Posted on

Top 5 Cleaning Mistakes Businesses Make (And How To Avoid Them)

Successful businesses understand the importance of a clean environment for both employees and customers. Although it may not seem like a difficult task, maintaining a cleanly appearance and hygienic space takes careful routine and commitment to keep your facility’s appearance at its best. Here are the top cleaning mistakes business owners make, and how you can avoid them.

Using the Wrong Cleaning Products

Invest in cleaning products that are appropriate for the surfaces they are being used on, and read the labels to ensure safety. Disinfect cleaning equipment regularly and be sure to replace any worn equipment for the best results.

Not Cleaning Frequently Enough

Establish a regular cleaning schedule that includes daily cleaning tasks, and weekly or monthly deep cleaning tasks. Consistency is key.

Not Following Instructions

Read product instructions carefully and train your employees on how to use each product and equipment. All employees who perform cleaning tasks should be consistent in performing their duties and using the correct materials for each task.

Overlooking Important Areas

Your daily cleaning routine should include wiping down high-touch surfaces, and using disinfectant cleaners to help reduce the spread of germs. In addition to cleaning your restrooms and kitchen daily, be sure to replenish supplies such as soap and toilet tissue to avoid running out. Regularly change the air filters in your facility to maintain healthy air quality.

Not Hiring Professional Cleaning Services

The best way to avoid these common mistakes is to hire a professional commercial cleaning company. Invest in a general cleaning program by C.M. Cleaning Company, customized to fit your unique business needs and exceed your expectations.

Posted on

Your Commercial Cleaning Company Can Help Reduce Maintenance Costs

Your facility’s commercial cleaning company keeps your building clean year-round from top-to-bottom. Did you know cleaning staff has the capability to help reduce overall maintenance costs and improve building safety? Be proactive in preventing building maintenance issues by asking your commercial cleaning company the following:

Condition of Ventilation Systems

Those who clean your facility daily may notice buildup or blockages in your vents. Dusty vents not only impact healthy indoor air quality, but can also increase energy costs and create a fire hazard.

Leaks and Water Damage

It is crucial to stop water damage as early as possible. From clogged drains, stains on walls, to malfunctioning soap dispensers, your cleaners may be among the first to notice signs of water damage.

Signs of Pests

Exterminators must be called at the first sign of any pest or rodent infestation, but your cleaners may see the signs before you do! While they pay careful attention sweeping, mopping, and wiping surfaces, they are sure to pick up on any rodent droppings or lingering insects.

Electrical Issues

As they clean around every nook and cranny, your cleaners get a close up view of wires and outlets that you don’t see every day. Although they cannot diagnose electrical problems, they may notice if something seems off.

Building Security

When wiping down glass doors and windows, your cleaners will be sure to tell if there are any issues with locking or closing. Additionally, if your building uses a pass-card or similar system to access, your cleaners can quickly realize if your security system is not working properly.

C.M. Cleaning Company strives to exceed your expectations, and provide value to your investment in cleanliness and beyond.

Posted on

Restroom Cleaning: 5 High-Touch Surfaces You Can’t Miss

Many types of viruses and bacteria are easily spread in restrooms. In addition to toilets, there are many surfaces in restrooms that harbor bacteria. To prevent germ transmission, here are 5 high-touch surfaces in restrooms that you can’t miss:

Door Handles

With each time a person enters or exits a restroom, germs are transferred from the hands onto the door handle, and vice versa. Cleaning and disinfecting door handles regularly can drastically help in preventing the spread of germs.

Dispensers and Hand Dryers

For restrooms that do not have touchless soap and paper towel dispensers, it is important to regularly clean and disinfect any of these “push-style” dispensers because they can harbor bacteria. Another way to be proactive is to place paper towel dispensers and a trash can near the door. This allows visitors and staff to use the paper towel to open the door after washing hands.

Light Switches

Especially in bathrooms with only one stall, a light switch may manually have to be turned on and off with each use. Make sure these receive proper attention too!

Grab Rails

Rails should also be cleaned frequently. Avoid using abrasive tools and solutions to ensure the rails do not rust or get damaged. It is best to use a microfiber cloth and the proper disinfectant solution. Follow instructions on the disinfectant’s label on dwell time and if it should be wiped or air dried.  

