The Janitorial Places often Missed the Most.
We all miss things even more so when the work isn’t some automation or done by a robot programmed to do something. Humans are fallible and I would make the case that among the service industry, janitorial may be the best example of that fallibility.
Here are the top places we have found in our janitorial experience to be the places that even experienced cleaners miss.
*As a note to those clients with janitorial service, we do our best. Each clean is different – every night, each cleaner is different and each person seeing things being missed is different.
#1 – Vents, all the Vents.
Now, this might just be a quirk picked up from being in the janitorial business for so long, but every time I use a restroom, I look up. Air vents are often the most abused in a restroom (inclosed space and on either automatically or a lot). They are also the last thing people seem to clean on a regular basis. I do not take the vents being missed as a “this isn’t a clean place” panic moment, but I promise your clients will notice it when they are finally given a good wipe down. Unless the bathroom ceilings are incredibly high, a good extendable Swiffer will do the trick. If caked on from being awhile, take a broom handle with a damp microfiber cloth and give a good wipe.
This leads me to …
#2 – Tops of Stalls and Partitions
Back to looking up (or around), tops of stalls in restrooms and office partitions are frequently missed. You can sometimes even see the dust bunnies fall when a door is slammed. Not something that conveys a through cleaning. Even out in main offices, someone can tell when the dusts falls on their desk. Again, easy remedied by a duster (with an extension if needed).
#3 – Under Toilet or Urinal Bowl and Behind the Toilet.
Well, we made it to #3 before we brought in the dreaded toilet clean. I would make a good bet that toilets are the number one or two focus by a client when judging the cleaning of their space. Floors would be another that may tie with it.
We often have the “see it, clean it” mentality, even in normal every day house cleaning. I know personally that under the oven or in the produce drawer of the fridge, I just… don’t always remember to cleaning as I don’t see it on a regular basis. Same goes with behind and under of a toilet bowl or urinal. The rest of the toilet is fairly obvious regarding being cleaned regularly but making sure there is a good, entire wipe of the bowls and a good look behind when you are on floors make all the difference.
Last but not least…
#4 – Floor Edges
Saved the least favorite for last, I hate cleaning floor edges. No matter where, I feel like they never stop being dirty (or I am just too OCD to regard them as clean). Now, I want to express that with edges, perfection probably isn’t going to happen unless you are either down on your knees with a toothbrush or have a a fancy floor machine you run every night, which seems like overkill. You are probably not cleaning a brand new building and also haven’t been cleaning it since the building was new. (I commend you highly if that is the case.) So if those edges have not been kept up, well it’s a long uphill battle.
Often when cleaning floors, a quick dust mop, mopping and/or vacuuming is the daily routine. Edges aren’t thought of as a separate area to focus on, leading to lost of buildup both from use and from mopping (typically this is on hard flooring) pushing the dirty water up to the edges. I would recommend having a special floor schedule for either a buff or using an edge floor machine like the one found on the link. You can also just run to Home Depot for the small handheld scrub brushes and just dip into your mop water to get the edges by hand.
Those are a few top of my mind places, but the list is endless depending on the scope of work, type of building and the frequency of the cleans. On top of all of that, humans are doing this work and no one is perfect, except maybe Paul Rudd.
Products we like to use:
Have fun looking up!