If your workplace offers a communal locker room for the staff (or guests) to store their belongings, it can be hard to keep organized – and even tougher to keep clean.

Particularly these days, when everyone is far more aware of communicable diseases than ever before, keeping communal areas such as these clean and sanitized is of peak importance. Whether or not social distancing practices are in place, shared areas like these need to be kept as clean as possible, both in regards to clutter and surfaces.

An area as busy as a locker room, however, has a lot of design and usage factors to consider when figuring out how and when to clean it.

Industrial Locker Cleaning Tips

Encourage employees to declutter their own lockers

If your workplace has assigned industrial lockers or equipment lockers, a good place to start would be getting each worker to declutter their own area. Set a schedule for lockers to be cleaned out, and your workers be given the chance to see what can be kept or what can be disposed of, especially if the locker has become burdened with personal belongings.

Dust first

Most industrial lockers are made from steel or aluminum, and while these harder surfaces offer a lot of advantages such as durability and germ-resistance, they do need to be cleaned in a specific order. In most cases, you should start cleaning industrial lockers by dusting them off first with a dry cloth or brush of some kind. Removing the dust and other debris allows you to better clean down the surfaces, as well as preventing scratches or damage to the finish – or, at least, more damage than you might expect from an equipment locker.

Disinfect all sides

While cleaning a locker, you might find there’s a little more than meets the eye when it comes to cleaning the whole thing. Avoid making the mistake of just cleaning the high-touch surfaces like the door handle or the inside wall; instead make sure to clean the side walls, bottom (or ‘floor’), and top (or ‘ceiling’) as well to ensure everything is as clean as possible. Using disinfectant wipes here would go a long way towards saving time and preventing diseases.

Use vinegar for the tougher jobs

In certain industries, some lockers can’t help but get a little…funky. For the tougher, baked-on grime, use a combination of warm water and vinegar in a spray bottle to help loosen up the dirt. Once the dirt is clean, repeat the previous step with the disinfectant wipes to make sure everything is safe.

Let everything air back out

By now you’re probably in a big hurry to put it all behind you and get your stuff put back in your locker, but you’ll want to give it a second to air-dry before you put your things away. Check the packaging of your disinfectant wipes to see how long they recommend letting it dry before the bacteria is gone, and then wait for everything to air out to prevent lingering odors.