Warehouse space has never been in greater demand. Indeed, the monumental rise of online shopping has skyrocketed the need for big, secure, industrial locations to pick, pack, and ship inventory to customers. The way things are going, America will need 1 billion (that’s billion, with a ‘b’) additional square feet of warehousing space by 2025.
And that’s bad news for business owners who are already struggling to clean and tidy their warehouses! After all, cleaning warehouses is tricky enough as it is. Throw more square-footage into the mix and it’s only going to get harder.
A warehouse cleaning checklist could make all the difference. Having each task written down should reduce the time it takes to tidy, minimize wasteful mistakes, and make everybody’s life easier (and safer) in the process. Sound good?
Read on for an ultimate checklist that’s sure to help your team clean, tidy, and sanitize the warehouse.
Preliminary Tasks and Strategies
Having an in-depth warehouse cleaning checklist is all well and good. But you need the groundwork to be in place for it to achieve employee buy-in and, ultimately, prove effective. With that in mind, here’s a set of steps, tasks, principles, and strategies to wrap your head around before you begin:
- Make sure you have enough warehouse facility cleaning equipment and products in supply at all times.
- Create a culture of personal responsibility around warehouse spills and messes.
- Lead by example and be a role model for everybody else when it comes to cleaning.
- Create a set of consistent warehouse cleaning standards and get everybody’s buy-in.
- Train everybody how to handle the most common cleaning tasks.
- Leverage calmer workdays to keep up with the cleaning.
- Get into the habit of using the last 15 minutes of the day to tidy up.
- Establish a cleaning schedule with everybody’s duties to function alongside your checklist.
Daily Cleaning Tasks and Responsibilities
Many cleaning jobs are urgent, commonplace, and can’t wait. They need to be done every day- and sometimes on the spot! Here’s a set of these kinds of essential jobs to include on your daily cleaning checklist:
- Sweep the dirt, dust, and debris from workstations into the trash.
- Wipe down the workstations using an all-purpose cleaner.
- Place any strapping and product packaging into the recycling/trash.
- Put tools and equipment back in their appropriate places.
- Sweep the floors of the warehouse, including back-office rooms.
- Mop the floors once they’ve been swept and vacuumed (especially after spills).
- Sanitize railings, handles, grab bars and buttons.
- Double-check all equipment and racks are clean, dust-free, and in good working order.
- Clean and sanitize the bathroom toilets and sinks.
- Clean and sanitize the staff kitchen area.
- Remove obstacles from doorways and loading bays (especially fire escapes).
- Dispose of broken pallets and check for signs of pests.
Weekly Cleaning Tasks and Responsibilities
Some warehouse hygiene work is best done on weekly basis instead though. These tasks aren’t as time-sensitive, but make the daily ones less arduous. For example, emptying the bins every week means you can clear away any warehouse detritus without having to take the trash out first.
- Check the lighting, security systems, and operating equipment are all functioning; report and fix any issues you observe.
- Tidy, reorganize, and sanitize your backrooms and storage areas.
- Dust harder to reach surfaces including light fixtures, fans, and the tops and sides of racks.
- Audit various key supplies (first aid, cleaning, kitchen, and so on) and stock up where necessary.
- Wipe down and sanitize your windows, blinds, door frames, and wall partitions.
- Empty your bins, organize the removal of larger trash and recycle where possible.
- Clear your racks of empty pallets and packages.
- Clear out the compound, sweep up any debris, and remove any weeds/trash.
Monthly Cleaning Tasks and Responsibilities
Certain cleaning jobs only need to be done once a month or so. These tasks tend to be less urgent in nature, though they’re no less important to the overall cleanliness of the warehouse. Let’s go through each one in turn:
- Clear, clean, and sanitize the staff kitchen refrigerator and cabinets (disposing of old food).
- Remove pallets and items from shelves and dust everything off.
- Clean out your ventilators and the rafters in the warehouse (if they’re safely accessible).
- Remove any clutter and unnecessary items (including pallets, equipment, tools, and trash) from the warehouse floor and aisles.
- Hire warehouse cleaning services, such as a floor scrubber service for thorough warehouse concrete floor cleaning.
Bi-Annual Cleaning Tasks and Responsibilities
Last but not least, there’s a select number of cleaning tasks that are worth doing approximately twice a year (or once a quarter if necessary). They usually revolve around warehouse disorganization and mess that takes longer to develop. They’re often time-consuming as well and involve general sorting and maintenance.
Here are a few specific examples to incorporate into your checklist:
- Perform an audit of items, equipment, and inventory you no longer need.
- Sell, discard, or repurpose those items, equipment, and inventory.
- Strip the warehouse floors and reseal the surface.
- Sort through and store any small, loose, and miscellaneous items.
- Assess the general layout of the warehouse and ensure that it’s still fit-for-purpose.
Don’t Forget This Warehouse Cleaning Checklist
Warehouse space is prime real estate in the e-commerce world we’re living in. After all, as the popularity of online shopping increases, so does the demand for high-quality warehousing to store and handle the inventory. As a result, an explosion in both the amount and size of warehouses in the United States is just around the corner.
And that, among other logistical problems, could prove troublesome when it comes to cleaning, sanitizing, and tidying! Have you been struggling to clean your current warehouse space? Well, we hope the warehouse cleaning checklist in this post will make a difference.
Keep it in mind and you should enjoy a far smoother and more efficient clean-up operation every time. Search ‘cleaning’ on the website to read more articles like this one now.
