How to Prepare Your Workplace for Winter
Many people focus their efforts on spring cleaning, however, we believe that cleaning in preparation for the winter months is away more important, particularly for businesses.
Above all, workplace safety depends heavily on how well you are prepared for people to track in salt, snow, and ice.
As winter approaches, humidity decrease, and the air becomes much more uncomfortable for employees and customers. Proper cleaning mayeliminate this issue and solve many other cold-weather problems before they occur.
Follow this winter workplace cleaning checklist to get prepared. We’ve also included some cleaning tips to make things easier.
Prepare the Workplace Entrance
Your office entrance becomes extremely challenging to manage when employees and customers are bringing in salt, snow, and ice.
Make sure you’re prepared by having the following supplies
- Floor mats, secured
- Mop and bucket
- Snow guard on the bottom of the door
- Snow shovel outside of the door
- Salt for the parking lot and walkway up
- Storage for boots (if employees wear indoor shoes for work)
When the snow arrives, you’ll have to be vigilant about this area of the property. We recommend this daily routine:
- Make sure floor mats are dry before employees enter the place
- Place wet floor sign when people start to arrive
- Put extra absorbent pads when the mats get overwhelmed
- Mop the floor immediately after people stop coming in
- After work hours, wash and dry floor mats
You can hire a cleaning company to do this cleaning for you on a daily or weekly basis. Cleaning the entrance is very important to prevent damage to the floor and mats.
Learn to Remove Salt
When winter arrives, you may notice that salt stains begin to appear on your floor or entryway mats. These stains are hard and crust-like and will wear away at your flooring.
Salt might also hide in your carpet, making more friction when people walk on it and ruining the carpet over time.
You can call off floor and mat replacements much longer if you routinely remove salt from the floor.
So, how is it done?
You can’t just put water on the floor and expect the salt to resolve. It may look better for a minute, but the salt will re-crystallize and become white again.
As an alternative, you’llhave to apply a salt neutralizer cleaner. These materials have a high pH and will dissolve the salt, in addition to other grime that may be setting on your floor.
But remember, using more cleaning products is not the key to clean floors. Pay attentionto dilution ratios and the amount of chemical you are applying, because using too much chemical may create a haze or streaks on the flooring.
Consider Air Quality
In Canada, cold winter air sharplydecreases our humidity, even for indoor air. So, people are more susceptible to respiratory tract irritation.
Customers and employees with allergies, asthma, and other lung or sinus conditions may be very uncomfortable during winter.
Also, winter means flu season. People don’t usually go out as much for lunch, instead, they spend time eating in close proximity and probably spreading illnesses.
Air quality can help fight this problem, along with daily sanitization of your surfaces, door handles and switches, and bathrooms.
By ensuring air quality, you can make your workplace more comfortable and healthier for everyone, boosting productivity.
Follow these tips to improve your workplace air quality in winter:
- Vacuum with HEPA filters: Vacuums spread a lot of the dust they pick up back into the air. Make sure that your cleaning service uses vacuums that are outfitted with HEPA filters so that their exhaust is clean of dust and germs.
- Find hidden dust: To decrease the volume of dust in your workspace, clean hidden dust on the window frames, mirrors, ceiling fans, and other areas.
- Clean your air ducts: Air ducts can collect hidden dust and debris. Cleaning them routinely will help improve your air quality.
- Use a humidifier: If you have very low humidity, running a humidifier can help keep everyone much more comfortable.
Hire a Professional for Cold Weather Cleaning
It’s faster, simpler, and more cost-effective to hire professionals cleaning service to prepare your workplace for winter.
They have the professional equipment, like specialty cleaners and vacuums with HEPA filters, to make your workplace healthier, cleaner, drier, and more comfortable for the winter. Click here to contact the cleaning service to prepare your workplace for cold weather.