Free Janitorial Cleaning Checklist (+PDF Download)

A janitorial cleaning checklist is a small addition to your technician’s work process that can dramatically improve efficiency, customer experience, and profitability. 

Implementing checklists in each job and site audit can:

• Improve job management

• Ensure consistency among work crews

• Enhance communication among the field, office, and client

Using a template for daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning tasks provides your crews with a standard operating procedure that strengthens accountability and brand trust—customers know they’ll get the same level of service every time. 

How do I make a janitorial checklist for cleaning?

Your template for your janitorial technicians should divide every property by the areas, and then provide a cleaning schedule for the tasks to be completed daily, weekly, and monthly. Consistency is essential in commercial cleaning to build customer loyalty and maintain your brand reputation.

The essential areas to include in an office cleaning services template are:

• Common areas, such as the lobby and reception areas

• Meeting rooms and conference rooms

• Office bays and workspaces

• Hallways, staircases, and elevators

• Breakrooms

• Restrooms

• Kitchen areas

This template covers the most critical areas of commercial spaces to clean and how often. It also provides a space for technicians to note any issues they’ve encountered for accountability and fast resolution.

Daily janitorial cleaning checklist

Customers rely on commercial cleaning companies to present a clean, professional face to their customers and employees. Dirt, dust, and scuff marks can damage customer perception and employee morale. 

Daily maintenance helps to prevent more significant deep cleaning and repairs later. The tasks in this professional cleaning checklist also help a company to portray itself as safe, sanitary, and professional. Consistency in commercial cleaning services is essential for building customer loyalty.

Lobby and reception area

• Vacuum carpets and door mats

• Empty trash

• Dust hard surfaces

• Disinfect tables, light switches, reception counter, etc.

• Polish glass and door handles

• Wipe and clean light fixtures

Meeting rooms and conference rooms

• Empty trash

• Clean tables and chairs

• Dust surfaces

Office bay

• Empty trash

• Vacuum floors

• Dust desks in work areas

• Clean keyboards and phones

Hallways, staircases, and elevators

• Sweep and mop floors

• Clean handrails

• Clean elevator buttons

Breakrooms

• Clean countertops

• Empty trash

• Clean appliances

Restrooms

• Clean toilets and sinks

• Refill hand soap dispensers, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.

• Empty trash

• Disinfect hand dryers

• Disinfect doorknobs and faucets

• Sweep and mop floors

Kitchen areas

• Clean countertops and sanitize sinks

• Wash dishes

• Clean appliances

• Empty trash receptacles

Consistency and thoroughness in daily cleaning tasks expedite the more in-depth cleaning tasks that must be done weekly and monthly. 

Weekly office cleaning checklist

Once a week, technicians should conduct the following tasks to address the accumulation of dirt and dust that can gather in out-of-sight places, even with daily cleaning.

Lobby and reception area

• Deep clean carpet

• Wash or change doormats

• Wash trash cans

• Polish surfaces

• Clean light fixtures

Meeting rooms and conference rooms

• Deep clean carpet

• Clean windows

• Dust surfaces

Office bay

• Vacuum under desks

• Clean windows

• Remove stains

• Dust surfaces

Hallways, staircases, and elevators

• Deep clean floors

• Dust light fixtures

• Clean elevator walls

→ Download the free template for the complete list of weekly cleaning tasks for janitorial businesses.

Monthly commercial cleaning checklist

Janitorial companies who go the extra mile to sanitize and disinfect with a deep cleaning every month build brand loyalty and the trust of clients who know that their space will be sparkling clean—even in the places they can’t see.

Lobby and reception area

• Clean air vents

• Dust high areas

• Deep clean upholstery

• Declutter and organize magazines and remove old issues

Meeting rooms and conference rooms

• Clean air vents

• Deep clean upholstery

• Clean baseboards

Office bay

• Clean air vents

• Deep clean carpets

• Clean baseboards

Breakrooms

• Clean air vents

• Deep clean floors

• Clean high areas

→ Download the free template for the complete list of monthly cleaning tasks. 

