Summary:
Schools are tough to keep clean: events run back-to-back, budgets are thin, staff are stretched, and thousands of people pass through daily, spreading germs on desks, lockers, and restrooms. Soft furniture and carpets trap dirt, and evolving standards make compliance hard. Professional cleaners like Picture Perfect Cleaning bring trained teams, flexible schedules, and specialized equipment to keep every surface safe, reducing illness-related absences and creating a healthier, more positive place to learn.
| Time to Read | ~6 minutes |
| What You’ll Learn | The biggest cleaning challenges schools face—staffing, budgets, events, germs, and changing standards—and practical solutions for each. |
| Next Steps | Schedule a walkthrough with Picture Perfect Cleaning to create a custom cleaning plan for your school. |
Schools have a duty to provide a clean, safe, and healthy environment for students, teachers, and visitors. A clean school helps prevent the spread of illness and creates a more positive learning environment.
But consistent cleaning in a school environment is far from simple. The pandemic raised already-high standards, and many schools are struggling to keep up. Below, we explore the biggest challenges of keeping schools clean, and what you can do about them.
Find Efficient School Cleaning Services
Increased Use of School Facilities for Events
The Challenge
Schools aren’t just used for classes anymore. Today, they also host sporting events, community gatherings, after-school programs, and parent-teacher meetings. These events can happen back-to-back, leaving little time to reset the space before the next activity begins.
That means you need a way to manage garbage and clutter during each event, and to clear any that remains in the tight windows in between. But since staff and parent volunteers are often so busy with the events themselves, these tasks can fall by the wayside.
The Solution
Create a flexible cleaning schedule that includes quick-turnaround cleaning protocols between events and a weekly deep-clean plan. Partnering with a professional cleaning company is one of the best ways to organize and document these processes. It can also ensure you have enough trained staff to handle busy schedules and last-minute bookings without cutting corners. We’ll talk about that next.
Inadequate Staff
The Challenge
Most schools run on limited janitorial teams. Teachers and even students sometimes pitch in, but they usually lack the time, training, or equipment to do a thorough job, especially during cold and flu season.
The Solution
Outsource daily and deep cleaning tasks to professionals. This frees up teachers to focus on education while ensuring that cleaning meets health and safety standards. The city’s best janitorial services use background-checked cleaning staff who can work appropriately and responsibly in schools, while using eco-friendly cleaning products and commercial-grade equipment to achieve better results.
Learn More: The Ultimate Guide to Janitorial Companies in Calgary & Edmonton
Limited Funding
The Challenge
Budget constraints often force schools to choose between hiring more staff or buying better supplies. The result is cleaning that may be infrequent or incomplete, leaving schools vulnerable to outbreaks.
Solution
Hiring new employees is too costly and time-consuming for most school budgets, but working with a cleaning company is more cost-efficient. Professional janitorial services like PPC can customize a plan based on your budget that identifies and focuses on your school’s highest-priority areas, like restrooms, cafeterias, and gyms (anywhere with high-touch surfaces).
Ongoing preventive maintenance is also more cost-effective than emergency disinfection after an illness spreads, so this can potentially save your school more money than it costs in the long run.
Large Volume & Variety of People
The Challenge
Hundreds (or thousands) of students, staff, and visitors use the same spaces every day. Lockers, desks, and restrooms can become hotspots for germs, and high foot traffic makes it hard to keep floors and hallways clean.
Solution
Use a combination of daily disinfection for high-touch surfaces and regularly scheduled deep cleaning. Cleaning crews can rotate focus areas so that no space gets overlooked, even during the busiest times of the year.
Related: Tips to Keep High-Traffic Areas in Your Facility Clean
Fabrics & Furniture
The Challenge
Soft furniture, carpets, and mats are perfect environments for germs to thrive, but they’re difficult to clean effectively with basic supplies. That makes libraries, gyms, classrooms, and offices all prime candidates for professional cleaning as infection control.
Solution
Schedule periodic deep cleaning of upholstery and carpets using specialized equipment. This helps remove dirt, allergens, and bacteria that regular vacuuming can’t reach, improving air quality and overall hygiene.
Learn More: Why Those Carpet Stains Won’t Come Out: Understanding Carpet Chemistry
Lack of Training & Frequently Changing Standards
The Challenge
Since COVID-19, cleaning protocols have become more rigorous and complex. Teachers and staff are expected to follow new procedures on top of their regular duties, and training often falls behind.
Solution
Partner with a professional cleaning company that stays up to date on health and safety guidelines. Our team can handle cleaning compliance for you and even help train your staff on simple daily hygiene practices to supplement professional cleaning.
Bring in the Professionals & Call Picture Perfect Cleaning
Keeping a school clean isn’t just about the way things look. The right cleaning protocols improve health, safety, and peace of mind for students, parents, and staff. Updating your janitorial practices and actually following through with the changes can be a lot of work without help, but partnering with professional janitorial services offers:
- A team trained on current cleaning and disinfection standards
- Customized schedules that fit your school’s hours and budget
- Consistent results that reduce illness-related absences and boost morale
With over 10 years of experience cleaning schools across Alberta, Picture Perfect Cleaning can design a cleaning plan tailored to your facility’s needs.
Ready to make your school a cleaner, healthier place? Contact Picture Perfect Cleaning today to schedule a walkthrough and get a custom cleaning plan.