Restroom Stalls

In addition to door latches, toilets, and floors, do not forget about the walls! Stall walls are often overlooked, but can be covered in bacteria due to flushing toilets.

In developing protocols for regular cleaning of high-touch surfaces in your facility, you can help prevent the spread of germs and create a healthier environment for all! C.M. Cleaning Company’s general cleaning programs and disinfecting services can help you get there.

Posted on

Reducing the Spread of Germs in Your Office: Tips from Commercial Cleaners

While performing their daily tasks, office personnel constantly interact with the tools their work stations. From stapling a packet of important forms to borrowing a coworker’s pen, it is very easy for germs to spread throughout an office. Germs can be spread through direct exposure such as sneezing, or simply by touching a contaminated surface. Here are some tips from professional commercial cleaners to help reduce the spread of germs in your space:

Keep Disinfectant Wipes Handy

Make wiping down desks, tables, keyboards, and other common touch surfaces a daily habit. Microbes such as the common cold can live on a surface for up to 72 hours. Frequent use of disinfectant wipes is a great way to slow the spread of germs and viruses by keeping touch surfaces constantly sanitized for the next person who comes in contact.

Wash Hands Regularly

Regularly washing your hands is crucial in preventing the spread of germs. Hand washing kills most bacteria: If an employee touches a shared tool or shakes another employee’s hand, germs are much less likely to spread when hands are clean. It is especially important to wash your hands after using the bathroom and before eating.

Install Hand Sanitizer Dispensers

Like disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer is designed to kill most bacteria on your hands. Installing hand sanitizer stations throughout your office allows employees’ hands to stay sanitized and perform tasks without worry of contracting germs. Dispensers can be installed in hallways, kitchens, and conference rooms for easy communal access.

Office desk disinfecting services, Safe Workplace,

Stay Home When Sick

The best way to prevent germs from spreading is by keeping them out in the first place. Especially during COVID-19 and flu season, sickness and viruses are common. If you have symptoms such as coughing or sneezing, the best way to keep everyone else safe is for you to stay home. Allowing yourself to rest will help you recover faster, and keep your coworkers healthy too!

Not only are employees more productive when they have a clean workspace, they stay healthier too! Our cleaners and technicians are trained in accordance with OSHA and Global BioRisk Advisory Council (GBAC) to help you achieve the highest level of clean for ultimate peace of mind.

Posted on

Essential Winter Floor Care Tips

Floors are a huge investment that must be protected to maintain a good perception of your business. Day-to-day foot traffic can wreak havoc on floors over time, especially during months where snow, ice, salt, and other soils are being tracked through your facility. Floor maintenance during cold months can seem like a complicated task, here are a few essential tips to get you started:

Focus on Entrance Zones: Implement a dual entry mat system that includes scraper and carpet mats. The blades on scraper mats will scrape grime and debris off shoes before entering the building, and carpet mats will pick up the excess debris.

Clean Floors Frequently: It is important to regularly mop entryways and other floors throughout a facility. This will remove salt, ice melt, and other soils and help reduce water accumulation from snow and ice. Utilizing an ice-melt neutralizer additive to your mop bucket helps tremendously when dealing with heavy salt.

Protect floors in winter

Conduct Periodic Deep Cleaning: In addition to daily cleaning, conducting regular deep cleanings will help extend the lifetime of floors and restore them back to a like-new condition. Depending on the type of flooring, deep cleanings can range anywhere from a machine scrub to high-pressure ‘Rotovac’ with acid wash.

Address Damage ASAP: If there is water damage in your building, it should be taken care of as soon as possible to prevent further damage. Whether it is a coffee spill or flooding from a pipe burst, our carpet technicians are IICRC certified in Water Extraction and are equipped to handle any carpet cleanup.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY,

Work with an Experienced Company: You always get what you pay for, and when hiring a professional cleaning service you can have peace of mind that the job is being performed and managed the right way. From the type and grade of the cleaning chemicals being used to the method the cleaning is being done, your cleaning company should be meticulous about the service they are providing.

