Office Cleaning for a Healthier Workplace: A Routine for Small London Offices

A small office stays healthy with three layers of cleaning: daily work on the kitchen, the toilets and the surfaces everyone touches; a weekly clean of floors, desks and appliances; and a monthly job on high dust, vents, chairs and carpets. The shared kitchen and toilets matter far more than how tidy the desks look.

What does the law expect from office cleaning?

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 apply to offices. The Health and Safety Executive's short guide for managers sums up what they mean for cleaning (HSE):

• The workplace, its furniture, furnishings and fittings should be kept clean, with cleaning and waste removal done as often as needed by an effective method.
• Waste should be kept in suitable receptacles.
• Toilets and washrooms should be kept clean, ventilated and lit, with running hot and cold or warm water, soap and clean towels or another way to dry hands.
• Drinking water should be supplied with suitable cups or an upward drinking jet.
• If desks double as places to eat, they should be adequately clean, with a suitable surface for food.
• Floors should be kept free of anything that could cause a slip, trip or fall.

The same guide says the regulations also cover the common parts of shared buildings. In a London office block, agree in writing with the managing agent who cleans the entrance, stairs, lifts and any shared toilets, so nothing falls between two contracts.

Daily office cleaning checklist

Daily jobs fall into two groups: what staff do as they go, and what the cleaner does at the start or end of the day.

Staff, as they go

• Wash up their own cups and plates, or load the dishwasher, before going home.
• Wipe up spills straight away, on worktops and on the floor.
• Clear their desk at the end of the day so the surface can be cleaned.
• Label food in the shared fridge with a name and date.

Cleaner, every visit

• Kitchen: worktops, sink and taps, the outside of the microwave, the kettle and coffee machine, and the fridge handle. Empty the dishwasher or drying rack and put out a clean cloth.
• Toilets: toilets, seats and flush handles, basins and taps, mirrors and the floor. Refill soap, toilet roll and paper towels, and empty the bins.
• Touch points: door handles and push plates, light switches, the entry phone, the printer panel and meeting room tables.
• Desks: wipe every cleared desk, plus shared hot desks in full.
• Bins and recycling: empty, fit new liners and take the bags to the building's bin store.
• Floors: vacuum walkways and the entrance mat, and mop the kitchen and toilet floors.

Plan wet cleaning for when few people are around. The HSE advises cleaning during quiet hours, leaving smooth floors dry or keeping people off until they are, cleaning in sections so there is a dry path, and using warning signs that come down once the floor is dry (HSE).

Weekly office cleaning checklist

• Floors: a full vacuum, including under desks, along skirting boards and behind doors, then mop all hard floors.
• Fridge: clear out anything unlabelled or past its date, then wipe the shelves and seals. Pick a fixed day, such as Friday afternoon, and tell the team.
• Fridge temperature: the Food Standards Agency says a fridge should be set between 0 and 5°C, and recommends checking it once a week with a fridge thermometer (FSA).
• Appliances: the inside of the microwave, the dishwasher filter, and the coffee machine's drip tray and milk parts.
• Limescale: descale the kettle and the toilet and kitchen taps. London's hard water leaves deposits quickly; our guide to removing limescale explains the method.
• Equipment: keyboards, mice, phones and headsets. Switch off or unplug first and follow the maker's instructions. Apple, for example, says not to spray cleaning products directly onto its devices and not to let moisture into any openings (Apple).
• Glass and doors: glass partitions, internal doors and frames.
• Cloths: wash tea towels and reusable cloths, and replace the kitchen sponge.

Monthly office cleaning checklist

• High dusting: tops of cupboards and shelving, picture frames, light fittings, and air vents and grilles.
• Skirting boards, door frames and radiators.
• Office chairs: vacuum fabric seats and wipe the arms, levers and bases.
• Inside windows, sills and blinds.
• Behind and under movable furniture and appliances, where it is safe to move them.
• A deeper clean of the fridge, freezer, microwave and cupboards, with old stock thrown out. Our kitchen deep clean guide covers the order of work.
• A check of the cleaning cupboard: products stored securely, labels readable and nothing decanted into unmarked bottles.

Carpets in busy walkways and chairs that are sat on all day need more than a vacuum now and then. Book carpet and upholstery cleaning when stains or dull traffic lanes appear, and a one-off deep clean before a move into new premises or after building work.

Where are the hygiene hotspots in a small office?

The places to focus on are the ones many hands touch and the ones that stay damp. Give these the most attention:

1. Kitchen cloths and sponges. The FSA's advice is to wash or swap dish cloths, tea towels and sponges often, since bacteria grow on items left dirty and damp (FSA).
2. Kitchen handles. The fridge door, kettle, microwave keypad, coffee machine buttons and tap handles.
3. Toilet touch points. Flush handles, seats, taps and the inside handle of the toilet door.
4. Shared desks. On hot desks, the keyboard, mouse, desk edge and chair arms are used by a different person each day.
5. Meeting rooms. The table, the screen remote, whiteboard pens and the conference phone.
6. The entrance. The door push plate, the entry phone and the lift buttons.

Stop cloths carrying dirt from one area to another. The HSE recommends colour-coded cloths, mops and buckets to minimise cross-contamination (HSE), so keep one colour for the toilets only and never use it in the kitchen. The same sheet tells cleaners not to add anything else to a bleach-based product, since the mixture can release chlorine.

What helps during winter bug season?

Handwashing and keeping unwell people at home are the basics. The NHS says alcohol hand gels do not kill norovirus, so people should wash their hands with soap and water, and it advises staying off work until 2 days after the sickness or diarrhoea has stopped (NHS).

• Check soap and paper towels every visit, so nobody skips handwashing because a dispenser is empty.
• Make it easy for unwell staff to stay at home, or to work from home.
• Clean toilet seats, flush handles, taps and door handles more often while a bug is going round.

How often should a cleaner come?

Base the schedule on how quickly the kitchen and toilets get dirty, not on floor area. If the toilets need attention by Wednesday after a Monday clean, visits are too far apart. Five people sharing one kitchen and one toilet can create more daily mess than a quiet office twice the size.

Timing matters as much as frequency. Our cleaners work between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week, so a visit can fit before your team arrives, after it leaves, or at the weekend. They are DBS-checked, and we hold £1 million public liability insurance.

Want this routine run for you? Ask for an office cleaning quote based on your space, your team and the days that suit you.