Employees usually go to the kitchen area to de-stress at certain times throughout the day. Having a clean office kitchen shows that your company cares about its employees.
Keeping the cleanliness of your office kitchen is not only a sanitary necessity. This article will tell you why it is vital to maintain the cleanliness of your office kitchen area. It will also provide you with useful tips to keep the office kitchen clean.
How Important Having a Clean Office Kitchen
The office kitchen is one of the areas in an office used by the largest number of people. This place always sees high amounts of usage, especially if it has a coffee machine or fridge.
Considering how often people use the kitchen, it’s expected that it will become a mess by the end of the day. A dirty kitchen can lead to illnesses from the spread of germs and bacteria. This will leave your office short-staffed and add stress to the rest of your employees.
As a business owner, take the time to address the issues of cleanliness in the workplace. This is to maintain a clean and safe work environment.
● Promote Wellness at Work
Having a clean kitchen encourages employees to use the area often. This also urges them to enjoy a healthy lunch or dinner. This means fewer skipped meals and ordering unhealthy takeout foods.
● Prevent Infestation
A messy kitchen usually means having little crumbs filling the area’s surfaces. This will attract all sorts of unwanted guests like bugs, insects, and rodents. As such, it is important to ensure your office doesn’t become a center of infestation.
You can start by not leaving snacks out on the counter tops. Make sure you clean your office kitchen on a regular basis. You can do a regular cleaning schedule for surface-level cleaning. There should also be a larger more in-depth cleaning once a month for hard to reach places. For example, behind the fridge or inside the cupboards.
● Brand Image
Keep in mind that your office is a reflection of your business. An untidy office shows a disorganized, lazy, and uncaring attitude. You don’t want those characteristics to be portrayed to your clients’ impression of your business.
● Unnecessary Distraction
Take note that a messy kitchen is a huge distraction. It is stressful and gross and takes up valuable real estate in your brain. As an employer, you want your employees to be able to do their best work and not be distracted by piles of dirty dishes or an ant outbreak. As such, you should ensure that all areas of your office are clean and organized.
Top Effective Tips to Keep the Office Kitchen Clean and Safe
Keeping your office kitchen clean and tidy may be difficult. It usually takes a group effort and the right cleaning supplies. You might want to put paper towels and multi-surface cleaner on the countertop. Make sure to place essential cleaning tools where the employees can find them. These supplies include a stick broom, dustpan, mop, and bucket.
Here are some top useful tips to keep the office kitchen clean and safe:
● Put in place basic guidelines
You should make a policy to meet the needs of your company. This policy should include the basics. These include cleaning up after yourself and washing your own dishes. Make sure to add a rule to not leave old rotten food in the fridge.
Communicate your rules to all employees through your internal communications. You can have it in the regular staff newsletter or through a group email to all staff.
It is also crucial to include this policy in inductions or manuals for onboarding new staff. This way, everyone coming on board is aware of what they need to do.
You can also make posters or signs to go on the kitchen walls. Doing so will keep the policy visible to everyone. This will also remind them of their responsibilities in the office kitchen.
● Declutter the office kitchen area every quarter
Clutter will happen despite your efforts to keep the office kitchen clean. If you want effective decluttering, you should do this at the start of each season. It means decluttering the office kitchen four times per year.
You can assign different coworkers or employees to help declutter the office kitchen. Assign a small team each season so everyone has a turn. Make sure to ready paper towels, spray disinfectant or wipes, and cleaning gloves. You should also prepare a large trash can and two sorting bins. Label one of the bins “Keep” and the other “Review.”
During the decluttering process, you should remove everything from the cupboards, drawers, and countertops. Place these items in the bins. For those, you want to keep, place them in the “Keep” bin. Place the items you’re unsure of in the “Review” bin.
● Take out the trash as soon as it’s full
You should take the trash out to keep your office kitchen fresh. It prevents bacterial growth as well. You should also take them out if they start to smell awful.
Moreover, don’t forget to clean your trash can. After you empty the trash bin, spray it with a disinfectant spray. Then, put on a pair of gloves and scrub the inside and outside of the bin before you rinse it off.
Do you wish to keep your office clean and safe? Clean My Space CT can help you with your office cleaning. We offer office cleaning services that can get the job done the first time. We also offer residential cleaning and commercial cleaning services. We do disinfection services and move in/move out cleaning as well. For your inquiries, you can call us at (860) 539-8725. You can send us an email as well at info@cleanmyspacect.com and request a quote.
