Cleaning Office Break Rooms
Like many amazing employers, you’ve set up the best office break room you could possibly imagine. A fairly decent space for a quick snack, a much-needed lunch break, or just a place for your people to catch their breath in the course of their busy schedules. Break rooms are amazing. They’re extremely flexible and can be used for a wide range of purposes, from quiet solo work and informal meetings, to fun office gatherings and after-hours socials. However, being a multipurpose space, they tend to get untidy really quickly. Simple tasks like applying jam on toast lead to sticky spots and crumbs everywhere. Pizza lovers leave greasy fingerprints on every surface they can find. Mind you – there is a limit to how many times you can flip those sofa cushions. At Evergreen Cleaning, we’ve seen some really messy and mucky spaces – so let’s ask a team of professional Toronto office cleaners how they go about cleaning office break rooms.
How do you clean the office break room sofa?
Every time we come across a comfy office sofa – the story is always the same. Crumbs everywhere! No matter how carefully your staff eats their meals and snacks on the sofa, some bits are always going to fall in the wrong places. And, with fabric sofas, we often come across sticky and grubby arm rests, as well as some unfortunate spills that leave ugly blemishes. So, here’s how we handle office sofa cleaning: First, we wipe off the crumbs and remove the cushions where possible, giving them a shake and pat. If the cushions or frame are dirty and dusty, we’ll clean them using a vacuum cleaner attachment – paying close attention to the corner. If there’s some discoloration or stickiness, we use a handy trick, which involves dusting the fabric with baking soda and leaving it to set for at least thirty minutes. Next, we use the brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner to suck and scrub the baking soda. In the end, all the sticky patches are usually all gone.
Deep stains are going to take a bit more attention, however. Depending on the fabric, a basic upholstery cleaner made using a mixture of warm water, soap, and vinegar could help remove the stain – but you may need to call in a professional service for assistance.
Cleaning wooden benches, chairs, and tables
A common trend we observe in office break rooms now is wooden furniture, benches, chairs, and lunch tables. We completely understand this – wood is comfortable and warm to touch, with softness that metal furniture just can’t match. Also, wooden furniture is also very appealing to the eye. However, with a team of hungry people having lunch together, that beautiful wooden table (plus the chairs and benches acting as seating for it) is going to be subjected to plenty of spills and not a lot of cleaning. Basically, wooden furniture doesn’t go well with greasy and sticky food. Unlike laminated surfaces, wood is porous, meaning anything spilled on it can eventually be soaked in. To avoid this problem altogether, we would begin by wiping off all the dust and crumbs with a clean dry cloth and then proceed to apply a 50/50 mix of vinegar and warm water with a sponge. We don’t want to scour or scrub hard because doing that may damage the wood. We simply blot out sticky and greasy areas with the mixture. You could also use a soft toothbrush to get to those hard to reaches places. It may take a couple of wipes to clear, but once you’re finished, use a clean cloth and some clean water to rinse away the vinegar, and finally dry the wood as soon as possible. And, to make it even better – vinegar is an amazing disinfectant!
Cleaning Carpets – in the office break room
It may seem wiser to have hard floor in a busy office break room, but carpets offer much more comfort. Carpets provide insulation, absorb noise and generally feel more comfy underfoot. The only issue is getting trampled-in foods and spills out of carpets!
For light patches and spills, you can use the baking soda trick mentioned above. Sprinkle baking soda on the blemished spots and give it some time to work, before getting it out using a vacuum cleaner. Oftentimes, however, the baking soda trick may not be effective on trodden in and old stains. The type of carpet you have will definitely influence how well this trick works. Luckily, we are always there to help. Our office carpet cleaners use high-tech equipment that ensures your carpets are spotless clean, even if they’ve suffered their far share of dirt and debris.
We’ve also come across some really fancy office break rooms with table football, ping pong, and other amazing recreational equipment. All these items gather dust, and get greasy and sticky when they’re used around food. You can bet there will also be no shortage of greasy fingers on TV remotes, blind controls, and light switches – so make sure to have these cleaned as well. Not forgetting these tiny details – such as dusting off the light shades and cleaning the cobwebs in the ceiling corners – adds up to a clean office break room that your staff will enjoy spending time in.
Your own team of professional office cleaners
Need help getting all the cobwebs, crusts, and crumbs out of your break room? Evergreen Cleaning is an experienced team of expert office cleaners who know everything there is to know about the trade. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help make office cleaning easy and convenient, with minimal disruptions to your operations.
