Desert Cleaning Janitorial Services in Tucson,
                  ArizonaJanitorial & Office Cleaning
Tucson, Arizona

2024 Janitorial Articles

By Reid Sossong, RPA and Scott Sossong

We're all about clean, let us make you the satisfied client. Visit the Desert Cleaning Home Page to learn more.

Dusting

In Tucson, the number one problem in the office cleaning world is dusting. Tucson is a dusty place, a true dust bowl. Office cleaners that start skipping the dusting in an office are creating a real project down the road. It has to be done consistently and there has to be a schedule in place.

A reliable duster used to combat the dusting is either a microfiber or lambswool duster. Originally it was the feather duster. Feather dusters were invented in the 1800’s in a broom factory. Since then, microfiber and lambswool dusters were invented which both outperform the feather duster in many ways. We use lambswool dusters and have seen great results. Dusting is not hard to do yet many services skip it.

A slightly damp microfiber towel is a great way to remove dust in the office. It takes longer to use, so we use it in special situations. Microfiber has many uses. There are microfiber duster gloves and other assorted dusters on the market. The prices are a lot less than the standard duster as well. Dusting is a never ending task.

Our company policy is we do not move papers on the desk or on top of file cabinets when dusting unless we are given the green light. We dust around, behind, and under certain items on a typical desk and if you have specific procedures to follow let us know. When in doubt don’t move it is our slogan and has worked for years.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at dusting and if you are having problems with your janitorial service please contact us and we will put our experience to work for you and your company. We leave other companies in the dust.

Details Matter: Looking For The 5%

What we have focused on since our beginning in 1980 and continue to today is to focus on the small details when cleaning an account. Details matter and they can add up quickly, if you neglect to bring any details up to speed, overtime they will be more apparent and people will start to notice that this area(s) have been neglected.

What details am I talking about? There are many to list but a few are: (cleaning the coffee stains in the kitchen sink drains, straightening lobby magazines and brochures, pour disinfectant cleaner down any floor drain to prevent any smell, consistently replace urinal screens, replace restroom air fresheners so there is always a consistent smell, straighten trash cans when vacuuming, if there is a building concern like a plumbing problem or a roof leak to report that immediately and so on).

Some of the time details that we may notice might not fall under our concern or service we offer, but if we point this out to the office manager, property manager or business owner they can then decide whether to act on it. If you were to pick two details out each time you service a customer's account and clean/do them it will add up by the end of the week, month and year.

So many other companies only focus on the basic service they offer and not in addition to the small details. While it sounds so easy to do, many companies do not make it a priority to focus on. If their employees are not trained or shown to lookout and clean these detail areas, they have no idea they are missing out on something.

Details roughly make up 5% of the overall tasks/service we provide. While it looks like a small percentage it can separate yourself from competitors drastically. People do tend to notice small details, especially if it is spread out throughout the office building.

Janitorial Basics 101

This week we’ll review some of the basics for janitors to follow that sound simple, but these topics are crucial in ensuring the service we provide is efficient in every way possible.

The first topic is sticking to the same cleaning route when inside a building. Once you fine-tune your cleaning route to where it flows, there’s minimal backtracking and it's also time efficient there is no reason at all to switch the order of this route. Yes this can seem monotonous and robotic which is why so many janitors are redoing their route and that can cause a lot of problems. Areas of the building can get missed, there’s unnecessary backtracking and it could take the janitor more time to clean overall. If the cleaning route you’re currently doing works, there’s no reason to change something that’s working.

The second topic is building keys and entry cards to buildings. We have seen this scenario play out so many times - a janitor is inside a building and sets the keys or entry card down inside the building. They walk outside and realize once the entry doors have closed, they’re now locked out. All of this could have been easily prevented, luckily we have the solution. For building keys there is a product called a key caddy. It clips onto your belt or pants with a heavy duty clip. It has a nylon non breakable cord that extends outward which you can attach rings of keys onto. This ensures the janitor has the building keys on them at all times and are not tempted to set them down anywhere or have the keys fall out of their pocket. For entry cards, we can provide shirt clips which have the same nylon cord as the key caddy. This too ensures the entry cards are always clipped onto the janitor’s shirt at all times.

In our best efforts, trying to eliminate any problems or issues that may arise and streamline the services we provide is an ongoing task. We are constantly learning and adjusting, all in the end to provide you with the best commercial office cleaning experience possible.

Foothills Office Cleaning

Let’s travel up in the foothills area of Tucson. It is considered to be the prestige, higher end area of Tucson with all the amenities you can think of.  The main arteries are Swan road which takes you right into Tucson and Sunrise/Skyline/Ina which take you to I-10. The 85718 zip code has always been a great place for commercial janitorial services like ours to clean offices and shopping centers. If you would like a bid let Scott know.

Desert Cleaning can handle the highly competitive janitorial market here in Tucson. We start by having the best of the best janitors. People ask us, how did you get such a great team? It took time and has not been easy, but the real secret is we pay our janitors more. Just like our sought after systems, we have people waiting to work at Desert Cleaning and it is why we have been in business for over forty years.

Commercial offices demand the best cleaning and high attention to detail available in the foothills. That’s where we come in with our state of the art and sought after cleaning systems. We are able to provide the best office cleaning experience here in Tucson.

Do you need a local janitor service and don’t want a multi year contract? Desert Cleaning is local and we don’t require a long term contract! Wow, that was easy. We have been in the office cleaning business for over forty years in Tucson, so use our experience to your benefit and see the savings.

