When it comes to office cleaning, business as usual entails the removal of trash, the cleaning of floors, the removal of food scraps, the sanitizing of washrooms, the disinfection of surfaces, etc.—but there’s one area of office cleaning that is frequently neglected: The upholstery of office furniture and the partition dividers between cubicles.
Office cleaning business employees, and the businesses who contract them, need to be aware of the health risks posed by not cleaning these surfaces, but it can be difficult to make people see the necessity of this practice. Partition dividers are particularly troubling this way, as they often hide stains and dirt by design, leading businesses to believe they don’t actually need cleaning.
According to Bill Yeadon, training director for Jon-Don (USA), “Trying to convince customers that cubicles should be cleaned is really tough — yet those are one of the biggest filtering medias that you have in the building.”
Any professional office cleaning business such as that found at https://www.choicecleaning.co.uk/office-cleaning-bristol/ should offer to not only vacuum the polyester surfaces of cubicles, but also to perform spot cleaning on cubicles and office furniture alike, taking care of food spills and dust mites that dwell deep within the fabric. Dust mites are of particular concern as their allergenic droppings threaten indoor air quality, and thus the health and comfort of employees.
Craig Jasper, vice president of the IICRC, notes that at present less than 40 percent of office cleaning businesses offer upholstery cleaning services, so the market for these services remains open and profitable.
“The office partitions get more of the airborne-type soil, so it’s best to use the cleaning agents that are a little more solvent, such as pre-sprays,” Jasper advises. “Cleaning partitions is a very fast process — and very profitable… Everyone comes in and does the floors, but they skip over the upholstery and the cubicles. But if you were to go in and give them one price for all three, with the idea to keep the building at a high level of clean rather than do a restorative cleaning once or twice a year when things start to look bad, you could potentially be cleaning them every month.”
Bundling services in this way provides an excellent incentive to business customers to try out upholstery cleaning as they feel they are getting a “deal” on their services, something much more appealing than looking at the price hike that would come with buying upholstery cleaning services separately. Commercial office customers should be advised to seek such cleaning once every 12 or 24 months.
As a final note for office cleaning business employees, always check with the facility manager before unplugging any electrical or phone cords that may be running through the part of the cubicles that require cleaning. Likewise, establish whether or not there is a cardboard backing behind the fabric—using too much moisture in the presence of cardboard is, of course, problematic.