Most offices will have a communal space where the staff can make themselves coffee or tea, and perhaps heat up something for lunch. However, these communal spaces can become very dirty very quickly, because the amount of time that is spent in their by the employees on an individual basis will mean that there is little pride taken in the appearance of the room. It is not really OK for the office cleaning service to be in charge of making the kitchen clean every evening, ready for the next day, as this will be eating in to the time that they have to clean the rest of the office. Whilst it is true that the kitchen is part of the office, the fact that there is a contract cleaner should not get in the way of people simply doing their bit to maintain the kitchen as a clean and usable space. One way to ensure that the kitchen is being cleaned is to have a ‘leave as you left it’ policy, which means that everyone wipes up after they have used the area. Wiping down the surfaces is so simple and quick that it can’t really even be thought of a kitchen cleaning, so everyone should be fine with that. However, it only takes one person to leave a little mess for the next person to feel aggrieved in cleaning up their dirt, and so on, and the place looks like a tip again!To battle this, and to ensure that people are doing their own washing up, it can be a good idea to allocate mugs and dinnerware to each staff member. This will mean that plates and mugs that are not cleaned by the individuals themselves, will be obvious in terms of who is responsible. The issue comes of course if staff start using each other’s mugs to shift blame...If neither of these methods work, then the only real option is to have a rota of sorts. The hope is that by seeing that they will have to clean up themselves at some point in the week or month, the staff members will be more efficient in doing their own cleaning, to reduce the load that has to be done by the member on the rota. This can get difficult however, if people start using the rota to target those that they are not massive fans of with a load of washing up, so you need to have your office manager monitor the situation.At the end of the day, most staff members will be mature adults, and will clean up after themselves. It is essential however, that if things do get messy, it is sorted out straight away, as the appearance of a dirty kitchen can be extremely off putting. You will find that clients and business associates who come in to the office for meetings and the like will not take particularly kindly to seeing a dirty kitchen, so it is essential that you are on top of things. Whether it looks clean or not, it should be a part of the cleaning schedule for the office cleaning service that they give the kitchen a decent clean, so as to remove any dirt or germs that have settled. The place should be given a once over every evening, to ensure that the resulting clean will be present in the morning, and that everyone can make their morning drinks in a clean and tidy kitchen.