Red, blue, green and yellow. Why professional cleaners use different coloured equipment in different areas, and what each colour means.
Walk into any well-run cleaning cupboard and you will see mops, buckets and cloths in four colours. It is not decoration. Colour coding is one of the easiest ways to stop germs being carried from one part of a building to another.
What the colours mean
Most UK cleaning companies follow the same national colour code:
- Red: toilets, urinals and washroom floors. The highest-risk areas.
- Yellow: washroom sinks and basins, and clinical areas.
- Blue: general, lower-risk areas such as offices, desks, corridors and reception.
- Green: kitchens and food preparation areas.
Why it works
The idea is simple: a cloth used on a toilet should never touch a kitchen worktop. When everything is colour coded, anyone can see at a glance whether the right equipment is being used, including supervisors and clients.
Making it stick
- Colour-coded cloths, mops, buckets and gloves, stored separately
- Clear charts in cleaning cupboards
- Training for every cleaner before they start
- Regular checks by supervisors
At DE PRIME GROUP LTD, colour coding is standard on every contract, from offices and retail premises to hotels and short-let properties.
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