These guidelines for sharing your workspace with your fury friends will help keep a clean work environment for both humans and dogs:

• Create a dedicated location for dogs to eat.  Rather than allowing individual dog owners to have food bowls at their desk,
  provide a central location for food consumption. This will eliminate the potential of finding remnant food particles throughout the office which can attract another type of fury animal!

• Use interior and exterior doormats at all of your entry ways. Doormats will catch loose dirt and mud that can be tracked inside on paws (and shoes).

• Avoid bringing your dog’s favorite blanket or pillow into the office.   These items could contain mites, dust and allergens from your home.  To make your dog comfortable, provide a special blanket that you can keep at work without transferring potential allergens back and
  forth.

• To reduce the amount of pet dander in the air, groom your dog before bringing it to work. Not only will this prevent pet hair from gathering around the office, but it will also help prevent allergies from acting up.

• If there is a chance that your dog may have fleas or ticks, do not bring him to work. These bugs can quickly transfer to other pets, irritate humans and get into the carpets.

• Have a place for dogs to go when they have to “go”. If there isn’t a suitable natural grass or dirt area nearby, consider some alternative options such a disposable, portable patch of grass from www.freshpatch.com .

• High energy dogs will create more activity in the office, stirring up more dust and dander which will ultimately make for a dirtier office. Give active dogs plenty of exercise throughout the day.   For a quick, high aerobic burst of exercise, try the www.woofstick.com .  This handheld stick can be used in small spaces such as driveways, parking lots or courtyards.

Here are a few essential spring cleaning tips for your workspace:

1.) Open drawers, cabinets, closets and storage areas that don’t regularly get used. Pull everything out. Clean the area thoroughly – top to bottom, inside and out. Only replace essential items. Get rid of everything else — throw away, recycle or donate items that haven’t been used in 60 days.

2.) Clean out your cleaning supplies. Work with your janitorial service provider to replace bottles of cleansers that are nearly gone, expired or simply gross. (It goes without saying that all chemicals should be disposed of properly.) Establish a schedule for replacing mops, brooms, dust cloths and other general cleaning supplies.

3.) Sanitize high touch points. Particularly, touch points that are used by many people such as door knobs, light switches, file cabinets handles and bathroom surfaces. Don’t overlook individual touch points such as desk phones and computer keyboards and mice.

4.) Thoroughly clean carpets or floor surfaces in high traffic areas. These entry points bring in dirt, dust and allergens with every step. In addition to regular vacuuming and mopping, a deep cleaning every few months will help maintain overall cleanliness. See our blog on Simple Steps to Staying Clean for recommendations for high traffic areas.

5.) Get a fresh start this spring by hiring a certified green cleaning company. Green cleaning means using products, procedures and equipment specifically designed to have a reduced environmental impact. Going green doesn’t mean sacrificing performance. Janitorial service companies like T&S Maintenance ensure high quality green products deliver superior cleaning results.

6.) Regularly opening windows and doors to let in some fresh air. Nothing smells cleaner than crisp, spring air.

Make it a priority to keep your workspace clean. Not just during spring, but all throughout the year. If that means adding a larger line item in the budget for professional service or getting your hands dirty, take the necessary steps to ensure the place you spend a majority of your time is as clean as possible.

Zero waste. No trash. Nothing going to landfills.

Is zero waste possible? What role does a janitorial company play in achieving this goal?

Janitoral companies are key in helping businesses meet compliance requirements, not only for mandatory recycling and composting, but also for paving the way for zero waste. Owners and managers of commercial properties are ultimately responsible for properly disposing of all materials. However, their success is highly dependant on working with a janitorial service company that can adequately and responsibly manage the process.

A reputable janitoral service company will work with the business owner to establish an organizational system for properly collecting trash, recyclables and compostable materials. When organizational systems are in place with proper signage and available collecetion bins, people will dispose of waste material correctly.

The janitors role is not to separate waste material, but simply manage the process for collection. An organized system for separating waste materials will generate a greater volume of material that is diverted from landfills.

When business owners work collectively with janitorial service providers and waste colletion agencies, the goal of zero waste is within sight. Is San Francisco on pace to achieve zero waste by 2020? If achieving the 2010 goal of reclaiming 75% of all dispoable materials is any indication, our guess is that San Francisco will make zero waste a reality.

