Most commercial cleaning schedules have one setting: how many visits per week. Everything happens on every visit, or it doesn’t happen.
That’s expensive, and it produces a worse result than a structured schedule at the same cost.
The principle
Different tasks have different tolerance for being skipped:
- Bathrooms generate a complaint within a day
- Carpet looks the same after three days
- Skirtings are invisible for a week
- High dusting is invisible for a month
Match frequency to consequence and you spend the same money on a better outcome, or a better outcome for less money.
The structure
| Tier | Tasks | When |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Bathrooms, kitchen, bins, high-touch, reception, high-traffic floors | Every visit |
| Rotation | General vacuuming, desks, meeting rooms | Alternate visits |
| Weekly | Edges, skirtings, sills, internal glass, bin washing, grout | Once weekly |
| Monthly | High dusting, vents, fittings, fridge, under furniture | Once monthly |
| Quarterly | Windows, blinds, storage areas | Once quarterly |
| Periodic | Carpet extraction, floor sealing, external windows | Scheduled separately |
Worked example: 20-person office, 300 m²
Flat schedule (typical) Everything, five visits a week, 3 hours per visit = 15 hours/week
Structured schedule
- Core tasks, 5 visits × 1.75 hrs = 8.75 hrs
- Rotation tasks, 3 visits × 0.75 hrs = 2.25 hrs
- Weekly tasks, 1 × 1.25 hrs = 1.25 hrs
- Monthly tasks, 0.25 × 2 hrs = 0.5 hrs
Total = 12.75 hours/week
That’s a 15% reduction, and the structured version actually does more of the weekly and monthly detail work, because it’s scheduled rather than squeezed in whenever there’s time.
Why providers don’t offer this
Not malice, simplicity. A flat schedule is:
- Faster to quote
- Easier to roster
- Simpler to explain
- Doesn’t require a task-level record to manage
That last point is the real reason. A structured schedule only works if someone tracks which tier happened when. Without a record, "weekly tasks" quietly become "whenever we get to it", which becomes never.
Making it work
1. Write the tiers into the specification. Not "clean weekly", a list of tasks per tier with a defined frequency.
2. Fix the days. Weekly tasks happen Mondays. Monthly tasks happen the first Monday. Predictable is auditable.
3. Require a per-task record. Which tier ran, which tasks completed. This is the mechanism that stops the schedule degrading into a flat one.
4. Audit quarterly. Walk the building the day before the weekly clean and check the weekly items. Check the monthly items any time. If they’re consistently poor, the tiers aren’t running.
When a flat schedule is right
- Very small premises where the whole clean is under an hour
- Buildings with unusually heavy soiling where everything genuinely needs daily attention
- Medical and childcare, where much of the "weekly" list is actually a daily hygiene requirement
For a standard office, structured almost always wins.
Asking your provider
Request two prices: your current arrangement, and a structured schedule with core tasks daily and general cleaning on rotation.
Then ask which they’d recommend if it were their building. The answer, and how readily it comes, tells you a lot.