Daily cleaning tasks
Daily tasks are the core of any office cleaning contract. These need to be completed on every visit to keep the office in a presentable and hygienic condition:
- Empty all general waste bins and replace liners as needed
- Empty recycling bins and segregate waste correctly if required
- Vacuum all carpeted areas, including under desks where accessible
- Sweep and mop hard floor areas using appropriate products for the floor type
- Wipe down desks and workstation surfaces (where permitted by your clean desk policy)
- Clean and sanitise reception and front-of-house areas
- Wipe down all door handles, light switches, lift buttons and other high-touch surfaces
- Clean and sanitise washrooms: toilets, sinks, taps, hand dryers and mirrors
- Replenish toilet rolls, hand soap and paper towels (if supply is included in scope)
- Clean kitchen or staff room surfaces, sink and hob if applicable
- Wipe down appliances such as the microwave exterior and kettle base
- Clean communal tables in break areas
- Spot-clean internal glass doors, partition screens and mirrors
Weekly cleaning tasks
Weekly tasks address areas that do not need attention on every visit but should not be overlooked for more than a week. These are often where standards slip first in an underperforming contract:
- Damp-wipe all window sills, ledges and skirting boards
- Clean internal glass panels and partition walls fully (beyond spot cleaning)
- Wipe down chair bases, table legs and desk pedestals
- Clean the inside of microwaves
- Descale taps and fittings in washrooms and kitchen areas
- Damp-wipe all communal area seating
- Mop stairwells and landing areas
- Damp-wipe fire exit signage and extinguisher casings
- Clean behind and around reception furniture where accessible
- Vacuum upholstered seating in waiting areas and meeting rooms
Monthly and periodic tasks
Periodic tasks are less frequent but important for maintaining the overall condition of the premises. These are often formally scheduled in a cleaning programme and signed off when completed:
- High-level dusting — light fittings, tops of cabinets, suspended ceiling tiles and diffusers
- Deep clean of kitchen or staff room, including inside cupboard fronts, fridge exterior and bin areas
- Machine scrubbing or burnishing of hard floors where applicable
- Deep clean of washrooms including scale removal and tile scrubbing
- Wipe-down of all venetian blinds or horizontal surfaces in window areas
- Spot-clean wall surfaces for marks and scuffs
- Clean external entrance mats and gully traps where applicable
- Strip, clean and reseal resilient floor surfaces (typically twice yearly or as required)
Periodic tasks should be documented in the contract with a frequency attached to each one. "As required" is not a sufficient specification — it leads to these tasks being permanently deferred.
Areas that are commonly missed
In under-supervised cleaning contracts, certain areas are routinely overlooked because they are not easily visible or because no-one has specifically asked for them to be included:
- Under desks and behind equipment. Cables, dust build-up and debris accumulate here quickly but are often skipped if not explicitly in the task list.
- The backs of door frames and the top edges of doors. High-touch but low-visibility areas that accumulate fingerprints and grime.
- Lift interiors. Floor tracks, button panels and handrails are high-touch but often missed if not flagged specifically.
- Staff locker rooms or changing areas. Often left out of scope unless specifically requested.
- External entrance areas. Litter, cigarette debris and leaf build-up at entrances affects first impressions but is not always included in cleaning scope.
- Bin enclosures and recycling areas. These require periodic cleaning but are easy to leave out of the regular programme.
- Meeting room AV equipment surrounds. Screens, cables and charging stations around meeting tables gather dust but are often off-limits by default — confirm what is in and out of scope.
How to use this checklist when evaluating a cleaning provider
This checklist is most useful as a basis for discussion, not as a quote request document. Share it with prospective contractors and ask them to indicate which tasks would be included in their standard contract, which would be additional, and which would require adjustment to scope or frequency.
A professional contractor will be able to go through this list with you and explain how each task would be handled in the context of your premises. They may identify tasks that are not practical for your specific building and suggest alternatives — which is a reasonable and honest response.
What you should be cautious of is a contractor who agrees to everything without qualification during a sales conversation and then fails to deliver the full scope once the contract starts. That pattern typically indicates a gap between what was sold and what the quoted price actually supports.
The most reliable way to arrive at a realistic scope is through a site walkthrough before any contract is agreed. This allows the contractor to see exactly what is involved, ask questions about your expectations, and produce a specification that reflects the actual building rather than a generic template.