Winter is a hard time for your floors, so for the best floor care program hire the professionals at C.M. Cleaning Company! Our trained and certified cleaning technicians will keep your facility clean, healthy, and looking like new all Winter long!

Posted on

Are Your Cleaners Ready To Handle A Pandemic?

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, everyone scrambled to keep their families, customers, and community members safe and healthy. Very quickly, cleaning technicians became essential workers with some of the most important roles on the frontline of the deadly virus. But now with the ultimate responsibility, were cleaners in America ready? Since our inception, C.M. Cleaning Company has made continuous learning, training, and certification a priority. From building safety courses to cross contamination prevention, managers and cleaners at C.M. alike were confident and ready to do their part. After all, our client-focused cleaning programs have always been our primary focus in keeping our community safe and healthy. 

Classroom cleaning workers

Without proper training, one runs the risk of putting themselves or others in exposure to illness. This is why all our dedicated cleaning staff, full and part time, are trained in accordance with OSHA standard guidelines. This safety training is primarily done through quarterly interactive training courses which cover bloodborne pathogens, sexual harassment, personal protective equipment, and hazardous materials safety. Our comprehensive cleaning training program consists of both a customized presentation on C.M. Cleaning’s specific procedures relating to restroom cleaning, interior building cleaning, and equipment maintenance along with a 2-day hands on session with an Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) certified management staff or any of our special service technicians. 

Along with our baseline training program, the Global BioRisk Advisory Council (GBAC), provides C.M. Cleaning technicians certification and training on specifically how to handle disinfecting and sanitizing specific to COVID-19/Coronavirus. Through this training, all of our employees are professionals in properly cleaning and disinfecting areas that have been potentially exposed to COVID-19. Certifying our cleaners and technicians is crucial to maintaining a healthy workplace. Through this additional and COVID-specific training course, our clients will be able to trust the quality of C.M. Cleaning’s technicians, janitorial programs, and special services, bringing peace of mind to your facility and workforce. 

Posted on

Hand Sanitizer Damage To Hard Flooring

The ‘new normal’ that we have all adapted to amidst the fear of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic has shown the use of hand sanitizer at an all-time high. While hand sanitizer stations play a key role in workplace and school health safety, they do pose major problems to the appearance and protection of hard surface flooring!

Vinyl Composite Tile otherwise know as VCT, Faux Wood Flooring, and even some types of laminate flooring  have protective polymer finishes, often referred to as “wax”. This floor finish provides a glossy protective layer between the bare tile and everything that comes into contact with it. Hard flooring is porous in nature, so without proper finish dirt, bacteria, and allergens can seep in creating both a dirty appearance and a health risk.

So where does hand sanitizer come into play of the appearance of flooring? Alcohol based hand sanitizer can very easily fall or run off your hand landing onto the finish of the floor. This very quickly deteriorates the floors finish. While alcohol-based hand sanitizers are most effective, it is strongly recommended that you take precautions to avoid damage to flooring.

Dirty classroom floor

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

  • Sanitizer dispensers can be equipped with drip trays that catch any excess sanitizer coming out of the dispenser.
  • Switch from a liquid or gel sanitizer product to a foam style sanitizer which clings to hands and does not run off.
  • Setup all sanitizer stations over an area rug, mat, or carpet which will hide the sanitizer and not leave alcohol burn marks like what shows up on the floor finish.
Hand sanitizing station tips

By taking these 3 simple steps together we can all be healthier, prevent the spread of illness, and maintain the clean appearance of our facilities!

Tile floor mid cleaning

If your floor has already been damaged, give us a call to strip and re-apply 5 coats of 25% solids polymer finish to bring your floor back to new!

Call: (781) 828-2014 or visit: www.cmcleaning.com/contact to book today!

Posted on

Cleaning & Disinfection Requirements For Businesses To Reopen From COVID-19

At this time many businesses are beginning to reopen, and others are increasing staffing and personnel. C.M. Cleaning wants to help all businesses owners and directors with regard to some of the new workplace safety standards that the Department of Public Health mandates for all businesses moving forward. To make this easier for you we have developed our 3 step program to ensure the safety of your workplace.

