Tips on Cleaning
Cleaning High Traffic Areas
The
most obvious interest areas are high traffic areas such as entrances and exits,
glass lobby doors, and areas used by the public. High traffic areas must be
cleaned very thoroughly. Make sure that all vestibules and lobby areas receive
the best of care daily, because the first thing an owner, property manager, or
visitor will see is the entrance windows, glass doors, lobby, and rest rooms in
these areas. In fact, these are the first areas that anyone going into a
building will encounter. Property managers know this. These areas create the
visitor’s first impression of the whole building and the businesses in the
building. The appearance and cleanliness of these areas should be a main focus
for those cleaning the building, so they leave a good first impression on
anyone who enters. This impression should continue throughout the entire
building. You always want to leave the building looking clean and smelling
fresh after each cleaning.
Odor Control
You
never want to walk through a restroom and smell the cake deodorant bar in the
men’s urinal or behind the women’s toilets. Using too many deodorants to mask
bad, unclean odors can be overwhelming. Rest rooms should smell fresh at all
times. It is bad for your future relationship with the property manager to
receive a phone call about the lack of cleanliness in a tenant’s bathroom. I
stress this from experience; keep these areas odor free and clean. Many
building cleaners overlook the fact that they need to power wash, give a good
scrub to, or hose down the entire large- size rest rooms, from top to bottom,
at least four times each year to remove germs and stop odors. Before hosing a
room down, be sure to tape off all electrical outlets in the restroom with
several layers of a good quality roll of electrical & duct tape, make sure
the tape is dry before removing it as you finish up!
You
would be surprised at the number of germs that end up around the floor drain in
a restroom from mopping up the dirt brought in by foot traffic. Over a span of
time, restroom floor drains can become a source of odor. They collect bacteria,
germs, and dirty mop water, which all start to smell badly sooner or later. I have
found that a way of dealing with these drain odors; just pour a large quantity
of clean, hot, soapy water down the floor drains to clean and deodorize them.
This procedure should be done at least once a week. Even disinfectant cleansers
sometimes produce odors, so cut these concentrated products with a little
water.
Basic
smell and visual scans will tell you to check your restroom soap dispensers
daily. Dispensers should be filled up on a nightly basis, if needed. Always
wipe away any excess soap that may spill around the dispensers’ tops so it does
not run down the side of the hardware. If you do not keep dispensers wiped
clean, the soap will soon turn dark, dirty, and dingy, it will look bad, and
emit odors of its own.
Always
ensure that the disposal box for used feminine napkins is dumped out and
cleaned daily with a spray disinfectant cleaner, rinsed with rag and water in a
bucket, and wiped with a dry clean cloth. Then place a fresh, specially made
bag in the box to line it. Before you change these used bags or clean box, be
sure to wear your rubber gloves. In fact, you do know to wear rubber
gloves for all restroom cleaning. If a bag is not damaged or used, you may
reuse it, but only one time. To replace these bags on a daily basis can become
a little expensive, because they are in high demand, but you have no choice. It
is a “must” that you check these boxes each day; if you do not, they can cause
a serious odor problem, in all women rest rooms. Again, for safety reasons,
gloves should be worn at all times for all restroom area cleaning. This is a
very important safety rule to follow. All rest rooms should have toilet tissue
at all times. Paper tissue products should be nearly 90 percent empty before
you remove them and replace them with a fresh, full roll. Put a full extra
unwrapped roll in the opening where it can be found if the old roll runs out
before your next restroom cleaning visit.
Reminder
to all building cleaners: we are dirt and odor removers. Wherever there is
dirt, dust, or odor, it is our job to remove it; we get paid for doing this.
Again, no one should ever have to call you and tell you that a certain area was
not cleaned. When that happens, we can all suffer. We do not want any of the
property managers ever to go back to using their own in-house cleaning staff.
This would be bad for all cleaning contractors.
Keep
in mind that your cleaning staff can damage expensive carpeting easily,
especially oriental or designer rugs, if they get the carpets too wet or use
too much shampoo. This will create a bad odor for a few days until the back of
the carpeting completely dries out. To avoid problems such as this, always try
to do a little research and a training demonstration for your cleaning staff
before letting them clean any carpets or rugs.
Weekly or bi-weekly,
you should do a complete check for hidden dirt and odor in every building. If
there is dirt, odor, or dust on a new construction site building, hospital,
office, store, airport building, casino, bank, doctor’s office, or government
building we are cleaners, our job is to remove this dirt and make sure that all
the areas in the building are clean and smelling good.
Dirt and odor control is our job.
Remove the dirt and odors and everyone will stay happy, I promise; and you will
be well paid for doing it. No one wants dirt inside their buildings and you
want to be highly paid to remove it for them.
Trash Removal
There
is usually a trash compactor or dumpster in the basement, at the back of the
building’s loading docks, or at the rear of the building just for disposing of
trash. Many property managers hire a trash removal company to bring a rented
trash dumpster to the building site. The trash removal company will pick up
trash from the dumpster once or twice a week and drop off a clean, empty
dumpster. All trash removal areas should be kept extra clean from the ground up
to keep rodents and insects away. On a daily or nightly cleaning contract, you
should empty all of the trash cans at each desk, and replace trash can liners
each night if needed. Always put the trash can back in the place where you
found it. Check the inside and outside of the trash cans for dirt and coffee
spills weekly. If the can is dirty, take it to the building cleaners water
closet and wash both the inside and outside with warm soapy water.
Trash
removal is very important and a bit more complicated today. Some building
owners may want you to take a few extra minutes to separate recyclable bottles,
cans, newspapers, magazines, and books for their city or county recycling
program. You may want to add that extra cost to your bid, because it can be
time consuming. Remember, removing the trash and bags each night will keep
rodents from being tempted or drawn to the inside of your clean building. Empty
each and every trash can in the building to control odors, insects, and
rodents. Never leave any of the full trash bags in the building cleaner closet
overnight; this would be the same as giving rodents an invitation to dinner. If
you miss emptying trash cans in an office a time or two, you will definitely
get a phone call from the property manager. If you are short of staff on any
particular night for whatever the reason, you must still always empty the trash
cans in the building and clean the rest rooms, even if you cannot do anything
else before your shift ends.
Now that you know how
to get your building contractor or cleaning business started, let’s talk more
about recruiting clients. Once you are ready to operate your business, you’ll need
clientele. So, how do you find people who need your services? Well, when you
are just starting out, one of the ways to start is to do lots of cold calling;
it is a great way to recruit new clients. Cold calls are calls you make to
people you don’t know and who have not asked you to call. Although cold calling
is not always easy, you can make contact with many people simply by picking up
the phone and telling them about your business. They may need your services or
may know of someone else who does. The more people you can tell about your
business, the better. Another approach is to fax your brochure or give a
business card to lots of clients.
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