Why use a cleaning checklist template

When you have professionals working for you whom you trust, implementing task checklists may seem unnecessary. However, they can deliver benefits that improve your business’s bottom line. 

1. Build brand loyalty

Missing even one aspect of a job—like forgetting to empty the trash—can damage your business’s growth potential by:

• Hurting customer relationships and brand trust 

• Putting your crews under greater scrutiny

• Reducing customer referrals—a key component of successfully marketing your business

Executing every job perfectly every time may seem like an impossible standard to meet. With a commercial cleaning checklist, your teams have the support and guidance to deliver exceptional service at every property.

2. Communication with customers

Providing customers with clarity into exactly what professional cleaning services include can make a significant impact during the sales process. If your competition has only general descriptions of their service, you can set yourself apart with specifics.

→ “We clean the lobby, office area, and restrooms, and take out the trash,” versus

→ “We vacuum, dust, and empty trash daily, wash doormats and clean light fixtures weekly, and deep clean carpets and ventilation monthly.”

Sharing your janitorial cleaning checklist with customers eliminates the potential for miscommunication, demonstrates the value of a maintenance contract, and creates opportunities for new revenue streams if customers want add-on services—such as disinfection and sanitization.

3. Implement shift audits

Janitorial checklists help supervisors audit the work being completed by technicians in the field. Instead of a simple check mark indicating a service was performed, supervisors can issue a grade to each task on the list.

Shift audits are a great way to ensure consistency across different crews, shifts, and even branches or districts. That consistency can make the difference when you’re trying to grow your brand and establish a statewide or nationwide enterprise. 

4. Support the sales process

Janitorial checklists help cleaning companies set and maintain prices. Knowing what “daily” or “weekly” cleaning is worth to an office can be challenging. Prospects may wonder about the differences in your service packages and frequency.

When your sales team can describe precisely what cleaning tasks are conducted in each area and how often, customers gain confidence in the service quality. 

5. Improve crew communication

Checklists improve efficiency, especially when a crew services a property for the first time. 

A task list ensures they’ll bring all the necessary equipment and supplies for the property and not overlook anything during the visit. 

Reviewing a list before leaving headquarters also gives technicians an idea of how long they’ll spend at each property on the route. 

6. Optimize your scheduling process

Periodically have techs record how long each task takes them to complete. That information will improve how you schedule your jobs and identify which crews are the most efficient at each property. 

Your janitorial checklist can inform how you build crews for the field, identifying your most and least experienced and efficient team members. 

Understanding who would benefit from more training and mentorship in the field will help you build a more capable, expertise-backed team that can execute more jobs per shift with consistent service. 

7. Increase oversight to drive growth

Knowing that each step of a job will be recorded creates an accountability point often missing when crews work in the field. Even your most reliable teams may cut corners when they’re short on time with a full schedule or unexpected delays. 

Requiring initials on a checklist for every cleaning job encourages crews to communicate with their back-office team when issues arise or something goes wrong.

When you use business management software with mobile device functionality, it’s easy for your field teams to incorporate a cleaning service checklist into their workday, including if they need to send messages with photo and video attachments for account managers and customers to review instantly. 

Janitorial software: Better than a template

Checklists help janitorial service crews deliver best-in-class customer experiences at every property. They improve accountability and generate data in regular cleanings that can optimize scheduling, routing, and more. 

While better than nothing, printed checklists create more paperwork and clutter for your technicians and can potentially slow down their work in the field. 

Aspire delivers advanced functionality to streamline and optimize processes in the office and field

Aspire, a janitorial business management software with mobile device functionality, provides commercial cleaning businesses with the benefits of implementing checklists without the hassle. 

Real-time data generated in the field, including time spent on the job and cleaning supplies used, can improve job costing processes for the future. 

→ Schedule a demonstration to see how Aspire’s features empower best practices for janitorial companies focused on growth and profitability.