A few years ago, an office was busy from Monday to Friday and empty at night. Now many offices are half full on Tuesdays, packed on Wednesdays and near-empty on Fridays — and the desks themselves are shared. A cleaning schedule written for the old pattern wastes money on the quiet days and falls short on the busy ones.
Clean for the days people are in
The simplest change is to move the heaviest cleaning to match attendance. If the office is busiest Tuesday to Thursday, those nights get the full clean, and Monday and Friday become lighter visits — bins, kitchens, washrooms and a check of the shared areas.
Cleaning an empty desk every night for a team that's at home three days a week is money spent on nothing. Cleaning it once a week when it's used every day is a health complaint waiting to happen.
Shared desks need a different routine
Hot desks are used by several people, so the surfaces people touch — desk, keyboard, mouse, phone, monitor edge — are worth sanitising every night they were in use. Personal desks, where one person has been in and out, need less.
Ask staff to clear their desks at the end of the day. A cleaner can't wipe a surface covered in paper, and a clear-desk habit makes every clean more effective.
Talk to us when the pattern changes
Attendance drifts. A team that starts with two office days often ends up with three. Review the schedule every few months, and tell your cleaning company when the pattern changes — a good one will adjust without renegotiating a contract, which is exactly how our office cleaning is set up.
Our guide to how often an office should really be cleaned is a good place to start when you're rebuilding a schedule.
Clean for how the office is used now, not how it was used in 2019.
The short answer
Match the cleaning to attendance, sanitise shared desks on the nights they're used, encourage clear desks, and review the schedule every few months. A flexible office deserves a flexible cleaning contract.