The little things.

What about all those little things?

As the months go by, if all the little things are ignored, they eventually become noticeable.  If these are never addressed, even though you have a regular cleaning service, they become a blight, albeit a slight one, on the overall appearance of your commercial facility.  What are these things?  Here are some of them:

Hard surface floor corners.  It’s unreasonable to ask your cleaning people to detail clean the corners on hard surface floors every time they are in to clean.  But if these areas are not cleaned out every few months or so a dark formation of dirt will begin to appear.  This can be cleaned out very easily with a wet paper towel and should be done by your cleaning people before it becomes too noticeable.  Paradoxically, the more frequent the floor is swept, the faster these buildups occur.

Carpeted floor corners and edges.  This problem is very similar to the above.  Except the solution is a vacuum with a wand attachment that would focus the suction on these areas.  Again, this needn’t be done all the time, just when it becomes apparent.

Unlike the above two examples, which should be automatically expected, the following areas should be mentioned during the bidding process since they may be considered by some to be options.  Or just as the cleaning company if this is something they can clean for you on an as-needed basis.

Bathroom vents.  If not dusted regularly, usually monthly, these areas will accumulate a large amount of dust.  This is not only unsightly, but will actually prevent the fan from doing its job.  If totally ignored, the dust can completely obstruct the air from flowing through the vent.  Fortunately, a simple feather duster treatment with the fan on will fix it right up.

Other ceiling vents.  These operate in the opposite direction of the bathroom vents.  These are the vents that supply cool or warm air into your office.  Usually, but not always, these tend to have dust accumulate around the edges of the vents.  This phenomenon does not interfere with the operation of the vent, so not as crucial.  Also, the ceilings are usually white, so any accumulation is less noticeable, if at all.  This is almost never mentioned in janitorial proposals, but if a request is made to the janitorial company to service these vents, it can be done for a small extra fee.
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Baseboards.  Since there are very many styles of baseboards, the problems with them are just as varied.  Some of the issues cannot be addressed, such as scratches and scuff marks.  Most of these cannot be removed without damaging the baseboard itself.  But for some fancier baseboards, dust accumulation on the flat surfaces becomes an issue over time.  A simple broom will remove that.

There are more examples, but to sum up, the little things are important, but not on a daily or even weekly basis.  But by being aware of them and cleaning them occasionally, they won’t become an issue.  You may not even actively notice these things, but if not cleaned every now and then, something around your office will seem “not quite right”.