Warehouse Spring Cleaning Tips

Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time to start thinking about spring cleaning. Sure, you probably make it a priority to do some spring cleaning in your home every year…but what about in your warehouse? A clean and organized warehouse is an important part of the overall success of your company and plays a big role in having a more productive, safer work environment. Now is a great time to throw things away, declutter, do some deep cleaning, and get more organized. Check out our tips for warehouse spring cleaning to help you get started!

First things first when planning out your warehouse spring cleaning, pick a less busy time to complete it in order to minimize the impact on your operations. Depending on the size of your facility, you may need to spread the cleaning process out over several days.

Before you get out the brooms and cleaners, get ORGANIZED. If there are loose items lying around, either find homes for them or throw them away. Clear any inventory or supplies that are clogging aisles. Use a forklift to stack larger items on top of each other so that you can keep the floor space as clear as possible.

When going through the spring cleaning process, think about the current layout of your warehouse. Is it efficient? Do you have enough storage space for your inventory, and is everything organized and easy to get to? Now is a good time to reorganize and/or rearrange if necessary. You can significantly increase your storage capacity simply by moving storage racks to a different location, adding additional pallet racks, or adjusting the level of your beams. Reorganizing will also force your team to physically handle and assess everything in your warehouse and decide whether or not to keep it and if there’s a better way to organize things.

Now onto the actual warehouse spring cleaning process itself. If you and your staff are doing the cleaning yourself, make sure and get everyone involved! Divide your group into teams and assign them to specific tasks and areas of the warehouse. You may want to consider bringing in a dumpster to take care of anything that needs to be thrown away—there may be more than you realize. ;) This is a great time to evaluate your inventory. If any items are expired or damaged, toss them. Dust shelves, sweep any debris that is underneath pallet racks and remove any empty pallets.

Now is also a good time to ensure that your material handling equipment (including conveyor systems, dock equipment and forklifts) is in good working condition so that your operations can continue to run efficiently and smoothly. Schedule routine maintenance checks as necessary. And don’t forget to clean the outside of the warehouse as well and make sure that all of your outdoor equipment (loading dock ramps, yard ramps, etc.) is in good condition.