Do You Make These 3 Mistakes While Vacuuming?

Do You Make These 3 Mistakes While Vacuuming?

Vacuuming is a critical part of keeping your facility clean, but, these 3 problems continually go unnoticed.

The vacuum is not being used when it should be.

Most people would agree, it makes sense to use a vacuum for a carpet, but, what is normally used for hard surfaces? Sweeping and dust mopping. A push-broom is called a push broom because it pushes the dirt around, instead of picking it up. If cleaning is defined as capturing and removing dirt then this is not cleaning. Not only that, consider the fine dirt particles left behind; they are ground into your floor slowly destroying the surface and decreasing its lifespan. Rotating brushes, or beater bars, also damage your carpet and hard floors. If you’re cleaning for appearance, your current vacuum could be working against you.

The wrong vacuum is used in a misguided attempt to save money.

Why wouldn’t you buy the cheapest vacuum off the shelf at Walmart, it is the cheapest and all vacuums are the same anyway, right? Wrong. Maybe it’s tradition or just fantastic (terrible) marketing, but, we’ve all been using the same vacuum since 1907. While the use-at-home market hasn’t changed much – the industrial market has. If this vacuum hasn’t been designed for the workplace, indoor air quality (IAQ), noise level reduction, and increased workload are not part of it’s benefits.

The price on the tag isn’t the whole story either. What about longevity? How long will that cheapo vacuum last when you’re using it 10 times more often than it’s built for? What about repair costs? What’s worse, instead of repairing our machine, we’re throwing it in the landfill every time it breaks down because it’s so cheap to buy a new one. That can’t be good for our planet’s longevity.

The average person wielding a vacuum is taking up to 4 times longer than they should.

This is not about a person’s ability or their level of post-secondary education, it’s about misinformation: if a person knows how to use their home vacuum, and the one at work is exactly the same, how do you convince that person they need a different vacuum and proper training? This misinformation is what has the largest impact on your wallet. The highest cost to clean any building is the labour; it fits pretty nicely into the 80/20 rule: over 80% of every dollar spent on cleaning is paying someone to do the work. Unfortunately, in most cases, that person isn’t using the right vacuum and hasn’t been given the proper training; they are fighting a losing battle and they don’t even know it.

The amount of time a vacuum is used in the home is significantly less when compared to the workplace due to the higher amounts of space and foot traffic. That excess time wielding an upright vacuum in a huge office building is sure to cause carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, and rotator cuff injury from its weight and repetitive motion. These injuries are debilitating for anyone, but, because you won’t get any of these health problems from the smaller amount of vacuuming done in your home (unless you’re the Howard Hughes in your family) the health concerns of vacuuming are overlooked.

Fortunately, these deceptive problems have simple solutions.

Designed for Work

To get the most from your vacuuming, and therefore actually remove the dirt, you need the right vacuum with the right tools. A vacuum specially designed for use at work can handle the extra workload without causing personal injury; it is 43% better than an upright vacuum at capturing and removing the dirt, textile fibers, pollen, hair flakes, residue from cleaning chemicals, decaying organic matter, dust mites, bacteria, fungi, and viruses in your workplace without reintroducing them into the air; it’s built to last with a warranty 3 times that of a standard vacuum, and, if it does break down, can reduce your repair costs by up to 90%.

Save Hours Vacuuming

The right vacuum is only part of the solution; training on how, where, and when to use it is just as important.

With a cleaning program designed specifically for your workplace not only can you reduce the time you spend vacuuming, but, by capturing and removing the dirt you will reduce time in all cleaning duties. Studies by the International Sanitary Supply Association have shown that you can decrease your labour costs by 71%, simply by switching vacuums. By splitting your cleaning tasks into distinct functions, a cleaning program can reduce training time and equipment needed, increase efficiency in specific areas, and, even in larger teams and facilities, make the entire system easier to manage and supervise.

We Will Help You

Clean Answers can help you find answers to the cleaning issues you deal with. Since each situation is unique, we research and test the newest tools, supplies, and procedures available for all types of facilities. We will evaluate the right vacuum and tools for your workplace and deliver the education and procedures necessary to get the cleaning done faster, and with our iClean program, we can make this work for any budget.

If you have hundreds of square feet of vacuuming every week, it’s not worth your money to hire another company to do the work for you and it’s not worth your time to try to figure all of this out on your own.

If you could use some help, get in touch or bring in an expert.

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