If you are putting together a budget or dissatisfied with your current service we can help. Give us a call, email is at desertcleaningtucson@gmail.com or fill out our fast online quote form. We can then come and tour your office and give you a bid.

Office Restroom Cleaning Summary

There are many tasks for the janitor to do in restrooms, the list goes on and on. The first task on the list is to check and if needed restock the dispensers, which includes the paper and soap dispensers. Paper dispensers are generally: toilet paper, toilet seat covers, multifold/hardwound towels, etc… Soap dispensers can vary depending on what type of dispenser is installed. Dispensers range from a simple refill container the janitor can refill using a gallon jug of soap, or complex cartridges that are battery powered and have to be specific cartridges for that particular dispenser. Some of these specific cartridges can be expensive, depending upon the manufacturer.

The janitor closet is usually located near the restrooms, which helps the janitor for restocking. They have quick access to the supplies and can easily restock the restrooms. But, if there are multiple sets of restrooms in an office building, typically that’s when a janitor cart or housekeeping cart is used to transport supplies as well as cleaning materials.

Top to bottom cleaning is key when servicing restrooms. Why is this key? When you clean top to bottom, usually starting with dusting the vents, exhaust fans, tops of stall partitions, all of the dust then falls down onto lower surfaces. There are lots of tasks the janitor has to do now in the middle cleaning. Ranging from cleaning the toilets/urinals, cleaning the mirrors, emptying the trash, wiping the stall doors and partitions, and so much more. The last area serviced in the restrooms are the floors. First you can sweep or vacuum up any dust and debris off the floor, prepping it for damp mopping. We use a hospital grade cleaner disinfectant when damp mopping the floors. If there are still people in the building when the damp mopping is being performed, wet floor signs need to be placed on or near the floors which are being damp mopped. When the floor is drying, the janitor can then start to clean up, put supplies away in the janitor closet, take the trash to the dumpster, etc. Once all of these tasks have been completed, the floor should be dry and the janitor can remove the wet floor signs, ensuring the floor is safe to walk on.

Commercial Office Cleaning Service 

A variety of establishments are converting their restrooms and other parts of their buildings to a touchless system. What is a touchless system? A touchless system involves all of the surfaces a person touches, converting these surfaces to touchless.

Some examples are: soap dispensers, hand sanitizer dispensers, paper towel dispensers, flush valves, faucets, hand dryers, door sensors, etc…Traditionally when you touch these surfaces you create a need for these areas to be cleaned and disinfected. Restrooms are one of the main breeding grounds for germs, bacteria, viruses and many others. Having a touchless system in your restroom and ideally in other areas of your building will help cleanliness, prevent employees and visitors from being sick and overall improve the building.

Are you looking for a day porter for your shopping center? We can help! Day portering shopping centers, retail centers and office complexes involve a trained janitor picking up non biodegradable trash around all buildings, parking lot areas, landscaping and around the dumpster areas.

The day porter also empties all of the outside trash containers and replaces the liners and emptying the cigarette urns of cigarettes and replacing the sand if needed. Other duties the day porter may be required to perform are: dusting or wiping window sills, sweeping/blowing corners of the property where debris collects, etc…Day portering works well along with a parking lot sweeping company.

We Do Janitorial Inspections! Does Your Janitorial Company?

Janitorial inspections are a big part of our system. Critical inspections are unique to each account and frequencies count too. A checklist is used as a guide and areas that need attention are told to the onsite janitor. Does the inspection team correct any deficiencies? Yes and no, let’s take a look.

Desert Cleaning has the best janitorial inspection team in Tucson. Their sole job is to make sure the client is being given the best janitorial experience possible. Their job is not to try and find fault with the onsite janitor necessarily. Our team is seasoned and uses the checklist inspection sheet that works.

Our inspection form we use is a guide and combined with our team's experience, it keeps everything on track. Even the experienced janitor can miss something and it’s the inspection team’s job to discover things before anyone in the client’s office does.

Our inspection job may appear easy but in reality it is the last chance to catch an error before anyone else does, and that’s a lot of weight to carry. It is a never ending cycle performing inspections and we are constantly learning everyday. It may cost more to have an inspection team but we look at it as an insurance policy to ensure you have a great janitorial experience.

Company Updates, Reference Letters & Reputation

We are excited to be entering into our 44th year in business this month! With everyone on our team, from our frontline employees to Supervisors, Managers and everyone in our office, all of us are working together to provide you with the best commercial janitorial cleaning experience in Tucson possible.

This will be a year of changes and updates within our company. All of which is to help us solidify our back office needs as well as help us offer you the highest quality of service possible. To touch on a few of these: we will be extending our long partnership with our payroll company to now offer us human resource compliance and guidance, safety compliance and guidelines as well as advisory and consulting services. Also, we will be switching our current toilet bowl cleaner to a product manufactured from National Chemical Laboratories (NCL) which is a hospital grade cleaner disinfectant that exceeds industry requirements. Once this occurs, the vast majority of our cleaners and disinfectants we most frequently use will be hospital grade standard, another way we are delivering the best service to you possible.

We added more letters to our reference letter page! Each year more and more companies are satisfied with our service and we are proud to showcase our reference letters we have received over the past 40+ years. We service a diversified variety of commercial businesses here in Tucson and surrounding areas, with that being said, we have close to 40 reference letters currently.

Let’s add you to that list, give us a call at 520-722-6776, fill out our fast online quote form or send us an email at desertcleaningtucson@gmail.com


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Desert Cleaning Janitorial Services, Inc
2251 N. Indian Ruins Road Suite B
Tucson, AZ, US, 85715-5305
Call Scott at (520) 722-6776

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