10 Office Hygiene Tips For Staff – A Checklist

In this latest guide, we outline ten crucial hygiene tips for staff to adhere to within the workplace. From sterilising work areas to general tidying and cleaning, here’s what you need to know about keeping your workplace safe and hygienic. 

1. Empty your personal bin – daily

One of the best ways of keeping your desk clean and free from snack wrappers and disposable coffee cups is through using a personal bin. While this solves some problems, it can also be the cause of others.

Make sure that you empty your bin daily, or your area will start to smell, leading to an unsavoury type of notoriety. Use bin bags as well, or the bin itself will start to stink – either that or you need to be prepared to do a deep scrub every week or so.

2. Sterilise your work area – daily

As we come out the other side of the pandemic, it’s become increasingly clear that fighting viruses will be an important part of our lives going forward. One of the ways that staff can help with that is through sterilising their work area.

You can either use disinfectant wet wipes or a disinfectant spray and a microfibre cloth. Make sure you get all surfaces that are regularly touched, but be careful with spraying electronic components – either use wet wipes or spray a cloth first and then wipe.

3. Clean up as you go in the break room – daily

Communal areas like kitchens and break rooms can become incredibly dirty. This is often because people don’t feel a duty of care towards them, because they’re not their personal space.

Don’t fall for this, communal spaces are your responsibility as well. Make sure you clean up after yourself as you go along. If you have a coffee or tea, put the mug in the dish washer as soon as you’re done.

If you make a mess in the microwave, clean it up straight away so it doesn’t dry and become difficult to get rid of.

4. Disinfect regularly touched communal surfaces – daily

This is another communal task that can be done on a rotational basis. You need to make sure that things that are frequently touched are disinfected throughout the day.

These included door handles, light switches and tables and chairs in communal rooms.

5. Clean glass dividers and mirrors – twice a week

Glass dividers and bathroom mirrors can look amazing, or terrible, there’s rarely an in between. When spotless, they make the office feel bigger, cleaner, and more modern.

When they’re dirty, they can make the whole place feel more run down, unenjoyable to spend time in and distracting to occupy. Using a good cleaning product and high-quality squeegee will make the job much more enjoyable, and the end results far more impressive.

Cleaning regularly will also mean that grime doesn’t get the time to accumulate, making cleaning quicker as a result.

6. Vacuum your desk area – twice a week

Keeping the floor clean in the area surrounding your desk will make a big difference to how clean your space feels. If you’ve got a carpeted floor, then vacuum regularly.

If it’s a vinyl or other hard surface, also mop every few days. How often you need to clean the area depends on a few factors – when it’s winter and you’re maybe bringing in more dirt on your shoes, you might want to clean every other day or so.

In summer, when it’s drier outside and you’re likely eating outdoors more regularly, it might be enough to vacuum once a week.

7. Dust your desk – once a week

Dust is one of those things that accumulates so slowly you can’t see it build up, until it’s too late. It’s important to stay on top of dust; not only is it unsightly, but it can also be a genuine health risk to those with allergies.

Be courteous to your co-workers and help to maintain an environment that’s nice for everyone to be in. If done regularly, it shouldn’t take long – just a quick bush over everything with a microfibre cloth and you’re all done.

You might want to also get under harder to reach surfaces, paper trays and the like, depending on how much stuff you keep on your desk.

8. Dust your computer and keyboard – once a week

Not only are a dirty keyboard and computer horrible to use, in time the dust can also actually damage them.

Especially with keyboards, dust can spoil the action of the keys, eventually even blocking them.

Dust build-up in computers can lead to short circuiting and electrical fires, a hazard, as well as a massive inconvenience, should you lose all your files and projects.

A great way of preventing dust and crumb build-up is to not snack at your desk, but for some, that might be too much.

9. Clear out your cubby – once a week

If you have a cubby or locker at work, make sure that you sort through it once a week or so to make sure that it doesn’t overflow and get disgusting.

It’s easy to treat lockers as a place for things you might one day need but will in fact never use, out of sight out of mind. This is an unproductive use of space, and will likely mean that you need to keep your things at your desk, making your work environment sub-optimal and more full of distractions.

10. Deep clean the kitchen – once a week

The kitchen will be a far nicer area to use if it’s deep cleaned at least once a week. The nice thing is that you can arrange this on a rota – even if there are only 4 people working in your office, that means each person cleans the kitchen once a month, a mere 12 times a year.

Make sure that you take all food out of the cupboards and the fridge, so you can clean in the corners and get any dust or spilled food. If you do this regularly, it should never become too disgusting. Little and often and the kitchen will remain clean, and the task will never be too much to handle.

Want our team to handle office cleaning for you? Get in touch today for a bespoke quote and insights into how we can keep your workspace hygienic, sanitised and regularly maintained.