A church or other form of religious facility values its location as a hub and outreach for the community it serves, along with serving its members and professional staff. Therefore, the building must be clean, organized, and sanitary to provide a welcoming environment for all who enter its doors. Thankfully, by purposefully approaching the task of cleaning a church building through various cleaning services, this space will most certainly convey the desired inviting message, welcoming in the community.
Create a Church Cleaning Plan
The first step in keeping a church clean is creating a plan or strategy and then putting this in place. This can include a printed-off checklist to ensure that all areas are covered. In most cases, the spaces inside a church are large and expansive, so there should be some sort of plan to address each area, or quadrant, regularly to keep up with tasks before they can become overwhelming.
Use Appropriate Cleaning Supplies
The next step involved in keeping a church clean is to gather up all the right cleaning products and cleaning equipment and supplies. It can be frustrating for volunteers or even staff members to attempt to clean, only to find out there are no products to clean with or the correct cleaning equipment is nowhere to be found. Ideally, within every quadrant of the building, there will be a closet fully stocked with cleaning supplies, including the appropriate cleaning equipment for that space. Anyone trying to help by cleaning up should know where to go to find these items, and someone should be tasked with keeping them in stock.
Prioritize Targeted Areas
As mentioned above, a church is made up of several areas, which all need attention. The easiest way to guarantee that no area is overlooked is to create a checklist per targeted area, ensuring that all tasks that are imperative to that location are completed regularly.
Entrance
The entrance to the church is one of the most important areas to keep clean and organized. After all, it is the first area that guests enter into and should be well maintained to create the right kind of first impression. Some specific tasks to address in this area include:
Vacuum the carpet or sweep hard floors.
Clean entrance mats.
Clean glass and polish doors.
Dust surfaces.
Worship Areas
The next area that needs attention is the worship area of the sanctuary, which includes the following specific tasks:
Wipe down baseboards and walls.
Polish hand railings.
Clean pews or chairs.
Clean under instruments, furnishings, and more.
Kitchen
The kitchen and/or fellowship hall is an important location as it includes food prep and eating and needs to be sanitary and well-organized. Here is a checklist of tasks in this particular location:
Clean out the refrigerator and cabinets of expired food and condiments.
Wipe walls and baseboards.
Clean floor.
Clean appliances like coffee makers, microwaves, and water dispensers.
Classrooms & Daycare
Be sure to perform the following tasks in these areas to keep it safe and as germ-free as possible:
Clean chairs, tables, and cribs (in the nursery).
In daycare areas, change the mattress covers and sheets.
Wipe down baseboards and walls using safe cleaners.
Offices
Church offices serve as a central hub for administrative and pastoral work, and it’s essential to maintain a clean and organized environment in these spaces.
Dust desks, shelves, and office equipment.
Vacuum or mop floors.
Clean and disinfect phones, keyboards, and doorknobs.
Empty and sanitize trash bins.
Wipe down walls and baseboards.
Bathrooms
All church members and guests should be able to visit the bathroom and find it well-supplied, orderly, and clean. The following tasks are involved in keeping this area clean:
Deep clean countertops, floors, and walls.
Examine under sinks and behind toilets to look for evidence of mold or leaks.
Check floors, drains, and sinks for clogs.
Clean mirrors, and surfaces and make sure it is well supplied with toiletries.
Set Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Routine Tasks
Not all cleaning tasks have to be performed each day or even each week. Ideally, it’s a good idea to keep up with cleaning tasks regularly so that no area gets especially dirty. However, there are times when deep cleaning is in order and is necessary to maintain the overall cleanliness of the building. Consider an example of a typical way tasks can be broken down into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks:
Daily:
Dust and clean walls.
Clean doorknobs and doors.
Clean handles and windows.
Clean and disinfect the bathrooms.
Clean and put away, along with disinfecting the kitchen, including putting away dishes and utensils.
Address high-touch areas in classrooms and wipe them down.
Replace liners in trash bins.
Weekly:
Tidy up literature, hymnals, and more.
Clean glass surfaces.
Dust and clean all visible surfaces.
Vacuum carpeted areas.
Clean and mop hard surface floors.
Clean stage area and/or podium.
Disinfect toys (daycare).
Disinfect supplies in classrooms if possible.
Use sanitizing services to disinfect and create sanitary surfaces throughout all areas.
Refill paper towels, soap dispensers, toilet paper, etc.
Restock crayons, paper, and other supplies in classrooms
Clean and sweep staircases.
Clean the exterior, especially at the church entrance area.
Monthly:
Deep clean window blinds, dust.
Deep clean and scrub hard floors.
Sweep parking lots.
Dust window sills and clean window panes.
Sweep and clean porches.
Vacuum and deep clean carpets addressing stains.
Maintain the outside by weeding or clearing debris from grassy areas.
Mow the grass.
Move large items in the sanctuary and classrooms and clean underneath them.
The Importance of Regular Church Cleaning
Churches should be a welcoming, clean, and safe environment for all who enter inside. Therefore, as this building will house a wide range of age groups and demographics, including those who might have immunity issues and more, such as the very young or the advanced in age, it is particularly important to keep a church clean and well-maintained overall. To do this successfully, it’s important to break up the church into smaller quadrants as outlined above as well as create a helpful checklist or task list to complete on a daily, weekly, and then monthly basis.
Contact Us For Professional Church Cleaning Services
Keeping up with all the tasks involved in cleaning a church building can become overwhelming. This is especially true if you don’t have a large staff or the volunteers required to do the tasks at hand. Contact us at Oracle Cleaning Solutions to learn more about our professional church cleaning services. Let us help you maintain your physical building and ensure that you present the right impression to visitors, staff members, and churchgoers alike.