This all changed when the County of Alameda passed a two-phase plan that requires business generating four or more cubic yards of solid waste per week to obtain a recycling service that is adequate for the amount of recyclables that are produced. Business will be required to separate high-market-value recyclable materials from other solid waste.

The first Phase of this ordinance begins July 1, 2012, and requires businesses to recycle paper, cardboard, and food and beverage containers. Phase 2 goes into effect July 1, 2014 and adds organics (food and compostable paper) to the basic recyclables.

Alameda County’s mandatory recycling ordinance builds on the State’s existing requirements by specifying which materials must be recycled and how much. It also sets a performance threshold stipulating that businesses must obtain the amount of service adequate for the quantity of covered materials they generate.

Implementing these new requirements can be as simple as ensuring your janitorial service provider delivers waste materials to a proper waste processing facility for recycling. This is second nature to us at Townsend and Styer Maintenance. For the last 11 years we have been on the forefront of the recycling movement; particularly in San Francisco. The City of San Francisco has some of the toughest recycling requirements in the nation, and we’ve been serving this market since 2001.

Regardless of how long it took Oakland and the rest of Alameda County to approve this recycling ordinance, we’re just glad that they did. Let us help your business implement a recycling program. Why wait until July?

While I don’t have any earth shattering summaries or fortune telling powers to share, I do know that as we close out 2011, I’m particularly grateful for my exceptional employees. This dedicated team of trustworthy, hard-working men and women spend countless evenings away from their families to do a job many wouldn’t consider undertaking.

Janitorial service work is often an invisible job; the work frequently taken for granted.

These few days between the Christmas/Hanukah holiday and the New Year are generally a quiet time for businesses. When things slow it’s easier to take a minute to appreciate the work of your janitorial staff. If I had a list of “The Best of 2011,” the staff of TS Maintenance would be on top. They truly are the best in the business.

Happy New Year to the families of TS Maintenance and to all janitorial service workers.

Years ago, I had a client who had the usual holiday foods in the office. Snacks were often left out in the community kitchen in the evening. My staff regularly discarded left-over food and disposed of it properly.
One particular employee kept additional snacks in the bottom drawer of her desk. Unbeknownst to her fellow co-workers, this drawer contained open bags of chips, pretzels, chocolates, licorice and other tasty treats.

For weeks, this drawer had been attracting the attention of 4-legged critters who ventured out in the evening. With the abundance of holiday food throughout the office, these visitors became more brazen and eventually found their way into the drawer.

Entry into this desk drawer was not easy. The desk was pushed against the wall that contained electrical outlets. Behind the desk was the usual mess of electrical wires, computer cables, and phone lines. One morning, as people arrived to their desks and started their workday, someone smelt a faint scent of smoke. Initially, they thought that the computers were overheating but soon realized a small fire had started behind the desk with the drawer full of food.

The 4-legged visitors had chewed through electrical cords to get to the food inside the drawer. These exposed electrical wires started the fire when the computers were turned on. Fortunately, the fire was quickly extinguished and no one was hurt.

The moral of the story is: keep your snacks in the kitchen with the other holiday foods. Let your janitorial staff be the only evening visitors to your office.

Unfortunately, that same sunlight also reminds me of the amount of dust that is constantly surrounding us.  You know the image: you glance up from your desk; the sunlight is shining through the window at just the right angle to display the millions of tiny dust particles floating peacefully through the air.  They are everywhere.  And they are unavoidable.

According to Wikipedia, one-third of the global land area is covered by dust-producing surfaces.  Dust particles found in home and office environments could contain small amounts of almost anything including plant pollen, animal dander, textile fibers, mold spores, bacteria, food particles, minerals from outdoor soil, human skin cells and even the remains of burnt meteors.

For the most part, the dust particles we see in the air are harmless.  However, those tiny microscopic particles are a primary cause of many allergies, hay fever and asthma.

