Hybrid working: should your office cleaning schedule change?
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For most hybrid offices, yes. If your building is busy two or three days a week and quiet the rest, a schedule built for a full five-day office probably means you’re paying for cleans you don’t need. At the same time, your busiest days may not be getting enough attention.
Below, we look at how businesses use their offices now, what to clean and how often, and how to review your cleaning specification with your contractor.
In short:
- Keep bathrooms, kitchens and touch points covered on every day people are in.
- Clean floors, shared desks and meeting rooms after your busiest days.
- Save heavier jobs, like carpets and upholstery, for quieter days.
- Review your schedule whenever your attendance pattern changes.
How hybrid working has changed the way offices are used
Rows of assigned desks are becoming less common. Many businesses have moved to activity-based working, where people choose where to sit based on what they’re doing that day.
That usually means:
- Hot-desking and desk booking. Staff reserve a desk, booth or meeting space through an app rather than having their own workstation.
- More shared space. Layouts are moving away from desks towards meeting rooms, breakout areas and social spaces.
- Different zones for different work. Open areas for group work, quieter areas for focus, and booths for calls.
This changes what needs cleaning. There are fewer personal desks, but more shared surfaces that several people touch in a week. Kitchens, bathrooms and meeting rooms can go from almost empty one day to very busy the next. A cleaning plan that treats every day the same won’t fit that pattern.
Match your cleaning to how busy the office actually is
The simplest approach is to build your schedule around your attendance pattern, rather than a fixed nightly routine.
On busy days, the pressure is on bathrooms, kitchens, bins and high-touch surfaces like door handles and light switches. An evening clean after those days means the office is ready for the next morning.
Quiet days are useful too. With fewer people around, cleaners can get on with deeper jobs like carpets, upholstery and internal glass without working around anyone. As an example, say your team is in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. An evening clean on both of those days covers the heavy use. Later in the week, a lighter visit lets your cleaner empty the bins, check the bathrooms and pick up a deeper task or two. That’s usually a better fit.
If you’re not sure where to start, two cleans a week focused on your busiest days and high-traffic areas is a sensible starting point for many smaller hybrid offices. You can adjust from there once you see how the space is used.
Hybrid office cleaning schedule: what to clean and when
Here’s a starting point you can adapt to. “Every office day” means each day people are in, rather than every day of the week.
| How often | What to clean |
| Every office day | Clean and sanitise bathrooms, restock soap and toilet supplies, wipe kitchen worktops and sinks, empty bins, disinfect door handles and other high-touch surfaces |
| 2 to 3 times a week | Vacuum carpets, mop hard floors, clean shared desks and workstations, wipe meeting room tables and chairs, clean kitchen appliances and communal areas |
| Weekly | Dust desks, monitors and office equipment, clean internal glass and partitions, wipe skirting boards and windowsills, clean meeting rooms that are used less often |
| Monthly | Deep clean kitchen appliances, clean upholstery, tackle hard-to-reach areas, give furniture and fixtures a more detailed clean |
| Quarterly | Professional carpet cleaning, window cleaning, deep floor cleaning and a thorough clean of the whole office |
For a fuller breakdown by task, see our daily, weekly and monthly office cleaning checklist.
Hot desks and shared equipment need more attention, not less
Hot-desking is more common in the UK than almost anywhere else. In a 2023 Unispace survey, 56% of UK employees said their office was set up for hot-desking, compared with 48% globally.
The reason this matters is simple. An assigned desk is used by one person. A hot desk might be used by four or five people in a week. Keyboards, mice, desk phones, chair arms and monitor stands are all touched by each of them.
A few practical steps help:
- Make sure the most popular desks are cleaned properly on their scheduled day.
- Use desk booking data, if you have it, to show your cleaner which areas were used.
- Give staff wipes or a cleaning station so they can wipe down a desk before they start.
Our guides to office desk cleaning and cleaning high touch points go into more detail.
Should you pay for cleaning on days nobody’s in?
If the building is largely empty, paying for a full clean that day is probably an unnecessary cost.
That doesn’t mean quiet areas can be left alone. Dust settles and bins fill whether or not the office is busy, and rooms that are rarely used still need regular attention.
A flexible arrangement usually works best. Keep the essentials covered where they’re needed, and schedule the more intensive work around your quieter days. The aim isn’t to clean less to save money. It’s to put cleaning hours where they make the most difference. Our guide to commercial cleaning costs explains what affects pricing.
How to review your cleaning specification with your contractor
- Look at real occupancy. How many people are coming in, and on which days? Desk booking or door access data is useful here if you have it.
- Identify your busy and quiet days. Note which areas get the most use, such as kitchens, washrooms and meeting rooms.
- Agree what moves. Rather than the same hours every day, discuss shifting time to your busiest days and reducing it when the office is quiet.
- Set a review point. Attendance patterns change. Check the schedule again after a few months, or whenever your office policy changes.
- Keep talking. Regular contact with your contractor means problems are picked up early. Read more about building a good working relationship with your cleaners.
FAQs
Most hybrid offices need essential cleaning (bathrooms, kitchens, bins and touch points) on every day people are in, with floors and shared desks cleaned two or three times a week. Deeper cleaning can be scheduled weekly, monthly or quarterly.
Usually not a full clean. A short visit to empty bins and check bathrooms may be enough, and quiet days are a good time for deeper jobs like carpet or upholstery cleaning.
On your quietest days. Cleaners can work without disturbing anyone, and the space is fresh before your next busy period.
Yes. Shared desks are touched by more people each week than assigned desks, so they should be cleaned thoroughly on their scheduled day. Giving staff wipes to use before they sit down helps between cleans.
Need a cleaning schedule that fits your hybrid office?
We’ve been providing office cleaning across South Wales for over 20 years, from our base in Swansea. Every client gets a schedule built around their building and how it’s used, with regular audits from our Contracts Managers to make sure standards are kept.
We work with offices in Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot, Cardiff and across South Wales.
