How Often Should a Childcare Centre Be Professionally Cleaned?

Childcare centres are busy environments. Throughout a normal day, children move between classrooms, play areas, bathrooms, eating spaces, and outdoor areas while sharing tables, toys, equipment, and other frequently touched surfaces.

For this reason, childcare cleaning needs to be planned differently from cleaning a standard commercial office.

So, how often should a childcare centre be professionally cleaned?

For most childcare centres, preschools, kindergartens, and early learning facilities, cleaning should be approached as a combination of daily cleaning, scheduled weekly cleaning, and periodic deep cleaning.

The exact frequency will depend on the size of the centre, number of children, operating hours, type of flooring, bathrooms, food preparation areas, and how heavily each part of the facility is used. A professional childcare cleaning program should therefore be designed around the individual centre rather than using exactly the same cleaning schedule for every facility.

---

Should a Childcare Centre Be Cleaned Every Day?

In most childcare environments, important high-use areas require daily attention.

Current Australian NHMRC guidance for early childhood education and care services recommends routine environmental cleaning every day and whenever surfaces are visibly dirty. Frequently touched horizontal surfaces and wet areas such as kitchens, toilets, and nappy-changing areas require particular attention.

Daily cleaning is especially important in areas used repeatedly by children and staff. Depending on the centre, a professional daily cleaning service may include:

Any area that becomes visibly dirty may need additional cleaning during the day rather than waiting until the scheduled evening clean.

---

How Often Should High-Touch Surfaces Be Cleaned?

Frequently touched surfaces are an important part of a childcare cleaning program. These may include:

• Door handles and push plates
• Light switches
• Taps and sinks
• Tables and chair backs
• Cupboard and locker handles
• Handrails and safety gates
• Frequently used storage areas
• Shared equipment and toys

In a childcare setting, it is also important to think about surfaces from a child's perspective. Children interact with many surfaces that adults may barely notice. Lower doors, low shelving, furniture edges, and child-height fixtures may receive frequent contact throughout the day.

These areas should therefore be identified in the centre's cleaning scope rather than relying only on a standard office-cleaning checklist.

---

How Often Should Childcare Bathrooms Be Cleaned?

Childcare bathrooms and toilets should receive regular daily attention and should also be checked during operating hours. Cleaning may include:

• Toilets and children's toilet seats
• Basins, taps, and mirrors
• Door handles, dispensers, and partition surfaces
• Floors and general/sanitary bins
• Frequently touched fixtures

If bathrooms become visibly dirty during the day, they should be attended to as required rather than waiting for the next scheduled clean. Centres with nappy-changing facilities should also follow their own hygiene procedures and applicable childcare guidance for cleaning these areas.

---

How Often Should Childcare Classrooms Be Cleaned?

Frequently used classroom areas will normally require daily cleaning. A routine classroom clean may include:

• Vacuuming or cleaning floors
• Cleaning tables and chairs where required
• Emptying bins and wiping frequently touched surfaces
• Removing obvious marks and cleaning accessible activity areas
• Cleaning around furniture and checking entry areas and door handles

Some detailed tasks can be scheduled weekly rather than completed every night. For example:

• Detailed skirting-board cleaning
• Window ledges and cupboard fronts
• Less frequently touched shelving
• Detailed edges, corners, and areas behind movable furniture

Separating routine and detailed cleaning helps ensure enough time is spent on the areas that need daily attention while still preventing gradual buildup elsewhere.

---

How Often Should Childcare Centre Floors Be Cleaned?

Floor-cleaning frequency depends heavily on the flooring type and how the area is used. A childcare centre may contain carpet, rugs, vinyl, timber, tiles, or other resilient flooring.

High-traffic areas may need attention much more frequently than low-use rooms. For example, entrance areas can collect dirt brought in from outdoors, while food and activity areas may require additional spot cleaning because of spills.

Carpeted areas should be vacuumed according to their level of use, while hard floors should be cleaned using methods suitable for the particular flooring. Periodic professional maintenance may also be required, such as:

• Carpet steam cleaning
• Detailed floor cleaning
• Machine scrubbing where suitable
• Vinyl floor maintenance
• Floor stripping and resealing where appropriate

The condition of the flooring should be reviewed periodically rather than waiting until it looks heavily worn or dirty.

---

How Often Should Preschool and Kindergarten Facilities Be Cleaned?

