Like every great employer, you’ve created the best office break room you possibly could. A little sanctuary for a quick cuppa, a long and lounging lunch break – or just somewhere for the team to catch their breath between meetings.
Break rooms are brilliant. They’re able to adapt to anything; from after hours socials and office gatherings, to informal meetings and quiet solo work. But being an all-purpose space, they tend to get really mucky. And fast.
Jam on toast becomes crumbs and sticky spots. Team pizza night leaves greasy marks all over the place. And you can only flip those sofa cushions once.
At The Abbey Cleaning Service, we’ve just about seen it all – so let’s ask our office cleaners how to tackle the most common cleaning needs of office break rooms.
How do you clean the office break room sofa?
Every time we see a nice, inviting office sofa – it’s the same story. Hello, crumbs! No matter how carefully your team eats lunch on a sofa, some bits are always going to escape. And on fabric sofas, we see arm rests getting grubby and sticky, as well as inevitable spills leaving marks. So, here’s how we tackle office sofa cleaning.
First, we brush off the crumbs and take out the removable cushions, giving them a pat and shake. If the frame or cushions are particularly dusty and dirty, we’ll give it a run around with a vacuum cleaner attachment – paying special attention to the corners. If there’s some discoloration or stickiness (jam, we’re looking at you), you can try a baking soda trick; dust the fabric with it, and leave it to set in for half an hour or so. Then, use the brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner to scrub and suck the baking soda – and hopefully, the sticky patchers – away.
Deep staining is going to take a little more action, though. Depending on the fabric, an on-the-fly upholstery cleaner made with vinegar, soap and warm water could help work out the worst of a stain – but it might be time to call a professional cleaning service for help.
Cleaning wooden tables, chairs and benches
One trend we see a lot in office break rooms now is wooden furniture; lunch tables, chairs and benches. We totally get it – wood is warm and comfortable to touch, with a softness that flatpack and metal furniture just can’t match. And of course, wooden furniture is lovely to look at!
But with eight busy people eating lunch together, that lovely wooden table (and the benches and chairs acting as seating for it) is going to experience a lot of spills in a short space of time. And wood doesn’t like to have sticky, greasy food resting on it. Unlike laminated wipe-clean surfaces, wood is porous, meaning anything spilled on it can eventually soak in deeply.
To avoid grubby, sticky, greasy marks becoming imprinted into the wood, we would firstly wipe off all the crumbs and dust with a clean dry cloth, before lightly applying a 50/50 mix of warm water and vinegar with a sponge. We don’t want to scrub hard or scour, because that can damage the wood – we just want to blot out grease and sticky areas with the acid in the vinegar. You could use a soft toothbrush to get into nooks, though.
It might take a couple of passes to clear, but once you’re done, use clean water and a clean cloth to rinse away the vinegar, and dry the cleaned surfaces as soon as possible. As a bonus – vinegar is disinfecting, too!
Carpets – in the office break room?!
It might seem like hard floors are a better option for a food-filled break room, but carpet can be much more comfortable. Carpets absorb noise, add insulation and generally feel more comfortable underfoot. The only problem is getting spills and trampled-in foods out!
For light spills and patches, you can try the baking soda trick here, too. Sprinkle baking soda onto affected areas and wait for it to work, before scrubbing it out with the vacuum cleaner.
Much of the time, though, the baking soda trick isn’t enough for old and trodden-in stains. And whether it’ll work depends on what kind of carpet you have. We can help – our office carpet cleaning uses professional equipment that brings carpets up to their best, even if they’ve had their fair share of food spills!
Don’t forget the details
We’ve seen some very well-equipped break rooms with ping pong, table football, and even games consoles in them.
These things all gather dust, and get sticky or greasy when they’re used around food. And there’s bound to have been plenty of sticky fingers on light switches, blind controls and TV remotes – so make sure these get a proper clean, too. Remembering all those little details – like cleaning the cobwebs in the ceiling corners and dusting off the light shades – adds up to a beautiful break room that your team will love you for.
Your own team of professional office cleaners
Need some help getting all the crumbs, crusts and cobwebs out of your office break rooms? The Abbey Cleaning Service is a seasoned team of professional office cleaners who know all the tricks of the trade. Call 029 2067 9323 today – and find out how we can help make office cleaning quick and easy, with minimal disruption to your business.
