Office Cleaning Supplies – Saving Money

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Generally, most office buildings have a cleaning crew that comes through every night with their own office cleaning supplies and do a thorough clean-up of the floors, desks, kitchen areas, and bathrooms. Smaller businesses that have their own building generally depend on their employees that have full time duties during their working hours. Due to cutbacks, layoffs, and just having to trim some fat from the operating budget, business owners are delegating cleaning duties to their regular employees instead of hiring extra staff to perform the same function. Employees balk a little at first, but then realize that times are tough and many hats may have to be worn to keep a business healthy enough to make the weekly payroll.

Out of convenience, most office supply super-stores offer cleaning products, but at a higher price, they depend on office managers and business owners to buy these products on impulse while they are there for copier paper or printer cartridges. This could have them inadvertently paying up to five hundred percent more than they would at the local super discounters. For decades, there have been specialty manufacturers of office cleaning supplies, usually in concentrated form that requires the person cleaning to dilute them before application. The later will come at a higher price initially, but saves when diluted and used properly.

Everyday products that you would use in your home will be fine while executing your office cleaning duties. There may be special requirements if employees have allergies to certain chemicals, or scents that are used in products like Windex, Lemon Pledge, or 3M spray and wipe cleaning chemicals. The non-scented products will work just as well in place of the old standard ones we have relied on for decades. Once you know exactly what quantity you will use in your office space each month, then it would be best to start buying in bulk to save additional money.

Cleaning towels and rags can be taken home by the owner or employees that volunteer, to wash them and reuse until they wear out. Paper products are almost doubling in price yearly because of pulpwood prices sharply increasing. One bag of cleaning rags made from cotton or a hybrid of cotton and polyester can last well over a year, before having to be replaced. Just keep a very small plastic storage container in the cleaning supply closet for the dirty towels to be placed in when they become soiled.

Regardless of how tough it is in the business world, employee theft will always poke its ugly head up in any situation. Keep all your office cleaning products under lock and key, and only give the responsibility to two people to hold the keys. It will not help your bottom line buying in bulk if over half of those products are going home with employees to supply their family. This security is also a good practice to keep the chemicals out of the hands of a child wandering around the halls of your office.

If there are several business’ on the same floor as your office, you may want to befriend them concerning office cleaning, and you can champion even more savings by making group purchases. If the quantity is great enough, you may be able to approach a chemical distributor locally, and buy direct from them, realizing up to fifty percent off retail pricing. This whole scenario is all contingent upon not losing cleaning products to theft, over or misuse and employees becoming educated on what will actually save the company money.

One last option is to hire a part time person in the evening to come in and clean your building, while you supply all of the chemicals, and cleaning supplies. Do not skimp on a vacuum cleaner either, as they wear quickly with commercial use. A top of the line Dyson Pet Hair model is about six hundred to eight hundred dollars but can last up to five times longer than most standard household vacuums.

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