With the advent of COVID-19, most workplaces went from worrying about getting the trash emptied daily to how to disinfect an office and implement social distancing.

As frightening as the coronavirus pandemic was, primarily when so little was known about it initially, most Americans found comfort in the cleaning and sanitizing procedures businesses and offices began to employ.

But not everyone is doing it thoroughly, and not everyone is doing it right. There are specific sanitation guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting any space, and if they aren’t followed, you may end up with a clean workspace that looks lovely but isn’t disinfected.

Are Office Sanitizing, Cleaning, and Disinfecting the Same?

They are not the same things. According to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting schools, these are separate but complementary actions.

  • Sanitizing happens through cleaning and disinfection procedures and refers to lowering the number of germs to an acceptable level according to sanitation guidelines in a given location.
  • Cleaning is what you do to remove dirt and pathogens from a surface; soap does not always kill germs, but it does work to remove them from surfaces.
  • Disinfecting kills germs but doesn’t necessarily involve cleaning, although any commercial disinfecting procedures will clean, disinfect, and sanitize.

How to Disinfect an Office in 6 Simple Steps

Having a cleaning and sanitizing procedure in place is crucial to maintaining the health of employees and the safety of a workplace. Knowing how to disinfect office equipment and furniture can mean the difference between your company functioning well and weeks of productivity lost to illnesses.

The novel coronavirus can also mean the literal difference between life and death for you or your employees.

Knowing things like how to clean correctly and what it means to sanitize equipment is vital to doing the job correctly.

1. Have a Plan

One of the biggest mistakes office workers and employers make is somehow believing that stuff will get cleaned and taken care of or that just wiping down the counters in the break room after someone spills coffee is the same thing as cleaning. When deciding how to disinfect an office, a design has to be in place.

If yours is an office in which its occupants are involved in the cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing of the place, everyone needs to be aware of what needs to be cleaned, when, and how often. This will contribute to the general health and welfare of the office workers and slow the spread of COVID-19.

2. Use Disinfectant on All Surfaces Regularly

A 2012 study conducted by scientists at the University of Arizona found that desks and other office space surfaces are disgusting places teeming with bacteria and germs. At the very least, part of your plan needs to involve inducing all employees to clean and disinfect their workspace at the very least twice a day (at the beginning and end of the workday), if not more often.
Use disinfectant wipes and be sure to hit all of the following:

  • Computer keyboard or your laptop
  • Mouse or trackball
  • Stapler, tape dispenser, and other supplies that see regular use
  • All exposed desktop surfaces
  • Don’t forget the arms of your office chair

Be sure that someone covers the disinfection of (again, wipes will suffice) light switches and doorknobs. If there are other areas that get touched regularly, they need to be disinfected at least once a day as well.

3. Clean and Disinfect Common Areas

Specifically, your break rooms, conference rooms, and other shared spaces get lots of traffic, and while the break room tends to see more food moving in and out of it, the conference room does see the occasional donuts or other snacks during meetings.

In addition to being sure these hard surfaces (tables, countertops, door handles) get disinfected, you must always ensure that crumbs do not get left behind. Before disinfection, cleaning these areas can help deter pests, which can be just as problematic as the viruses we aim to remove when disinfecting office space.

According to Washington State University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, mice attracted by food left on surfaces can bring in diseases including:

  • Coli-related illnesses
  • Giardia
  • Hantavirus
  • Leptospirosis
  • Salmonella

Roaches can be just as frightening, possibly carrying pathogens like:

  • Cholera
  • Dysentery
  • Gastroenteritis
  • Listeriosis
  • Typhoid Fever

These pests can be kept at bay by simply daily cleaning even without a disinfection procedure. Anything we can do to keep surfaces clean will contribute to a clean workplace.

4. Spend Time Each Day on the Restrooms

Pragmatically, this will help with unpleasant odors. CDC guidelines for offices and restrooms encourage cleaning high-touch surfaces in bathrooms multiple times each day. At the very least, office restrooms need to be cleaned and disinfected every single day.

Remember, too, that in our post-COVID times, handwashing is encouraged more than it has even been before. This means offices must be more vigilant about keeping restroom supplies, including hand sanitizer, stocked. Restroom traffic will be increased due to extra hand hygiene needs, and with that increase comes the need for an increase in the frequency of cleaning the areas.

5. Empty the Trash

An easy task that no one likes, emptying the trash can make a massive difference in the cleanliness of an office. Taking garbage out will not disinfect anything; you need chemicals for that. However, like the break room food mentioned above, full trash bins can attract visitors.

Also, an overflowing trash can is unsightly and leads to trash falling out onto the floor, and spills can call unwanted guests again.