We understand the requirements for the “new normal” of cleaning and disinfecting can be difficult to navigate. C.M. Cleaning has this aspect of the DPH’s mandates covered in 3 straight-forward steps.

Safe Workplace

If you’d like to learn more about our electrostatic disinfect spraying services, please follow the link below to our informative video:
https://youtu.be/6pJJjbcKCdo

Posted on

Complete Building Disinfect Spraying With Clorox Total 360 Disinfectant System

Wintertime brings snow sports, holidays, and plenty of family time. However it also brings with it elevated concern for the spread of illness during flu season.  It seems no matter which way you look, there is a friend, child, or coworker coming down with a cold, flu, strep throat, or even pneumonia. Beyond these “normal” seasonal illnesses, in 2020 we now on alert due to the spread of Corona Virus.

With such a variety of illnesses, germs, and bacteria to worry about, what steps can be taken to ensure you stay healthy this winter? Besides the obvious handwashing, covering your cough or sneeze with your elbow and practicing good nutrition, there may be more you can be doing! In crowded environments such as schools, hospitals, gyms or your workplace, it is paramount that you talk with your janitorial service provider to see what additional services they offer as proactive measures to reduce the spread of germs and bacteria.

                C.M. Cleaning Company’s answer is the new state-of-the-art Clorox 360 Total Disinfectant System. This machine combines the disinfecting power of Clorox cleaning agents with electrostatic spraying technology making virtually any surface in your facility able to be disinfected. This machine emits an electrostatically charged mist, that immediately clings to any surface it is aimed at. This greatly reduces the amount of airborne chemical, and ensures that whatever surface is sprayed, is completely disinfected.

The Clorox 360 Treatment will:

– Kill 99.9% of all bacteria on these items

– Kill 44 potential organisms including cold and flu viruses, MRSA, Staph, Coronavirus, and norovirus

– Eliminate odors (especially in any bathrooms)

– Inhibit the growth of mold and mildew

The Clorox Total 360 disinfecting cleaning agent is NOT a bleach, so it is safe on colored materials and fabric and is EPA registered to kill 19 illness-causing organisms in 2 minutes or less. This one-step, “no-wipe” disinfectant is safe to spray on virtually any surface. From keyboards to telephones, door handles to cafeteria tables and countertops, Clorox Total 360 disinfects them all! This winter allow C.M. Cleaning to give you confidence and peace of mind!

Posted on

Ensuring Chemical Safety

In early November 2019 in Burlington, MA, a Buffalo Wild Wings employee accidentally mixed an acid-based cleaner with bleach when cleaning their kitchen floors. This caused for toxic fumes to generate and fill the air, resulting in one fatality and up to 13 injuries to other customers and workers. This tragic occurrence should be viewed by all members of the janitorial industry as an example as to why proper chemical use training is vitally important. Mixing unknown chemicals can be extremely dangerous and should always be avoided.

At C.M. Cleaning, we spend ample time educating our staff of the dangers of mixing unknown chemicals. Using chemicals with appropriate dilution, labeling, and instruction is key to a safe workplace. We work hard at being knowledgeable of our cleaning chemicals, ensuring our dispensing equipment is in working order, and that our bottles and storage our properly labeled. When it comes to chemical use, safety is top priority! For your own personal health and safety, please see the helpful tips below

  1. Never mix any cleaning products. Even if a chemical mixture does not give off fumes, it can still be dangerous. Once used, some cleaning products can leave behind residue or low quantities of liquid that may be harmful to the skin. Without the proper training, one may not know that combining seemingly harmless cleaning products can still be dangerous.
  • Bleach and mixed products. Mixing bleach with any product can lead to the generation of toxic chlorine gas which may result in a variety of respiratory illnesses or even death. It is crucial to take an incident where bleach is mixed with cleaning products very seriously.
  • If chemicals are mixed, here are the next steps to take.
  • At first sign of a gaseous substance or respiratory distress, immediately evacuate the area and move to a well-ventilated area, preferably the outdoors. Do not attempt to clean up the mixture yourself.
  • If you have inhaled any amount of gas or suspect that you have, call 911 and seek immediate medical attention. If you have not inhaled any gas, call poison control and have all relevant Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) ready and available.