Why Your Community Center Needs A Professional Cleaning Service

Why Your YMCA, Youth Center, Senior Center, Recreational, or Community Center Needs a Professional Cleaning Service

Community centers, recreation centers, YMCAs, and senior and youth centers must be held to a high standard of cleanliness. With so many people coming and going on a regular basis, it’s critical that organizations such as these provide a safe and healthy environment for everyone. Typically, YMCAs and recreational and community centers are high-traffic facilities where appearance, cleanliness, safety, and maintenance are extremely important.

The appearance of your facility should look inviting, a place where people want to hang out, and cleanliness is a huge part of that. A buildup of dust, dirt, and grime can cause your facility to show wear and tear faster. Additionally, harmful germs and bacteria can make people sick when the appropriate cleaning measures are not taken.  

Carpet and hard floors

Floors are one of the first things people see when they walk into a recreational or community center. The best way to maintain your floors is to implement an effective hard floor care program. A professional cleaning service like Cleanstart will utilize the correct products, procedures, and equipment for your floor type and customize a floor care program for your facility. 

In addition to regular vacuuming, carpeted areas in your facility should also be extracted or otherwise deep cleaned on a regular basis. Depending on the amount of traffic and environment, carpet cleaning can be performed every 4 to 6 months. It’s also a good idea to Install walk-off mats in all entryways, which do a great job of trapping dirt from foot traffic entering your facility. Entry-way walk-off mats should be vacuumed and rotated on a regular basis to ensure they are clean.

Kitchen and food areas

If a recreational or community center has food services available, it becomes even more critical that areas where food is prepared, handled, or consumed be kept clean and sanitized. Germs and bacteria can easily spread from one surface to another and cause foodborne illnesses. Cross-contamination is the main cause of foodborne disease. Kitchen items that often become contaminated include can openers, cutting boards, countertops, garbage disposals, kitchen sinks, refrigerators, and other appliances. Keep the food areas in your facility hygienic and safe by hiring a reputable community center cleaning service. 

Workout equipment and locker rooms

If your community center has fitness equipment, weights, or exercise mats, these items should be cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis to help reduce the spread of germs, bacteria, and infectious diseases.  Additionally, warm, moist environments like locker rooms where people store their belongings and shower also collect a lot of germs and bacteria and create an increased risk for illness and infection.  From dangerous infections like staph and MRSA to annoying ones like the flu, impetigo, and athlete’s foot, it’s imperative that locker rooms are routinely cleaned and disinfected to keep germs, bacteria, and illness at bay.  

Hard-to-reach high places

Recreational and community centers that have difficult to reach spots such as light fixtures, ceiling fans, air vents, pipes, etc. (usually 16 feet high above the floor) require high-dusting to remove bacteria, dust, and grime build-up. These areas often get neglected. The over-accumulation of dust in hard-to-reach high places can lead to poor indoor air quality and cause allergy flare-ups, present a fire hazard, and become a hygiene factor. A HEPA filter vacuum is the most effective way to remove high dust and keep fine particles from getting into other hard-to-reach areas and a  dust checkup should be part of your normal maintenance routine.

Restrooms

Recreational and community center restrooms should have functional toilets, clean and disinfected surfaces, and be properly stocked with handwashing supplies.  Billions of pathogens can be living on the surface and inside your restroom fixtures at any given time. Even if your restroom surfaces appear clean, they can still be harboring illness-causing germs and bacteria. A simple toilet flush can spread millions of water particles, germs, bacteria up to 20 feet, also known as toilet plume.

According to the CDC, the restrooms in your facility should be cleaned and disinfected regularly, particularly high-touch surfaces such as faucets, toilets, doorknobs, and light switches; and cleaned and disinfected more often using EPA-registered disinfectants that are effective against viruses like SARS-CoV-2. the virus that causes COVID-19. Restrooms should also be regularly stocked with supplies for handwashing, including soap and a way to dry hands (e.g., paper towels, hand dryer) or hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol and no-touch/foot pedal trash cans (preferably covered).  

