Disinfecting Office Spaces Safely During the Pandemic

When it comes to thoroughly cleaning your office, there’s more to it than the standard sanitizing. The disinfection process that comes after it has been become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the threat of viruses and bacteria is minimized with the help of commercial cleaning services.

When you’re not getting a visit from janitorial cleaning services to disinfect common surfaces (and some that aren’t so common), you should follow certain protocols when doing the job yourself.

Sanitize First, Then Disinfect

First off, you should properly sanitize areas first with soap or detergent, which will set the stage for the second step, disinfection. Only choose disinfectants that are approved with a drug identification number (DIN). In many cases, a water and bleach solution can be used to disinfect hard surfaces, but make sure you never mix bleach with ammonia or rubbing alcohol products. (A good rule of thumb is to never mix any cleaning products.) You or your staff should wear gloves during this process, as well as other PPE such as masks and gowns in case of splashing.

Don’t dry or wash the surfaces off right away after disinfection – follow the directions for how long it takes for the disinfectant to work (it could be several minutes.)

Disinfectant Wipes are Handy

Another thing you can do between visits from commercial janitorial services is use disinfectant wipes. These wipes may also take several seconds to minutes to destroy pathogens, so let the surface stay wet. You should only clean one area at a time, and toss away the wipe afterwards to avoid contamination. Target the most highly-touched areas first such as phones, doorknobs, light switches, desks, faucets, and kitchen facilities. Meanwhile, trained commercial cleaning services can reach all surfaces using advanced disinfection techniques including fogging.

Since you can’t be cleaning or having janitorial cleaning services stand by all day, you should also follow proper protocols to reduce the chance of infection. That includes using the disinfectant wipes as well as making hand sanitizer available, preferably with about 70% alcohol content. Make sure you’ve put up adequate signage to remind employees to wash their hands and communicate how important hygiene and physical distancing is to reduce risk of illness.

Learn more about the importance of commercial janitorial services in keeping your workplace sanitized and disinfected from Arelli Cleaning.