Preschools and kindergartens generally benefit from the same structured approach of daily, weekly, and periodic cleaning. However, their exact requirements can vary. A preschool cleaning schedule may need to consider:

• Number of children attending and days the preschool operates
• Indoor and outdoor activities
• Shared art and activity areas
• Children's bathrooms, kitchen, or food areas
• Carpet and rug areas
• School holiday periods

Kindergartens may also use certain rooms differently throughout the week, so cleaning schedules should reflect actual use rather than treating every room equally. Professional preschool cleaning and kindergarten cleaning services should therefore be customised to the facility.

---

Breakdown of Cleaning Schedules

---

How Often Should a Childcare Centre Have a Deep Clean?

There is no single deep-cleaning frequency that is right for every childcare centre. Some centres may arrange additional detailed cleaning:

• Monthly or quarterly
• During school holidays
• Before reopening after a closure
• After building or maintenance work
• Whenever the facility requires additional attention

School holiday periods can be particularly convenient for more detailed work because cleaners may have better access to classrooms and floor areas without interrupting normal centre operations. A deep clean can also be combined with services such as carpet steam cleaning or floor maintenance.

---

Does Childcare Cleaning Need to Increase During Illness or an Outbreak?

Routine cleaning requirements may change when there is an infectious disease outbreak or contamination.

The NHMRC's Staying Healthy guidance explains that routine environmental cleaning should be carried out daily and when surfaces are visibly dirty, while additional cleaning and disinfection procedures may be required after body-fluid contamination or during disease outbreaks.

Childcare services should follow applicable health guidance and any advice provided by their local public health authority when additional measures are required. Professional cleaners should also be informed if the centre's cleaning procedures have temporarily changed so that the agreed cleaning scope can be adjusted.

---

Why Is a Written Cleaning Schedule Important?

A childcare cleaning company should not simply arrive each evening without an agreed cleaning scope. A written schedule makes it clear:

• Which areas are cleaned every day
• Which tasks are completed weekly vs. periodically
• Which areas require special attention
• What cleaning staff are responsible for vs. what centre staff complete during operating hours
• How periodic services are scheduled

It also gives centre management a clear way to review the cleaning service and identify areas that may need more or less frequent attention. For example, a room that was originally used only twice each week may later become a daily classroom. Its cleaning frequency should then be adjusted.

---

What Determines How Often a Childcare Centre Needs Cleaning?

Several factors should be considered when establishing a cleaning schedule:

---

Professional Childcare Cleaning vs. General Office Cleaning

One reason cleaning frequency is particularly important in childcare facilities is that they are not standard offices. A normal office is largely used by adults working at desks.

A childcare centre includes:

• Children playing on floors
• Shared activity areas and toys
• Children's bathrooms and eating spaces
• Child-height touch points
• Rest areas and frequent movement between indoor and outdoor spaces

For this reason, a standard office-cleaning checklist may not adequately address the requirements of an early learning environment. A cleaner experienced in childcare centre cleaning can create a scope specifically around how the facility is actually used.

---

How to Choose a Childcare Cleaning Schedule

Instead of asking only, "How many times per week should we have cleaners?", childcare centre managers should consider what needs to be cleaned and how frequently each area requires attention.

A suitable cleaning program may combine:

• Daily cleaning: For bathrooms, frequently touched areas, classrooms, and other heavily used spaces.
• Weekly detailed cleaning: For ledges, edges, detailed furniture cleaning, and less frequently touched surfaces.
• Periodic deep cleaning: For carpets, floors, windows, bathrooms, and other detailed maintenance.

This approach creates a more practical cleaning program than trying to complete every possible task every night.

---

Childcare Cleaning Services in Melbourne

Compaq Cleaning provides professional childcare cleaning services in Melbourne for childcare centres, preschools, kindergartens, daycare facilities, and early learning centres. Cleaning schedules can be tailored around your operating hours, room count, bathroom count, flooring type, and specific cleaning priorities.

Services can include regular after-hours cleaning, childcare deep cleaning, carpet steam cleaning, detailed bathroom cleaning, window cleaning, and periodic floor maintenance.

If you are looking for experienced childcare cleaners in Melbourne, contact Compaq Cleaning to arrange a free onsite quotation and discuss a cleaning schedule suitable for your centre.

---

Frequently Asked Questions