Even if the office uses a cleaning service, office employees should be inculcated to empty their own trash if the can gets full. In this area of office life, the phrase “That’s not my job” should not exist.

6. Vacuum

Cleaning soft floor surfaces like carpets and fabric mats should be done with vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters and, if possible, should happen when the office is unpopulated.

Vacuuming does not disinfect, but remember that cleaning and disinfecting work together to sanitize a location. What it does is remove the daily detritus that accumulates from traffic and occupying a space. We track in dirt and grime from the streets and sidewalks; we shed dead skin cells everywhere we go; we grab something to snack on while we walk from here to there.

All of that builds up to make for a dirty floor, and crumbs can beckon to bugs and other unwanted visitors.

Daily vacuuming of high-traffic areas should be a priority, and lower-traffic spots in the office need attention at least weekly.

Smart Tips for the Effective Office Disinfection

Following the above steps will help ensure the health and safety of office workers. Below are some tips to help make the best of the cleaning efforts whether your office uses a professional cleaning service or if office disinfecting and cleaning is up to the workers themselves.

Use “clean equipment” here or in the points below.

Wipe in One Direction in Disinfection Procedure

Use a microfiber cloth for best results, but even if you’re just using paper towels, once you’ve wiped a surface with disinfectant, don’t reverse direction and wipe it again. Doing so makes it possible to redeposit germs you just picked up.

Use Protective Gear When Possible

Even something as simple as an anti-dust keyboard cap cover can make for easier-to-clean equipment. Essentially a shower cap for your keyboard, this kind of protective gear can be wiped down quickly without any concerns about getting cleaning liquids down in it.

Added bonuses include no crumbs getting in your keyboard, and if you sneeze on it, you can just wipe it off with a disinfecting wipe.

Don’t Forget the Refrigerator

Food left in there will eventually mold. At best, it will smell bad. At worst, that mold can spread and get into the air. And the inside of the fridge isn’t the only place to keep in mind. When we mention high-touch surfaces, everyone who opens the fridge touches the door handle. Does anyone in your office not open the refrigerator at least once a day?

What Are the CDC Guidelines for Offices?

The CDC recommends cleaning and disinfecting high-traffic areas multiple times per day. Their guidelines for disinfecting include provisions for offices that have been shut down for extended periods, as well as day-to-day cleaning and disinfecting. The agency had collected its guidelines for a wide variety of business types on its Workplaces and Businesses page.

Final Points on Disinfecting Office Spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we interact, probably forever. It has also caused us to think much more purposefully about cleaning and how to disinfect office space, furniture, and equipment.

Following the cleaning steps listed above will put your office ahead of the game in keeping your employees as safe and healthy as possible. Even as the coronavirus begins to wane, we will likely remain a nation of people more conscious of cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing our surroundings.

Get Your Office Disinfected with Mint Conditions’ Professional Cleaning Services

Despite all these steps and tips about cleaning your office spaces, and no matter how conscientious your workers are about cleaning, you’ll be best served by a professional service, which is why Mint Condition should be your first call. Mint Condition will work with your business to form a cleaning and disinfecting plan that works best for you.

FAQs Related to Office Disinfecting

Are you still wondering about this or that? Here are some frequently asked questions you may be holding onto.

How Often Should an Office Be Disinfected?

High-touch and high-traffic surfaces and areas should be disinfected at least once per day. Areas that don’t see as much traffic can be disinfected as occasionally as once a week. If a sick employee has been in the office, all these frequencies should increase for at least one day.

How Long Can Viruses and Germs Live on Surfaces?

The answer to this will vary depending on the virus or germ and the surface, but the elephant in the room these days is the novel coronavirus. According to the Houston Methodist health system, this particular virus can live up to three days on non-porous surfaces like stainless steel, and as long as a day on cardboard and other paper products.

General medicine has come to agree that it is unlikely one can contract COVID-19 through handling mail.

Still, knowing these lifespans means we are responsible to ourselves and each other to disinfect surfaces, whether it’s commercial disinfecting or simply using wipes and washing our hands regularly.

Does Table Disinfection Work in Workplaces?

Table disinfection works, provided it is done regularly. Tables are generally high-touch areas, in which case they need disinfection at least once a day. Higher traffic requires a higher rate of disinfection. Since tabletops are nonporous surfaces, they are easily disinfected.

What Kinds of Disinfectants and Cleaners Are Effective Against Covid-19 in Offices?

The CDC guidelines for cleaning products recommend:

  • Chlorine bleach and bleach solutions
  • Commercial products containing quaternary ammonium compounds, which include Simple Green, Lysol, and Pine-Sol products, among others
  • Alcohol-based hand sanitizers and cleaning products with at least 60 percent alcohol (concentrations much high than this can dry out too soon and not fully disinfect the area)
  • Hydrogen peroxide