For a lot of people, a visit to the employee break room or gym is the highlight of the day. Many companies in Metro East and St. Louis today offer a designated employee locker room or breakroom to each lunch, store personal belongings, workout, and shower in.
These areas get a lot of use, which means that they collect a lot of dirt, grime, germs and bacteria. Wherever there are germs, there is an increased risk for illness. Some of these infections can be staph and MRSA which are serious to the more common ones like flu, impetigo, athlete’s foot and of course today COVID. These breakrooms and workout areas must be kept clean and disinfected on a regular basis.

Staying Safe In The Gym
The first step to staying safe in the gym is to not touch your face. I know this is very difficult and often we do this without realizing that we have. Here’s why, bacteria enters our bodies through our eyes, nose, and mouth. Use a towel to wipe your face, nose and mouth when working out, this helps to reduce the urge to use your hands.
Some facilities will provide you with disinfecting wipes to wipe down the areas that you have touched while working out. If they don’t consider bringing a bottle of disinfecting wipes.
Another way to reduce germs and bacteria is to have a commercial cleaning company come in and electrostatic disinfectant services for your breakroom and workout rooms. The advantage of electrostatic disinfecting sprayers is it reduces a tremendous amount of time it takes to disinfect everything in that room.
The Germiest Spots
- Machine handles (elliptical, treadmill, weight machines)
- Towels (towel bins)
- Gym bags
- Water bottles
- Showers (wear water shoes when showering)
- Benches (never sit on a bench in the locker room without a clean towel)
- Workout gloves
- Free weights

Guarding Against Germs and Bacteria
First, develop a plan of what needs to be cleaned in your facility. Consider the type of surfaces that you have and how often those surfaces are touched throughout the day. The more people that touch a surface, the higher the risk and greater the need to disinfect. These areas are called high-touch surfaces and should be the most important and first areas to clean daily.
Consider factors that will impact your janitorial staff on hand and if they have the capability and tools to disinfect effectively and timely each day. Many companies don’t have the staff, training and tools to disinfect as effectively as electrostatic disinfecting services.
What do you do about it? Don’t skimp on disinfecting, recognize that there are some areas of your cleaning regiment that can be filled by a commercial cleaning service that already has the training, equipment and staff to properly and completely disinfect your breakrooms, lunchrooms and gym areas.
What Does A Cleaning Service Cost?
When it's time to look for a new cleaning service it may seem like a daunting task. Our FREE pricing guide will help you to determine what a cleaning service should cost for your facility. Here's what's in our guide:
- What factors determine costs
- How to request a fair cleaning quote
- How to compare hidden cost in cleaning
- Rooms and Square footage for cleaning