Housekeeping Changes Made Easy

If you wish to upgrade your facility housekeeping program, it is imperative that step #1 be to optimize your cleaning program--Use the least amount of labor and materials to achieve the best results ever.

No matter how you look at it, cleaning is at the very heart of housekeeping. Cleaning directly impacts the degree of success of most other housekeeping functions. I always urge clients to deal with cleaning first.

Being able to quickly access the best products is not easy because products are sold without standardized performance ratings being required on literature, MSDS Sheets, or container labels.

Vendors tend to migrate toward the easiest protocol for closing a sale... price. Value cannot be determined with only one factor.

Achieving maximum housekeeping results at the lowest costs requires using the very best performing products in conjunction with effective staff training and empowerment. Objective and proactive managers will be able to develop a highly-productive and self-motivated staff.

   Where does one begin when they set out to upgrade their housekeeping program?  Begin by establishing the difference between problems and symptoms. For example... Chair and furniture glides, patient walkers, etc. are usually the first to be blamed as the problem for causing ugly scuff marks in glossy floor finish. Yet, the real culprit is the detergent used to make up the washing solution--poor cleaning results translate into left-behind soil residue.

   The scuff marks were symptoms (messenger) of an under-performing detergent that left a soil film as it dried. The film would build after each washing and the build-up was transferred to the glide surface which in-turn abraded against the floor finish to cause the scuff mark.

   A "trial and error" approach to conquering challenges is counterproductive at best. It's too costly, time consuming, and demoralizing. A team approach to working through symptoms to dig out problems is positive and rewarding.

Here are a few symptoms that are directly caused by under-performing general or restroom detergents:

1. Wet mops that have to be machine washed in order to remove accumulated, sticky soil emitting offensive odors.

2. Mop buckets and wringers with a repulsive and germ-infested soil buildup that need to be scrubbed clean.

3. Baseboards and grout that blacken after repeated mopping and periodically need to be scrubbed clean.

4. Bathroom showers, tubs, sinks, and drinking fountains surfaces that become dull with embedded soiled and faucets, valves, etc. with edges and spaces that become encrusted with soap scum, rust, mildew, etc. As soil builds, odors will become permanent and intensify.

5. A floor burnishing routine that fills the air with dust created from pulverizing the soil-infested left-behind film caused by neutral detergents, disinfectant detergents, or other marginally-effective detergents.

6. Having to periodically "gang-clean" restrooms, showers, locker rooms, baseboards, door jambs, staircase surfaces, floor & wall grout, etc. i.e. Something that is washed regularly should never need "gang-cleaning"... If all soil is removed each time washing takes place, a soil build-up should never come-to-pass.

   Bottom Line: Housekeeping excellence and facility healthiness begin with thorough and efficient cleaning practices. You should not test a new floor finish until your facility can be cleaned well on a daily schedule within normal time parameters. Our Art of Cleaning cold water detergent cleaning system will allow you to achieve pristine results for dramatically less than your present labor and material costs.

   After the cleaning program is in place, and before starting a new floor finish system, set up your door mat program. It is important to have a door mat cleaning procedure in place before laying down the first mat. What a door mat collects for virtually free will cost you much more to retrieve after being distributed through-out the facility.

   Next, when your present floor finish begins to work better, it is time to test our Ultra Gloss high-performance "Wet Look" Floor Finish System... Stripping of Ultra Gloss is not required for up to 8 years or more.

   After the Ultra Gloss System is in place, turn to cleaning carpets with Tantum-1 cold water carpet detergent--spray on carpet and run only cold water through the extractor. Carpets act as up-side-down dust mops during the housekeeping upgrade process. All of the collected soil will be removed with only one extraction pass after spraying on Tantum-1.

   After the carpets are cleaned, the facility should be in a safe and pristine condition. You should be able to achieve all of this for up to 50% less than your present housekeeping costs.