Office cleaning checklist for Australian businesses

This checklist is specifically for Australian workplaces — the standard tasks plus the items that overlap with Work Health and Safety (WHS) expectations and Safe Work Australia guidance. Use it to brief a new cleaner, audit an existing contract, or document hygiene practice in your WHS register.

Why WHS matters for cleaning

Under WHS legislation the PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking) has a duty to ensure a safe workplace "so far as is reasonably practicable". Cleaning crosses that duty in three obvious places: slip hazards from wet floors, hygiene in shared facilities (washrooms, kitchens), and chemical safety (SDS-managed products, ventilation, PPE). A good cleaner reduces your WHS exposure; a bad cleaner increases it.

Daily — every working day

• Vacuum all carpeted floors. Wet-mop hard floors with WHS-compliant signage during cleaning.
• Empty all bins, replace liners, segregate recyclables per your building's policy.
• Sanitise all washroom touch surfaces: tap handles, flush buttons, door handles, partition latches.
• Restock consumables — toilet paper, hand soap, paper towel, hand sanitiser.
• Wipe all kitchen surfaces, sink, taps, appliance exteriors.
• Wipe touchpoints across the office floor: door handles, light switches, lift buttons, printer touch panels.
• Spot-clean visible spills, marks, fingerprints on glass partitions.
• Sign off the cleaner's log book or digital sign-in confirming the visit.

Weekly

• Full mop of all hard floors, including under desks and behind doors.
• Detail vacuum: edges, corners, under low furniture.
• Sanitise all desks (where desks are clear), shared chairs and meeting room surfaces.
• Internal glass full clean — partitions, reception, meeting room walls.
• Skirting boards dusted; vent grilles dusted.
• Fridge top shelf and door cleaned; full interior clean monthly.
• Detail washroom clean — descale taps, polish chrome, mop with sanitising solution.

Monthly + quarterly

• Monthly: high dusting (light fittings, top of cabinets, picture frames). Sanitise telephones, headsets, shared keyboards. Lift internal walls + mirrors polished.
• Monthly: full fridge clean, microwave degrease, dishwasher sanitisation cycle.
• Quarterly: professional carpet steam clean. External glass clean. High-pressure clean of entryways. Stairwell detail clean. Pest inspection of kitchen + waste areas.
• Annually: hard floor strip + reseal where applicable. Full ventilation grille deep clean.

The WHS overlap items

Anything below should be in your cleaner's contract as explicit deliverables. If they aren't, your WHS register is incomplete.

• SDS folder maintained on-site for every chemical used.
• Wet-floor signage placed during all mopping; removed only when floor is dry.
• Spill kit on premises with documented placement; cleaner verifies kit stock monthly.
• Sharps disposal where applicable (medical, hospitality with broken glass risk).
• Public liability insurance certificate ≥ $20M filed in your contractor folder.
• Police-check verification for every operator on site.
• Documented evidence of any sanitising chemicals being TGA-approved for healthcare adjacent sites.

How to brief a new cleaner with this list

Walk the site with them, then hand them this checklist marked up with: (a) zones-specific to your site, (b) which items are daily vs weekly vs monthly here, (c) anything excluded from the standard scope (e.g. you handle bin recycling separately). Ask them to come back with a quote line-item per section. The cleaner who returns a structured quote is the one who'll deliver consistently.

See also: the broader commercial cleaning checklist (covers retail, warehouses, medical, gyms, strata) and our guide to how to get a commercial cleaning contract.