Back-To-School: Keeping Playgrounds Clean

As the back-to-school season is upon us, you might not realize how many germs live on school playgrounds. Many little hands touching are touching the playground equipment throughout each day, leading to germ, dirt, and grime buildup. Cleaning playgrounds effectively is important in keeping your school safe from viruses, bacteria, mold, and mildew, all of which can post serious health problems, especially for children.

As you gear up for the back-to-school season, there are steps you can take to keep your playground as clean as possible.

Before you begin your cleaning, be sure to check the owner’s manual of your playground equipment to ensure you know which cleaning methods and products to avoid on the equipment. Also, be sure to check that the cleaning product you are using is compatible with the surface you are applying it to, and safe for children and animals. The efficacy of the product you are choosing to clean with is also a crucial factor. You will want to look for something that can effectively clean the surfaces with low kill-times.

The first step to take to ensure that your playground is kept clean and safe is to implement a maintenance schedule. Choosing a scheduled cleaning time that does not impact the use of the equipment is important in ensuring you have enough time to clean the entire playground and let the surfaces dry before use.

To begin the cleaning process, use soap and water, or another cleaning product such as an all-purpose cleaner to remove physical dirt, grime, and microbial substances from playground surfaces. Using a non-abrasive scrubber is important in ensuring you are not damaging the equipment during the process. Once surface dirt has been removed, you can begin spot removing, by scrubbing stains and excess dirt that was not picked up by the initial clean. Lastly, you will want to disinfect the playground using a non-toxic disinfectant. This will help to remove any remaining bacteria.

The last step you can take to ensure your playground is kept clean and safe, is to make garbage receptacles visible and accessible. This can help to control the amount of waste and germs that are on the playground area, by providing a way to dispose of trash.

Follow these tips to stop the spread of germs on your school playground this back-to-school season. Check out our website enichols.com for a wide variety of products that can help you clean your playgrounds this year.