Keeping your church clean is vital to creating an inviting atmosphere for your congregation and guests. It creates the right ambiance for much-needed peace and contemplation.
However, it can be challenging for churches to keep facilities clean, especially if numerous groups congregate regularly.
Regardless of size, a church can be busy throughout the week, from regular services and special occasions to group meetings. As such, it’s vital to clean the church regularly, and a commercial cleaning company can help accomplish that. In the meantime, here are some tips about creating an effective church cleaning schedule.
What is a Church Cleaning Schedule?
A cleaning schedule is a granular, detailed plan for cleaning the church. It includes all the church areas that need to be cleaned and how often they need to be cleaned. The goal of a cleaning schedule is to ensure that your church and any adjacent buildings are kept clean regularly.
Features Of an Effective Church Cleaning Schedule
For a church cleaning schedule to be effective and produce impressive results, it has to have the following features:
- Integrates the CDC church cleaning and disinfecting guidelines – to reduce the risk and spread of Covid-19 and other disease-causing organisms, the CDC developed a detailed strategy that your church should follow.
- Easy to follow and understand – It should give enough detail so that no one will have difficulty understanding how they’re supposed to work. Detailing what to do and how to do it saves resources and gets the job done faster!
- Accessible at first glance – if someone has never seen it before, they’ll effortlessly pick up on it right away, keeping things organized so there aren’t any misunderstandings later.
- Consider the health and safety of the cleaners – cleaning requires various chemicals that might be harmful or carry allergens. A cleaning schedule should contain instructions on how to handle all cleaning materials.
- Emphasizes regular cleaning – a church is a public space that hosts congregants and guests daily. Maintaining a space’s health, cleanliness, and sanitation requires regular cleaning, and a cleaning schedule should do just that.
- Easy to access – everybody should be able to access a cleaning schedule effortlessly, especially where a church relies on volunteers to clean. Also, those who wish to visit the church can avoid the cleaning periods.
RELATED: WHY PROFESSIONAL DISINFECTING SERVICES IN 2022 ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
What To Consider When Creating A Church Cleaning Schedule
Considering the importance of an effective church cleaning schedule, you can’t afford to get it wrong. While there are no one-size-fits-all, the primary considerations when creating yours include:
- The size of the church building – the larger the church, the more extended cleaning will take and the more cleaning resources it’ll require.
- The schedule of the various church services – create a cleaning schedule based on the various church services, not the other way around. Detailing the optimum cleaning time ensures cleaning doesn’t interfere with any church functions.
- The areas that need cleaning. The church has numerous areas, including:
- Entrance and lobby
- Sanctuary and nave
- Altar and pulpit
- Restrooms
- Church kitchen
- Fellowship hall
- Administrative offices
- Classrooms and nurseries
- Library
Be sure to include clear instructions on how to clean each of these areas. Each of these areas requires specialized cleaning and at particular intervals.
- The frequency of cleaning these areas – the areas that people visit frequently should be cleaned more often. For instance, the nave is the most used part of the church and should be cleaned regularly. That’s not to say the other areas shouldn’t be cleaned as often.
- Specific cleaning equipment and materials are required for each area – the church surfaces have different compositions, and each requires particular cleaning strategies. For instance, the cleaning solutions for tiled walls and floors might differ from concrete walls and floors.
Getting around all these factors can be challenging. The best thing to do is have a church cleaning checklist detailing all these factors. This will simplify and organize your work for the best cleaning results.
Cleaning Crew Vs. Volunteer Cleaners Vs. Outsourcing Cleaning Services?
This is the million-dollar question. A church has various options to choose from when it comes to cleaning.
Firstly, you can hire a few cleaners, depending on the size of your church. While they’ll get the job done effectively and shorten recruiting time and costs, you might not get value for your money.
Cleaning a church hinges on various factors, especially specialized cleaning expertise and experience. If you hire cleaners without the proper skills, the work might not be as satisfactory as you’d hoped.
Secondly, churches depend on volunteers for cleaning. This option is great since it saves money on labor costs. However, it’s an unreliable option since the volunteers might not be there as regularly and constantly as the cleaning requires, and may produce inadequate results.
That leaves you with outsourcing a cleaning company as the most viable option for maintaining a clean, healthy, and sanitary church. To ensure your church is safe for all visitors, it’s crucial to have someone who can regularly inspect and clean all areas of the church space. A church cleaning company does precisely that.
Benefits Of Outsourcing A Church Cleaning Schedule
The Covid-19 pandemic has made effective and regular cleaning and disinfection of buildings and structures a top priority for churches. As such, you can’t overlook having reliable cleaning services.
Hiring a professional cleaning company ensures you benefit from:
Specialized Expertise And Equipment
Cleaning is more than removing dirt and other contaminants from a surface and calling it a job well done. Also, the days when soap and water were enough to clean are long gone.
Professional cleaning experts are versed in various surfaces, materials, and equipment. They know which cleaning solutions are most effective where and when for high-quality results. They also insist on following CDC cleaning guidelines and using EPA-approved cleaning chemicals.
Extensive Cleaning Services
Cleaning a church, no matter the size can be exhausting, especially where congregants and guests visit regularly. Throw the numerous surfaces that collect dust, harmful organisms, and other contaminants into the mix, and the job becomes a higher level of challenge.
But not for pro cleaners; it’s what they are good at. Their specialized skills and experience enable them to comprehensively clean, disinfect and sanitize any surface you throw at them.
Scheduled Cleaning Services
A church can be busy any time of the week. Maybe today is a special event, and tomorrow might be group meetings or rehearsals. Cleaning should be done without interrupting, interfering, or clashing with any church service.
Professional cleaners develop an effective church cleaning schedule based on your church schedule, not the other way around. They’ll clean when there arent any active services, preferable at night. This allows a smooth flow of church events and a spotless venue to host them.
Peace Of Mind and Heart
While the global pandemic has opened people’s eyes to the reality and harshness of viruses, it also heightened people’s fears. The negative media only fueled these fears.
Having a clean, healthy, and sanitary location where the community can seek sanctuary for comfort, hope and peace is essential. Hiring a professional cleaning company ensures your church is always clean and ready to welcome your congregants anytime.
Plus, having a clean and germ-free church gives you peace of mind and heart.
Preparing For Occasions
Churches are versatile locations hosting numerous events; weddings, parties and picnics, funerals, and concerts, to name a few. None of the event attendees and guests can be comfortable if your church seems dingy, unclean, or unsanitary.
If you have an upcoming event, a professional cleaning team may clean, disinfect and sanitize the entire church before, during, and after the event.
RELATED: IS IT WORTH IT TO HIRE A PROFESSIONAL CLEANING COMPANY FOR YOUR CHURCH?
Need an Effective Church Cleaning Schedule?
Nothing inspires cleanliness more than an unexpected guest – Radhika Mundra.
This is true in any location, be it home, place of business, or church. And with congregants visiting a church regularly, you can’t afford to overlook regular cleanliness. DTK Facility Services professionals understand the importance of developing an effective church cleaning schedule for impressive results. If you are looking for an expert and experienced church cleaning team, reach out to us today. We’ll visit your church and provide a personalized quote to meet your needs.