Commercial Cleaning Blog

When I was a teenager, my first job was as a cleaner in an abattoir. It wasn’t glamorous, but I loved it. There was something deeply satisfying about walking into a space that was dirty, doing the work, and leaving it clean. Something had changed because I showed up.

Have you ever gone down a path with full conviction... only to stop and ask yourself:

"Does it really matter if my commercial cleaner uses contractors?"

“What questions should we be asking when we meet with a potential commercial cleaning company?”

When I talk to new potential clients, one of the most common complaints I hear is:

We’ve never engaged in sham contracting. But I won’t pretend our past didn’t have its complexities. There was a time when our practices (while technically compliant), were close enough to the line that I’m not proud of how they looked from the outside. And that’s something I think business owners need to be honest about. Because hiding from it doesn’t help anyone—not the clients, not the industry, and certainly not the workers.

If you’re in food manufacturing, you already know cleaning isn’t just about making things look tidy—it’s about compliance. And compliance isn’t optional. If your cleaning team isn’t getting it right, you’re risking failed audits, contamination, production shutdowns, and even losing major customers.

Let me tell you a story that still makes my blood boil.

The other day, I emailed a client after we’d finished some periodical work. I wanted to know how it went, so I asked: “What do you think? Were you happy with everything?”