Getting rid of airborne dust is nearly impossible.  But there are a few ways to limit the accumulation and movement of those particles:

• Clean and dust regularly.  Use a wet cloth or microfiber cloth to capture dust.
• If your work area is carpeted, it should be vacuumed at least 2 times per week.  Ensure HEPA filters are used in vacuum cleaners.  HEPA filters will trap dust and reduce the amount that is recirculated through the air.
• Have ventilation systems cleaned.
• Air filters should be checked and replaced frequently.
• Open windows to keep fresh air moving through your space.

When you are evaluating a cleaning service or janitorial maintenance company, but sure to ask how they manage dust.  Even though total elimination of dust is impossible, regular cleaning can help reduce the amount of dust particles in the air.

Then you can go back to gazing out the window and enjoying the sunshine for a few more weeks.

In between professional cleanings, one of the best ways to keep your work space clean is by installing door mats.  The simple act of wiping your feet before entering a building will significantly reduce the amount of dirt that is tracked inside.

In 1991, the EPA conducted a study that showed a 50% decrease in the amount lead and dust that was tracked into a home when a door mat was present.   The results of “The Door Mat” study hold true for all types of properties (not just homes).  Whether your work space is an office building, school, doctor’s office or restaurant, the benefits of using a door mat are tremendous.  Think of all the things that could be on the bottom of your shoes:  pesticides, cigarette ash, dust mites, animal droppings, fertilizers, not to mention mud and moisture.  The use of door mats reduces the amount of outdoor contaminants that get  carried inside on your shoes.

The larger the door mat, the better.  Ideally, an exterior door mat should cover two or three strides.  An additional interior door mat will further keep the presence of dirt to a minimum by capturing and holding any remaining particles from the bottom of shoes.  This double door mat strategy will help you limit the unnecessary dirt that clings to shoes, and reduce the amount of dirt tracked through your environment.

By taking a few simple steps you can help maintain a clean environment.  If that doesn’t work, then you may want to consider increasing the frequency of your professional janitorial service!

Today washing up between patients is standard practice in healthcare, yet the struggle to encourage the general public to wash their hands in order to remove harmful pathogenic bacteria remains a challenge. Several years ago the American Society for Microbiology conducted an experiment to find out how many people who said they washed their hands after using a public restroom actually did so, and discovered that only two-thirds were following through. The rest were potentially spreading illnesses like diarrhea, dysentery and hepatitis A.

But the risks of poor hand hygiene don’t stop in the restroom. Microbes carrying cold and influenza can lurk for days on door handles, light switches, desks and computer keyboards. Then one touch to the nose or mouth, and a person is ill. It’s a vicious cycle that can quickly escalate to an epidemic. Symptoms can be hard on a healthy adult, but for children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems, they can be deadly, leading to flu and pneumonia, which together are the eighth-leading cause of death in America.

These facts present an opportunity for jan/san distributors to bring them to their customers’ attention, improve their bottom lines, and be seen as valuable business partners. Helping clients design systems and specify products that will help protect occupants and employees — and in turn families and communities — from disease, can reduce absenteeism and presenteeism (sick people coming to work), increase productivity, protect funding in schools and help contain escalating group health insurance premiums.

Creating The Right Environment

Aside from having hand sanitizer dispensers at doorways and on desks, the best opportunity to remove harmful microbes from hands is in the restroom, which is best achieved through a combination of a clean appearance, appealing products, the right equipment and appropriate signage.

The cleaner the restroom (even the perception of clean) can mean the difference between building occupants washing their hands with soap for the 15 seconds recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, or bolting out the door. Since people are more apt to spend time washing and drying their hands when the restroom feels healthful and appealing, creating that image is vital — especially during first impressions when people establish the mindsets and habits they’ll carry forward on a daily basis.

I find a similar situation in commercial cleaning. Microfiber scrubs better than a cotton rag or a sponge, and absorbs better; you don’t need as much, or as strong, a chemical to loosen dirt, or to hold it in solution. Our rough rule of thumb, in comparing cotton cloths to microfiber, or cotton string mops to microfiber mops, is that we can “dumb down” the chemical by a step using microfiber. That is, we use a neutral cleaner rather than an alkaline, or water rather than a neutral cleaner. Further, on floors, we can use much less solution (which is weaker to begin with).

So: less chemical, milder chemical, less water. Better for the health of my crew, my client, and the larger environment. Cheaper as well. Not much to not like.