How to Clean a Classroom

Many teachers-to-be and young educators dream about what their classroom will look like, spending a lot of time envisioning the best and most creative ways to decorate a classroom. While teachers often think of the best ways to create an educational and engaging room, it is easy to forget to optimize the classroom for cleanliness and sanitization.

If you’re a newer teacher entering the educational field during a pandemic, it may seem challenging to comfortably assimilate into your classrooms. You may not have established your routines or found the best strategies for classroom organization and cleanliness. However, with a few tips and guidelines, you can maintain a clean, organized and engaging classroom that you and your students will appreciate every day.

Importance of a Clean Classroom

Between COVID-19, common germs and cleanliness in general, classrooms that house young children are some of the most difficult yet important places to keep clean. Clean classrooms are important both for students and teachers as they spend hours a day in these rooms. Without proper cleanliness, classrooms can become a health hazard.

Schools are a key place for the spread of germs and viruses. With classrooms holding an average of 20 students and with multiple grades and classes in schools, there are a lot of people in and out of rooms and walking the halls. Aside from the number of people regularly in schools, we must also consider the fact that many children do not always practice the best hygiene routines.

Cleanliness Impacts Physical and Mental Health

With so many people constantly in and out of rooms and buildings throughout the school day, it may be challenging to keep a classroom sanitized. Unfortunately, classrooms that are not properly sanitized quickly become hubs for viruses and sicknesses.

When a child picks up a germ at school, they often bring it home, affecting those in their household. Also, teachers are prone to carrying these germs as well. Sick students and teachers cannot function properly in school, which results in missed educational opportunities.

In addition to lowering risks to physical health, clean classrooms can help the mental health of students. Dirty or disorderly classrooms can be stressors for students. If a child does not feel comfortable with their surroundings, this can cause stress and anxiety and can decrease their mental well-being. Students’ behavior often improves in clean and uncluttered classrooms.

Cleanliness Affects Student Performance

There is a strong correlation between classroom cleanliness and student performance. In a clean and organized space, there are fewer distractions. When students can focus, this potentially improves classroom behavior and student achievement, including through greater comprehension, better grades, and improved test scores.

20 Tips for Cleaning Your Classroom

These impacts of a clean classroom, among other unmentioned benefits of sanitation, prove the importance of a clean classroom. That said, there are many ways to prevent having a dirty classroom, thus creating a sanitary and comfortable environment for students.

Here are some tips on how to keep your classroom in its best shape:

1. Establish Classroom Cleanliness Rules Early

Depending on what grade you teach and the resources students have outside of the classroom, teaching proper cleanliness may be the first introduction to sanitation the student has. Consider the age group or developmental status of your students, and think about if teaching them to practice proper handwashing techniques would benefit your classroom.

If you make it a point early in the school year to establish and enforce rules about classroom cleaning procedures, students will be more likely to continue with these established practices throughout the year. Maybe even set specific times throughout the day for you and your students to straighten up to ensure constant cleanliness.

2. Have a Classroom Cleaning Checklist

Either create your own clean classroom checklist or look one up online. You can share this checklist with the class to make it an inclusive activity, or you can use your time when the students are not in the classroom to focus on sanitization and cleanliness. Ensure that you include commonly touched places and ones people often forget about, including doorknobs, light switches, keyboards, faucet handles and trash cans.

3. Have Cleaning Supplies Available

If the right cleaning supplies aren’t available, it will be near impossible to keep your classroom environment clean and functional. At The Classroom Store, we offer a large selection of affordable classroom cleaning products. To be sure you can maintain a productive learning setting, stock up on bulk cleaning products at affordable prices. We carry disinfectants, sanitizers and other cleaning supplies to make having a clean classroom simple and hassle-free.

4. Have Multiples of Supplies

Similar to having cleaning supplies available to students, this tip may be less feasible for some based on funding. Regardless, you should encourage students to bring their own supplies and have more than one for the class to share.

For example, if you rely on a manual sharpener in the classroom, suggest that students bring individual handheld sharpeners to reduce the number of kids using the same one. Additionally, you can purchase affordable packs of individual pencil sharpeners to let students borrow, then enforce the rule that they sanitize the materials before returning them.

5. Avoid Unnecessary Contact

While some contact between educators, students and peers can be unavoidable, try practicing social distancing when possible. Instead of using hugs to greet or high fives to congratulate, try to encouraging waving and thumbs-ups. Using alternative, no-contact communication methods will help reduce the spread of germs and can keep your classroom clean.

6. Stay Home When Sick

If you are not feeling well, do not come to school. You should also insist that parents do the same with their children if they feel sick. Explain that you understand that it is often difficult for parents to find someone to watch their child when they have to stay home from school, but express how allowing an ill child to come to school puts others in the classroom at risk.

If a student does come to school sick, consider sending them to the nurse’s office to avoid infecting other students. Quickly sanitize any surfaces they touched to hopefully stop the spread of whatever germ they had.

7. Make Practicing Cleanliness Fun

There are so many ways to make cleaning fun for your students. Create games and hold contests regarding different cleanliness activities. Some creative things that other teachers do to encourage cleaning in the classrooms are using a clean-up song, having a “dirtiest rag” competition and using shaving cream to clean the desks.

