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.
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, read 2026-09-04
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.