For a lot of companies, the benefits of having a workplace daycare are worth keeping valuable employees productive while still balancing their parenting life. Yet at the same time, they must also weigh the costs of maintaining one, such as the workload of the cleaning staff.

Fortunately, there are lot of simple hacks you can implement so you can easily put the daycare back in order after the tots had their mayhem. It is all a matter of knowing the different areas and what items go there.

1. Pick up books first.

It can be quite surprising to find that the little books in the nursery tend to suffer more damage than even the toys. Often times this can be because children might just leave them lying around with their pages open instead of putting them back in their shelves. Make them your first priority during the daily clean up.

2. Have a designated toybox.

If you are going to put in toys, then it makes sense to have one or two boxes where they are all supposed to go. This goes well with the rule-of-thumb of avoiding expensive toys or those with a lot of small parts. That way, all you have to do is gather them up and put them after everyone’s gone home.

3. Focus cleaning on furniture and foam mats.

If you are expecting to clean something regularly, it will be the few seats used by parents and visitors, followed by the large sections of foam mat often used in daycare centers. In the case of the mat though, they are surprisingly easy enough to clean. They are bacteria-resistant and don’t absorb a lot of liquids (which makes spills very quick to mop up).

4. Make sure the front desk is secure at all times.

If there is one thing that contains most items that the children should never touch, it is the front desk. Always check to see if its drawers come with locks and any important documents used by caretakers are secured inside. The same goes for pens, scissors and other sharp objects.

5. Have painting and colouring activities monitored.

Creative colouring activities are staple for a lot of daycare centers. However, those offered by a companies can’t always have staff cleaning up accidental paint spills or crayon drawings on the wall. Make sure these activities are scheduled and monitored, after which all materials used are stored away under lock-and-key.

6. Keep shoe racks isolated.

Implementing a no-shoes policy can reduce cleaning time even further but make sure that the shoe rack is both easily accessible but also isolated from other areas to minimize the spread of dirt. This will ensure that the rack will most likely be the only thing that will take more serious cleaning effort.

7. Consider holding snacktime in the office pantry.

Instead of having a separate pantry for the daycare, it makes far more sense to share the one the office already has. Not only does it save the trouble of cleaning up foodstuffs, it provides a space where parents can eat together with their kids during lunchtime.

Speaking of which, it is also recommended that you inform parents of these decisions so that they may also guide their children to observe cleanliness. Overall, it is not as messy as the kids themselves. As long as you know what needs to be kept out of their hands and isolate the messiest parts of the daycare, you can clean it up in no time.