8. Give Each Student a Specific Job

When students have specific goals set for them, they may feel more motivated to accomplish their tasks. If you give students different roles, they may begin to take pride in their work, cleaning more effectively than without this incentive. Some teachers include jobs such as a clean-up crew, desk inspectors, doorknob sanitizers and clean desk police to encourage cleaning as a group effort. Switching up students’ tasks is an easy way to get them excited about cleaning.

9. Declutter Your Classroom

It is easy for new teachers to over-prepare and bring in excessive amounts of things they do not end up using. Conversely, teachers who have been in the same classroom for an extended period can easily accumulate supplies, forgetting the things they have.

Both new and old teachers should focus on decluttering. Remove any supplies that do not work or that you do not need. You don’t need to throw these things away, but remove them from your classroom and only bring them in when necessary.

10. Dust Your Classroom

After you remove any extra supplies, dust the ones you keep in the room. Untouched objects in busy or crowded rooms can quickly accumulate dust. Make sure to dust often and thoroughly, especially getting places that students cannot reach. One helpful dusting hint is to start at the top of the room and work your way down. This way, you avoid having to re-dust things you already wiped off.

11. Deep Clean the Entire Room

Don’t just settle for the idea that if it looks clean, then it is clean. This is not true, especially in heavily trafficked areas like classrooms. Use cleaners, soaps and rags to wash larger classroom furniture like desks, bookshelves, cabinets, counters and chairs. Don’t just do this at the beginning and end of each school year, but set few times during the year to do some heavy-duty cleaning.

12. Save the Floor for Last

The last step of doing a deep cleanse of your classroom is to wash the floors. Before bringing in new furniture or supplies, clean your floors. You do not want to dirty anything new by setting them on a dirty floor. Sweep and mop any tile and wood areas, shake out any rugs and vacuum carpeted floors.

When possible, avoid carpet or rugs because fabric materials are more difficult can clean and hold more germs. A small area of carpet can contain hundreds of thousands of bacteria, which means that a carpet may be as dirty as a toilet seat.

13. Know the Different Meanings of Cleanliness

Establish the difference between tidying, cleaning and disinfecting, and ensure that you practice these in accordance with each other. Tidying refers more to straightening up and organizing. Cleaning requires the use of soap and water while disinfecting means the use of chemicals that directly kill germs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) specifically emphasizes the difference between cleaning and disinfecting. Cleaning physically removes dirt and germs from surfaces and objects by using soap and water. Disinfecting, on the other hand, kills germs by using chemicals after the object or surface has been cleaned. The CDC recommends cleaning, followed by disinfecting.

14. Have a Place for Everything

Make sure all your supplies have a designated place. When you have a certain place for things, students are more likely to put them back neatly. Also, when you have a specific spot for things, it is easier to explain to students the importance of keeping everything tidy.

Use storage bins and filing systems to define a “home” for where things should stay. Some students may be visual learners, so consider taking pictures of how things should be organized as an example for them.

15. Give Students Their Own Space

If students have cubbies, lockers, cubicles or similar storage spaces, this option helps eliminate some everyday clutter in the classroom. Designated areas for your students’ things can help avoid distraction while learning and can minimize the spreading of germs that happen when you store things like lunchboxes communally.

16. Don’t Forget About Your Desk

With everything else going on in the classroom, it is easy to neglect cleaning your space as thoroughly as you should. However, the teacher’s desk can quickly become a hub for germs and bacteria as, even if you instill the rule for students not to touch your desk, all of their homework, papers and other supplies come across your desk. Teachers’ desks and work areas may have up to 20 times more bacteria compared to the workstations of other professions.

17. Use Posters and Signs

When you put posters or labels around the room reminding students of how to practice cleanliness, they subconsciously see these messages constantly. They will be more likely to follow your cleaning rules without even realizing it. Also, using fun signage or floor stickers to separate students will help enforce social distancing.

18. Separate Students Whenever Possible

Along the same lines as floor stickers for social distancing, use other things like barriers or dividers to separate students as much as possible. Collaboration is important in the learning process, but you need to find a safe way to do this that encourages sanitary spaces.

19. Clean Smaller Items in the Dishwasher

Many teachers suggest running small classroom sets and supplies through the dishwasher. Things like math shapes, classroom safety scissors and sensory objects all can go in the dishwasher. Put them in a mesh laundry bag to keep them all together.

20. Don’t Fall Behind on Cleaning

As soon as you get behind, it becomes challenging to catch up. Even if you do not feel like disinfecting all the desks after a long day, it will be better for you in the long run if you do. Sanitize surfaces as soon as you can after use to minimize germ exposure.

Browse Cleaning Supplies and Products at The Classroom Store

After a while, every teacher will find their own favorite cleaning and disinfecting methods. Despite slight differences in techniques, all classrooms require the same attention to detail when it comes to cleaning.

Keeping your classroom stocked and your equipment sanitized is key to an effective learning environment. At The Classroom Store, we understand the importance of having the right products and equipment for your classroom. We sell a wide variety of classroom supplies, decorations, equipment and kits at competitive prices. We also offer cleaning supplies and disinfectants optimal for classroom use.

Visit us online today for great deals and closeout sales.