An annual reset does two things a regular schedule can’t: it moves everything, and it forces decisions about what’s actually needed.
Run it once a year. In New Zealand, either spring proper or the January return works well.
Phase 1: Declutter (staff, one week before)
Nothing else works until this happens. A deep clean of a building full of clutter is just an expensive regular clean.
Ask every person to:
- Clear their desk completely, including drawers
- Empty pedestals of anything not used in six months
- Take personal items home
- Clear their fridge shelf
- Return borrowed equipment
- Archive or dispose of paper files
Facility manager to:
- Clear storage areas and archive rooms
- Dispose of broken furniture and dead IT equipment
- Clear the print station of obsolete stock
- Empty and check the first aid kit
- Review and remove outdated signage and noticeboards
- Cancel anything still arriving that nobody uses
Phase 2: Deep clean
Everything moves. That’s the point.
Floors
- All furniture moved, floor cleaned beneath
- Carpet steam cleaned or extracted
- Carpet edges hand-detailed
- Hard floors stripped and sealed, or machine scrubbed
- Grout scrubbed
- Skirtings washed
High level
- Ceiling vents removed and cleaned
- Light diffusers removed, washed, refitted
- Cobwebs at all ceiling junctions
- Tops of everything
- Ceiling tiles spot-cleaned or flagged for replacement
Kitchen
- Fridge emptied, shelves out and washed, seals cleaned
- Behind and under the fridge and dishwasher
- Oven and rangehood filter
- All cupboards emptied and wiped
- Drains treated
Bathrooms
- Grout deep-scrubbed
- Silicone assessed, replaced where mould is embedded
- Extractor fans removed and cleaned
- Full descale
- Behind pans and cisterns
Detail
- Internal windows including tracks and frames
- Blinds cleaned
- Upholstery extracted
- Wall washing in high-contact areas
- Doors and frames washed
- All switch plates and outlets
Phase 3: Fix and refresh
The clean surfaces everything that’s been quietly deteriorating:
- Chipped paint touched up
- Damaged flooring repaired or flagged
- Broken blinds replaced
- Faulty lights replaced (and consider LED conversion)
- Loose handles and hinges tightened
- Squeaking doors oiled
- Furniture repaired or retired
- Signage refreshed
Timing it
Long weekend. The most common approach. Friday evening to Sunday. Enough for most offices under 400 m².
Christmas shutdown. Ideal if you have one. The whole job uninterrupted, with full cure time for floor sealing.
Staged by zone. For buildings that can’t close, run it over consecutive weekends, one floor or zone at a time.
Floor sealing needs cure time, confirm the window before booking, and don’t compress it.
What it costs
| Office size | Deep clean | Carpet extraction | Strip & seal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 150 m² | $600 – $1,200 | $600 – $1,200 | $1,800 – $3,300 |
| 150 – 300 m² | $1,200 – $2,200 | $1,200 – $2,400 | $3,600 – $6,600 |
| 300 – 600 m² | $2,200 – $4,000 | $2,400 – $4,800 | $7,200 – $13,200 |
Not every office needs strip and seal every year, most vinyl runs 12–24 months between full strips.
Make it worth repeating
Two things turn an annual clean into an annual habit:
- Photograph before and after. It makes the value visible to whoever signs the invoice, and it’s the difference between this happening again next year and quietly not.
- Write down what you found. The damaged flooring, the failing blind, the tap that drips. That list becomes next year’s maintenance budget rather than next year’s surprise.