Durable and available in a wide variety of styles and colors, carpet is one of the most popular flooring choices for both residential and commercial spaces. Choosing the best type of carpet for your office or commercial space is an important decision.   Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to access your flooring needs.

Traffic: Is your office or commercial space in a high traffic area? If so, a low pile carpet is a better choice than a fluffy, high pile carpet. Low pile carpeting is easier to clean and maintain and is less likely to develop a “flattened” appearance over time.

Maintenance: Who will be cleaning and maintaining your carpet? If you have a San Diego office cleaning service in place, do they include regular vacuuming and periodic deep cleaning in their service agreement? Most cleaning services do, but make sure before you assume.

Decor: Coordinating your carpet with the rest of your commercial decor is essential for creating a uniform, professional, polished look.  Many commercial businesses choose neutral-colored carpet for just this reason-it compliments any decor without over-shadowing it.  Just remember: dark carpet will make a room look smaller but is good for hiding stains and spills. Light carpet will make a room look larger but stains and spills will be more readily visible.

Be sure to ask your San Diego office cleaning service for more carpet choosing and carpet cleaning tips.

Most offices have a water cooler and dispensing system, designed to provide employees and visitors with fresh, cold, clean water. In some cases, the company that provides the water will also provide periodic cooler cleanings. Your San Diego office cleaning service may also provide this service as part of their contract service package. In any case, it is sometimes necessary to do the job yourself, in order to maintain the sanitation of your cooler and the water that it dispenses.

Here are some tips to help you:

• Water coolers should be cleaned every three months. Do this before changing the bottle. Unplug the water cooler and prepare a disinfectant solution of bleach and white vinegar.  Use approximately 1 Tablespoon of bleach mixed with one gallon of water or 4 ounces of white vinegar mixed with one quart of water.
• Fill the tank with the solution and use a soft-sided sponge to gently clean the exterior of the tank.  After approximately two minutes, flush the solution through the cold water tap on your water cooler.
• Use clean tap water to rinse and cycle through the tank, reservoir and taps approximately four times.
• Wash the drip tray with warm water and a mild detergent or soap.

The office microwave: a staple in any office kitchen, and possibly one of the dirtiest appliances used by you and your employees on a daily basis. Think about it: when a microwave is dirty, every meal that is cooked in it absorbs the dirt from the previous meals.  If that doesn’t make you want to clean your office microwave, nothing will.

• Unplug your microwave, and in a small, microwave-safe bowl, heat water and a mixture of baking soda (a few teaspoons is all that is needed) for approximately 30 seconds. Let it set for another 30 seconds and then use a soft sponge to remove dirt and debris from the sides and bottom of the oven.
• Heat a second bowl of water  with  a slice of lemon or two teaspoons of lemon juice for 30 seconds and let it sit for another 30. This will deodorize your microwave.
• Be extremely careful with microwave-heated water, which can be very hot even if only heated for a short period of time. Use gloves if necessary to protect yourself from burns.

When it comes to office cleaning, one of the most important, but sadly overlooked areas are office computers. Think about it, and you’ll realize that  most office workers are in constant contact and proximity with their computer over the course of the work day.  Computer screens are subject to dirt and debris in the air, and from the fingers of the people that use them.  Here are some  tips from your San Diego office cleaning company to help keep your computer screens sparkling clean:

• Unplug your computer before cleaning the screen. Otherwise, you run the risk of cleaning solution or water coming into contact with hot electronic components inside of your computer, which can cause these components to short out or corrode.
• Glass computer monitors can be cleaned with a traditional household glass cleaning product. LCD and flat panel monitors require special cleaning solutions.
• Use a lint free absorbent cloth and a small amount of glass cleaner to distribute the cleaning product evenly. Use a second cloth to remove any remaining traces of the cleaning product.
• If your screen has an anti-glare or protective coating, use an absorbent cleaning cloth and plain water to clean it, as glass cleaner cans strip this protective coating over time.

if you are a regular reader of this blog, you may be wondering:what does office lighting have to do with office cleaning and the overall office environment? The answer is quite a lot.  Inadequate lighting can cause eye strain, leading to headaches and loss of productivity. Inadequate lighting can also contribute to a less-than-clean office, since it is hard to spot dirt, stains, and mold in weak light.

When choosing lighting, think soft and bright. Not so soft that you and your employees are (literally) in the dark, but not so bright that it blinds you and leads to eyestrain.  The once-common method of simply installing a series of bright florescent lights in the ceiling has been eclipsed by recommendations by the Illuminating Engineering Society Of North America that a mixture of light and dark areas in work spaces is best for productivity.

