help take care of any stains or marks left on floors or furniture, and it will give you more peace of mind knowing that professionals can handle this cleaning for you. Just remember to book time as early as possible, since cleaning companies often have their hands full cleaning up after other office parties and events during this season.

Party Floors Require More Attention Than Other Areas

Unsurprisingly, floors are the first surfaces that get dirty during an ordinary workday, and they get even more beat up during parties. The cold winter months bring snow, salt, and other harmful substances into the office already, but it gets even worse when these substances are mixed with party decorations that are left on the floor.

Another thing to consider is that wet, dirty floors are a slipping hazard, so this alone is a good reason to stay on top of floor maintenance. If someone fell and got seriously injured, that would not only ruin the festive mood but could also lead to missed work days for the injured employee and even lawsuits. So, what’s the best way to avoid all this hassle? Make sure floors get properly cleaned on a regular basis.

Hire Cleaning Pros To Make Holiday Office Relocations Easier

Moving your office elsewhere during the holiday season can be stressful. But if you find yourself in this position, keep in mind that, despite the often-unfavorable weather conditions, moving during this time of year can be beneficial because work is typically more flexible around the holidays anyway.

Whatever you choose to do, remember that any new office space your office moves to should be thoroughly cleaned in preparation for a relocation. If this seems too overwhelming to handle yourself, though, commercial cleaning companies can take over such responsibilities and help ensure a smooth move. Again, if you decide to go this route, make sure to book an appointment as soon as possible to ensure the company of your choice can help when you need it.

Avoid Spreading Germs By Sanitizing Office Surfaces Regularly

Cleaning is not just about making sure the wall-to-wall carpeting has been vacuumed recently and the bathroom mirror is streak-free. It goes way beyond presentability. Remember that the holiday season coincides with a time of year when most people stay indoors a lot and are therefore not getting enough vitamins from the sun. These vitamin deficiencies lead to what is known as flu season, when people’s bodies are more prone to illness.

So, while taking vitamins is part of the solution, reducing germs in the office environment can also help reduce the risk of getting sick. Be sure to purify the air by opening windows regularly, and always clean surfaces that are used a lot with a disinfectant.

Staying healthy is a great way to end the year on a high note and start the new year well. In line with this, consider holding a meeting to share some basic cleaning protocols that your staff can practice, like disinfecting light switches and door handles throughout the workday. If employees work together and share this responsibility, they can reduce the impact of flu season and fully take advantage of the festivities instead.

Bottom line

We hope this article has given you helpful advice on how to successfully handle cleaning during the holidays. Though it’s true that keeping cleaning standards high during this busy season is difficult, making it a group effort and knowing who to call when you need deep cleaning after a party or during a move can help make the whole process a lot easier.