The clean workshop

[Doug Rasmussen]

Do commercial cleaning companies take on woodworking shops? I hate having someone rummage through my tools, but it's also time for a thorough cleaning. Have you ever used commercial cleaning services for your workshop? Were you satisfied?

[Zachary Hoyt]

That would never have occurred to me as a possibility.

[Edward Weber]

Cleaning is just another word for maintaining or maintenance. It's part of doing business and must be factored in to the overall cost of running a shop.
JMHO.

[Lee Schierer]

My shop was getting pretty out of control. I've been attacking one small area at a time, starting with my saw table since a friend asked if I would help him with a project. It is still a work in process, but some junk and "I'll use it one of these days stuff" has left the building along with Elvis.

[Bill Howatt]

I don't find cleaning up the shop to be too bad a job - that is, if there is already a designated place for the item(s). If there isn't a place then it is more of an issue.
I can see a commercial service dusting, cleaning the floor and bench but I don't see them knowing where to put the tools and other things scattered around the shop.

[Ron Citerone]

I worked in a school district with district employees. They were reliable and diligent. Same people in my room year after year. My wife worked in a district with a commercial company, not diligent and stuff walked all the time. Constantly staff turnover. You might want to look for a retired guy looking for pin money and avoid the "Commercial company." My 2 cents.

[Don Corbeil]

I'm using cleaning services for my woodworking shop. Initially, I had reservations about someone else handling my shop, but they've been respectful and careful. They come in once a month and do a thorough cleaning. This helps maintain a clean and organized workspace without me having to spend hours on it. It's a relief to focus more on woodworking and less on cleaning up sawdust and grime.
I'm in Lafayette, and if someone needs such a service, I use this commercial cleaning company. The cost is around $300 per session, but considering the time and effort it saves me, I find it worth the investment.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I worked in a shop that was always far from tidy. The owners cleaning girl cleaned the shop a few times. On her first day she decided to vacuum the dust out of a bunch of small parts bins and sucked up several hundreds of dollars worth of inlay material, tiny hardware, and stockpiles of labor intensive pre-made parts. She cried, the boss laughed, and I spent several hours sifting through the contents of the vacuum cleaner.

[George Yetka]

Open all the doors, Turn on the filter, do a quick once over with shop vac, get out the Milwaukee blower, Air compresser works well too

[Nick Crivello]

Shouldn't cleaning and maintenance be a part of the everyday workflow of a shop whether garage based or out of a commercial space? I can be quite lazy with this but as George stated a respirator and blower can do wonders. Just blow everything out and run the air filters for a bit. Half hour of cleaning each week or even 10 minutes a day would work wonders. Once you do it a few times, the overall dust load will decrease dramatically and it's easier to maintain. A quick clean up as you go is also helpful.

[andrew whicker]

I try to take time on Mondays and I always take time when I'm switching either between projects or between completely different tasks.

But without a good dust collector or air filter my shop will always look a bit dusty and dirty. I'm not sure what a cleaning service would actually do for me.

[Leigh Betsch]

I’m a firm believer in standard work. In other words something that you’ve deemed important, and thus, you do everyday. For me that is having a clean and organized shop. To that end everyday I sweep my floor at the start and end of each workday. And I put 10 things away. These things I do everyday that I work in my shop. Always.
This creates habits around what you set as important things for you. The real beauty of standard work is that once you start down this road you will naturally make improvements to make theses tasks easier. You get tired of sweeping around things, they get organized and off the floor. Tired of the broom being lost, it gets a hanger. You put the same 10 things away everyday, they get an easier storage solution. You get tired of clearing scrap boards off the table saw, another trash can along side of the table saw.
enough thread crapping for me. Back to the original question, no I don’t use a professional shop cleaning service.

[andrew whicker]

I don't like to go two weeks without improving my shop organization. Always be improving is a sort of motto for me.