Could Your Care Home do with a Spring Clean?

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, it’s safe to say that spring has sprung. Spring cleaning is a traditional part of spring, and an important part too, especially for care facilities. Spring cleaning is all about refreshing and reviving a space, it’s not just about the cleaning side of things, it’s about preparing your care home for the warmer weather.
 

Of course, in care homes it’s important to implement a thorough cleaning regime all year around, as combating germs is crucial. Keeping a care home clean isn’t just important for keeping your residents and employees safe, but it is also a legal requirement, which is why keeping on top of care home cleanliness is vital.
 

The cleanliness of care homes and other health facilities in the UK is regulated by the Care Quality Commission. Assessments are done on a regular basis of how clean care facilities are, with a rating given on completion, the better the rating, the cleaner the care home. The ratings range from inadequate to outstanding, with facilities marked as inadequate often put into special measures.
 

In crowded places like care homes, infections can spread quickly, putting vulnerable people at risk. Some microorganisms can survive on surfaces for weeks or even longer in some instances, which means that regular cleaning is crucial in care homes on a day to day basis, as well as in the spring.
 

How to ensure that your care home is spotless this spring (and year round)
 

A great way to ensure that your care home is kept clean day in, day out is to implement a cleaning schedule. This should have tick boxes and date and time spaces on it, so that when a cleaning task has been completed, it can be marked off and a time and date added, making it easier to see when the task needs repeating.
 

It’s important to remember that the most important areas to focus on are those that get a lot of us, such as bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and communal areas. Spring cleaning is a great opportunity to clean some of those harder to reach areas, and the areas that don’t normally get cleaned as often as other places.
 

Spring cleaning is also a great opportunity to reorganise areas of your care home that have fallen into disarray. Spring cleaning isn’t just about cleansing your care home, it’s also about getting it nice and neat, and ensuring that it’s well organised. So anything that isn’t well organised, such as the cleaning store cupboard, should be cleaned and organised.
 

Ideas for breathing new life into your care home
 

Spring cleaning is about more than the cleaning, it’s about preparing your care home for the warmer weather. To help do that, it’s important to think about ways that you can breath new life into the place.
 

One way to do that is to display lovely fresh flowers around. Ideally, you want these to be spring flowers, like daffodils, bluebells, and snowdrops, but anything that’s pretty and adds colour will do.
 

Another option is to change up the scents used in your care home. From the potpourri to the reed diffusers that you have in place, spring is the perfect time to swap out the scents for something a little fresher and more floral.
 

If there are no pot plants dotted around, then another way to bring spring into your care home could be to invest in some. There’s something about pot plants, especially leafy green ones, that help to create a more relaxing atmosphere.
 

There you have it, everything that you need to know about spring cleaning your care home, ready for the warmer weather.