It's hard to find a bigger cleaning challenge than fitness and health clubs. Members are constantly leaving germs on exercise machines, lockers, restrooms, and showers. Though keeping a gym clean may seem like a tall order, having a thorough checklist can help you tackle fitness club cleaning efficiently.
Weights and Exercise Machines
The toughest custodial challenge in a gym may be cleaning exercise equipment and weights throughout the day. Though most health clubs ask members to wipe down each machine after use, it doesn't always happen—and it's unrealistic when the exercise area is particularly busy.
To avoid bacteria transfer throughout the day, custodians should make regular cleanings of touch points like free weights, treadmill controls, and machine handles and handlebars. Kaivac's SmartTowels have separate, numbered quadrants, so custodians can avoid cross-contamination and remove soils instead of spreading them throughout the gym. Disposable wipes such as KaiWipes also help.
Restrooms
Restroom cleaning can be complicated in fitness clubs. For customer health, cleaning systems must remove soils from toilets, sinks, stalls, and floors while minimizing the risk of cross-contamination. Kaivac's No-Touch Cleaning Systems remove 30 to 60 times more bacteria than mops and rags while reducing the time custodians must spend cleaning each room.
When custodians use Kaivac no-touch products, they remove soils instead of dragging them from room to room with mops and rags. This system increases the cleanliness level in every room, making it safer for your customers and your employees. The last thing you want is for your gym to be known as the place to catch the flu.
Locker Rooms and Showers
Spray-and-vac cleaning systems do double duty in health club locker rooms and showers. Since locker rooms don't always have sinks in the changing area, members often get changed straight from the exercise room, touching the lockers with their hands. Custodians should pass through the locker areas several times per day to remove the germs from these surfaces.
Shower floors, handles, and curtains are another set of challenges. Though members emerge from the showers clean, everything they touch going into the shower has the potential to spread illness. The No-Touch Cleaning System is also effective for getting these shower areas spotless.
Floors and Touch Points
Touch points with high germ-transfer potential include paper towel dispensers, benches, computer screens, and exercise mats. If members and staff use computers to set up workouts, make sure the keyboards and touchscreens get regularly cleaned with fresh SmartTowels or KaiWipes.
As ABC News notes, shoes can transfer dangerous bacteria across the floors of health clubs, so fitness club managers need a system that's effective at cleaning and allows custodians to do the job quickly. Kaivac's AutoVac is an affordable alternative to autoscrubbers, removing 99.8 percent of germs without busting your budget. It's twice as effective as mopping and slightly more effective than an autoscrubber.
Your fitness club cleaning checklist should address all of these problem areas in the most effective way possible. To find out more about the AutoVac and other Kaivac products, click here.