Cleaning and disinfecting for Covid-19

SARS-CoV-2 can land on surfaces, and although in most situations, the risk of infection from touching a surface is low, it’s possible for people to become infected if they touch those surfaces and then touch their nose, mouth, or eyes. The most reliable way to prevent infection from surfaces is to encourage participants and employees in your recreational or community center to regularly wash hands or use hand sanitizer.

Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces can also reduce the risk of infection. The CDC recommends that high-touch surfaces be cleaned at least once a day or as often as determined is necessary. Examples of high-touch surfaces include counters, tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, stair rails, elevator buttons, desks, keyboards, phones, toilets, faucets, and sinks.

Posting information to prevent the spread of COVID-19 

The CDC recommends displaying posters and signs throughout your recreational or community center to frequently remind participants and staff to take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These messages should include information about:

• Staying home if you are sick or do not feel well, and what to do if you’re sick or feel ill.
• Using social distancing to maintain a distance of 6 feet between others in all areas of the park.
• Covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of the elbow. Used tissues should be thrown into the trash.
• Washing hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
• If soap and water are not readily available, use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol and rub hands together until dry.
• Young children should be supervised to ensure they are using sanitizer safely.
• Avoiding touching eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Using masks. Masks are most essential in times when physical distancing is difficult.  

Why your YMCA, youth center, senior center, recreational, or community center needs Cleanstart

Proper cleaning requires efficient and effective techniques that can quickly prepare your facility for visitors and guests. At Cleanstart, we deliver top-quality cleaning results in a timely manner using the highest quality janitorial cleaning products and processes. We can clean at a time and frequency that best meets your needs, and we always adhere to best practices set forth by leading governmental organizations including the CDC, EPA, and FDA.

We recognize that each building is different and comes with its own unique cleaning needs. Whether you are in charge of the cleaning and maintenance of a YMCA, youth center, senior center, recreational or community center, we will work with you to create a customized cleaning plan for your facility that accommodates your hours of operation and minimizes downtime.

Our recreational and community center cleaning services include: 

• General surface cleaning and disinfecting 
• Kitchens and food area cleaning and sanitizing
• Restroom and locker room cleaning and disinfecting 
• Office cleaning and disinfecting
• Hard floor care – routine, interim, and restorative care for all floor types 
• Carpet care – routine vacuuming and interim shampooing 
• Fitness equipment cleaning and disinfecting 
• High-dusting hard-to-reach surfaces (usually 16 ft. above the ground) 
• Trash removal

Do you have the right products, materials, equipment, and manpower to keep your recreational or community center clean, healthy, and looking its best? Cleanstart has been in the commercial cleaning and janitorial industry for over 25 years. We strive to provide the best commercial cleaning and janitorial services in the Pacific Northwest and that is why we offer a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.

If for whatever reason our 5-star quality cleaning standard is not met, we will make it right by correcting the issue within one business day at no additional cost to you. Our combination of proven processes, high standards, and uncompromising customer service take recreational and community cleaning services to the next level.

Cleanstart proudly offers:

✓ Over 25 years of experience in the cleaning and janitorial industry
✓ Thoroughly trained and vetted cleaning professionals
✓ Commitment to the highest quality clean
✓ Local, licensed, insured, & bonded service
✓ 24/7 cleaning options & support
✓ Customized cleaning solutions
✓ One-time and recurring professional cleaning visits
✓ 100% satisfaction guarantee
✓ OSHA, HIPAA, EPA, CDC, AORN compliant
✓  A+ BBB-rating

If you would like more information about our high-quality community center cleaning services, please give the experts at Cleanstart a call today at (253) 921-2593 or request a free online cleaning estimate!    

We service the following areas in the Greater Puget Sound:

Auburn, Bellevue, Bellingham, Bonney Lake, Bremerton, Factoria, Fife, Gig Harbor, Kent, Lakewood, Olympia, Puyallup, Renton, Seattle, Tacoma, Tukwila, University Place, King County, Kitsap County, Pierce County, and Thurston County.

5013 Pacific Hwy E unit 16 Fife, WA 98424 • Phone: 253.921.2593 • Email: Caleb @ thecleanstart.com