Consider installing switches at your employee’s desks that allow them to manually control the lighting levels in their own workstations or work areas. This will help to eliminate complaints from people who prefer lighter or darker work areas than others.

Office keyboard bear the brunt of employee fingertips, crumbs from lunch and snacks, spills, dust, and dirt. Over time, the exterior, as well as the sides and interior of computer keyboards can become very dirty. If not cleaned regularly, dirt and debris can fall into the electronic components of the computer, impairing proper function of the keyboard and possibly other parts of the computer as well, in the case of laptop computers.

• Turn off your computer and unplug the keyboard (if applicable) use a solution specially designed for keyboard cleaning, household glass cleaner, or a solution of 2 teaspoons of white vinegar mixed with two cups of warm water and a soft, absorbent cleaning cloth (moistened only slightly) to clean the top of the keyboard.
• Use a Q-tip and the same cleaning solution or a small amount of rubbing alcohol to clean the sides of the keys.
• Using a can of compressed air, carefully blow the air into the spaces under keys, turning the keyboard (or laptop) upside down to make sure that the dirt and debris are dislodged.

If your office is dusty, it will look less professional. Not only that, but a dusty office can also be bothersome to people with allergies. Dust can carry pollen and other allergens in it, and over time these allergens can accumulate.  Your San Diego office cleaning company likely dusts the counters, picture frames, and other surfaces in your commercial space on a regular basis, but in between visits, here are some dusting tips to keep your office looking great.

Don’t use a feather duster when dusting. This may seem counterproductive to what you’ve heard and seen, but the truth is, feather dusters collect dust and if not properly cleaned, can actually spread dust around the room when used.

Use furniture polish sparingly. Often, a lint-free cloth is all that is needed to remove dust. Using furniture polish on surfaces that are dirty as well as dusty is a good idea, but using furniture polish every time that you dust can actually lead to a build up of the polish on the surfaces of the objects that you dust.

Don’t forget pictures. We mentioned pictures frames in the first paragraph, but the fact is, many people forget that these items, as well as decorative wall hangings and free-standing decorative items should also be dusted periodically.

The office kitchen is one of the most highly-trafficked areas, and as a result of this, one of the dirtiest as well, if not cleaned frequently. The office fridge, usually full of employee lunches and snacks, can become a source of unpleasant odors and spoiled food quickly. Here are some tips to make sure that your office fridge doesn’t suffer a similar fate.

• Establish a 3-day policy. In other words, any food left in the fridge for more than 3 days can be thrown away. This will help to cut down on the number of leftover lunches left behind.
• Require proper storage. Inform employees that any food not stored in a covered container will be thrown away. Food stored on plates or in containers without lids or saran wrap can easily spill and contaminate other food, in addition to creating a mess that someone else will have to clean up.

• Freshen up. A small container of baking soda placed in the back of the fridge will go a long way towards preventing odors caused by spilled or particularly strong food.

Coordinating your office colors can create a polished, professional look. This can extend not only to your furniture, carpet, and decorative items, but to your walls as well. While most people opt for a neutral color, such as beige or white, you shouldn’t feel as though your options are limited to only these choices.

Accent Walls: Consider using a neutral color for three of the walls in each room or office and painting one wall a brighter, more dramatic “accent color.” If this color coordinates with the furnishings in the room, it will help to pull the style of the room together.

Type Of Business: If your business is a daycare center or other kid-friendly enterprise, consider brighter, whimsical colors. Conversely, if you are considering colors for a law firm, darker or neutral colors are a better choice.

Compare Swatches: Before you purchase a paint color, ask for a swatch of the color to take to your office to compare it to the existing color scheme. This will help to avoid unpleasant “surprises” once the paint dries.

In a previous post, we discussed the different types of  wood flooring, an important consideration for anyone considering wood flooring for their San Diego office. When it comes to cleaning and maintaining your wood flooring, keep in mind that some types and styles of wood flooring will require different cleaning methods than others. Ask your San Diego office cleaning service if they have any recommendations for cleaning tips and/or the types and styles of wood floors that are best in terms of durability and maintenance.

Here are some of the most common styles of wood flooring, which can come in any of the three types described in the previous wood flooring post.

Parquet: Parquet wood flooring is made up of pieces of wood flooring (any combination of the three basic types) arranged to form a specific pattern or style, which can be color or pattern-oriented.

Strip: Strip wood flooring is designed to fit together by aligning the grooves in the wood, making installation easier.  Strip flooring can be either finished, which means it has been coated with varnish or shellac, or unfinished.

Plank: Plank flooring is similar to strip flooring, the main difference being that it is sold in longer widths. It is designed to fit together seamlessly with other wood flooring planks and can be either finished or unfinished.