Janitorial SOP template
A standard operating procedure is the document that lets you leave. It says what is done, how often, with what, and who signed for it — so a route survives the person who has been walking it for two years. This sheet is the skeleton: opening, per-area work, closing.
Before you write it
- Write the site's access, alarm and contact details at the top
- Attach a numbered floor plan
- List the chemicals actually on the cart, with their dilutions
Every visit after
- Sign and date every visit
- Escalate anything that needs the client's decision the same night
- File the sheet where the client can see the history
Opening the route
- Sign in, collect keys, note any alarm code change5 min
- Walk the site for damage or spills before touching anything8 min
- Set out wet-floor signs before any wet work3 min
- Load the cart to the colour code: blue glass, red restroom, green kitchen, yellow general6 min
Per area
- Bins and liners6 min
- Touch points and glass at hand height8 min
- Restrooms to the restroom SOP25 min
- Kitchen and break area15 min
- Floors: dust-mop, spot-mop, full mop by frequency20 min
Closing the route
- Cart stripped, cloths bagged by colour for laundry8 min
- Mop heads rinsed and hung, buckets emptied and dried6 min
- Consumables restocked for the next visit, shortages written down5 min
- Lights, doors and alarm as the site requires5 min
- Sign the sheet and leave it where the client expects it2 min
What belongs in a cleaning SOP
Five columns and nothing else: the area, the task, the frequency, the method and chemical, and a space to sign. Anything longer stops being read by the third week.
The method column is where a good SOP earns its keep. 'Mop floor' is not a method. 'Dust-mop, then damp-mop with neutral cleaner at 1:128, signs out until dry' is.
Naming the chemical and the dilution
Under the OSHA hazard communication standard: Every container of a hazardous chemical in the workplace must be labelled, tagged or marked with the product identifier and hazard information. Decanting a concentrate into an unlabelled spray bottle that then sits on a cart is a citable failure, not a technicality.
OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1200, read 2026-10-18
Put the dilution on the SOP and on the bottle. If the two ever disagree, the cleaner will follow the bottle.
Why the sign-off line matters
A signature turns 'the cleaners did not come' into a checkable claim. It is also the record that protects your crew when something in the building was already broken.
Keep the signed sheets for the life of the contract plus a year. They are the cheapest evidence you will ever hold.
Next on the round
Office cleaning checklist
The nightly, weekly and periodic route this SOP formalises.
Dilution ratio calculator
Get the ounces per bottle right before you print it.
Cleaner job description template
Hire against the SOP you actually wrote.
Medical office cleaning checklist
Exam rooms clean to dirty, contact times kept.