The Essential Janitor Equipment List

When was the last time you took a moment to really look at your janitor closet and assess where there’s room for improvement? 

Whether you’re looking to optimize your workflow or you need a janitor equipment list as you start a new business, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll cover everything from the bare necessities like cleaning chemicals, trash bags, push brooms, and other supplies to high-efficiency cleaning machines such as floor sweepers and scrubbers.

Take a look at our janitorial supplies list below, and keep reading to outfit your team for success.

Quick Janitor Equipment List For Maximizing Efficiency

What is Janitorial Equipment?

Any tool, machine, or supply that gets used in cleaning or maintaining a commercial facility falls under the umbrella of janitorial equipment. It can range from rudimentary hand tools like brooms and mops to sophisticated floor care machines like sweepers and scrubbers, which are capable of covering hundreds of thousands of square feet without slowing down.

Consumables fall within this category as well - chemicals, paper goods, trash liners, and protective gear for janitorial staff. No business can run safely and smoothly without a comprehensive janitorial closet. 

Benefits of Investing in Better Janitorial Supplies and Equipment

A lot of teams try to get by with the bare minimum. But the janitorial supplies and equipment you empower your staff with can make or break two things:

• Efficiency
• Results

That has profound implications for your business as a whole. Upgrading to a floor cleaning machine from a broom/mop will cost you a few thousand dollars upfront, but it’ll translate to massive labor savings over the next few years. It’ll also help you maintain better conditions in your facility, which pays off in intangible ways - better employee morale, stronger customer perception, fewer floor-related problems.

Whether you’re trying to learn how to clean rubber gym mats or looking for smarter ways to go about hospital floor cleaning, the tools and supplies you have in your arsenal will make or break your results.  

The Essential Janitor Equipment List

We’ve broken down our janitor equipment list into the most important categories. 

Cleaning Chemicals

The specific chemicals you outfit your cart or closet with will depend on your flooring type and the messes you actually come across most often. Here are some of the most common cleaning chemicals you’ll need to keep on hand:

• Neutral floor cleaner
• All-purpose cleaner
• EPA-registered disinfectant
• Degreaser for kitchens and break rooms
• Glass cleaner
• Floor finish (if you maintain hard floors)

It’s imperative that you always match the chemical to the surface. You’ll only cause more harm than good if you use an acidic bathroom tile cleaner on polished tile surfaces, for example. You need to keep Safety Data Sheets accessible for every chemical in your closet.

Floor Care

There are two ways you can go about cleaning floors: manually or with floor cleaning machines. The latter is obviously the smarter approach, and it’s not as inaccessible as you might initially think. Especially when you justify it with long-term savings.

A pushbroom and mop are not only inefficient. They’re not great tools, period. They mostly just spread the mess around your facility rather than actually pick it up. Floors don’t get nearly as clean as they could.

A commercial floor sweeper quickly and effortlessly picks up dry debris across large areas. It collects it all in a hopper that you can easily dump out. This way, dirt and dust don’t just get sent airborne around the room.

Then, a commercial floor scrubber reveals pristine surfaces by putting down a chemical cleaning agent onto the floor, agitating it in using brushes or pads, and then sucking it back up into a separate recovery tank using a vacuum system. A squeegee leaves the floor dry, so you don’t have nearly as much downtime with wet floor signs out.

There are even floor sweeper scrubber machines that do both in one pass if you want to consolidate your janitor equipment and save time. 

You’ll need a different type of machine for carpeted surfaces, though. A heavy-duty commercial vacuum cleaner is an essential on the janitor equipment list. So is a carpet extractor in some cases. You should take our essential janitorial supplies list with a grain of salt since we don’t know the exact type of flooring/facility you are overseeing. 

Bathroom Cleaning

Bathrooms need their own dedicated set of tools: toilet bowl cleaner, a stiff-bristle toilet brush, a grout brush, a handheld scrub pad, spray bottles, and a squeegee for mirrors and glass. Commercial restroom cleaning is not the most pleasant of tasks, which is why investing in a restroom cleaning machine is worth it for a lot of janitorial teams. These systems make fast work of disgusting bathrooms without forcing the operator to ever actually touch a contaminated surface. Some of the equipment we sell can remove 60x more soil in ⅓ the time! 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

You came here to learn about the essential janitorial supplies list, but you can’t overlook the little stuff either - PPE is non-negotiable. 

No janitorial task should begin until the staff is wearing nitrile gloves. Some tasks may even call for safety goggles for handling chemicals. Non-slip footwear is important even if you’re using a floor scrubber machine. Dust masks are a good thing to keep on hand as well. 

We talked about the importance of keeping Safety Data Sheets on hand earlier. Refer to those as you source PPE so you can stay in good standing with OSHA.

Paper Products

Paper towels, toilet paper, and hand towels need to be kept on hand for constant restocking. You can get in a good habit of tracking usage rates by specific facility area so you can avoid keeping too much inventory on hand. Build a re-order schedule around real usage rates.

Always double-check dispenser compatibility before ordering. Nothing more frustrating than having to send back a huge batch of consumables because they don’t fit. 

Trash Bags and Bins

We recommend you keep at least 2 sizes of trash liners on hand - standard (13-gallon) for office and restroom bins, and heavy-duty (30-55 gallon) for kitchen, warehouse, and outdoor containers.

Don’t cut corners here. Thin liners tear and create bigger messes and more headaches. You end up having to double bag, which doesn’t even save you money in the end. 

How to Organize Your Janitorial Closet

We find it best to group supplies by category, as we’ve done in our janitorial supplies list above. You can keep all your chemicals on one shelf, paper products on another, and PPE in a separate bin. You can mount mops, brooms, and dustpans on the wall to save floor space.

Make sure any floor scrubber or sweeper you purchase actually fits in your janitorial closet. Our team can help you double-check dimensions before you buy.

Wrapping Up Our Janitorial Supplies List

We hope you feel confident sourcing all the essentials as we wrap up our janitor equipment list. If we could leave you with one piece of advice, it would be to invest in quality gear from the get-go. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying more in the long run and wishing you’d done it from the start. Take the next step at SweepScrub, your one-stop shop for commercial cleaning supplies!

Frequently asked questions

What supplies do janitors need?

Cleaning chemicals, floor care tools, PPE, and consumables (paper products + trash liners). 

Is it really worth investing in floor cleaning machines?

Absolutely. A floor scrubber cleans faster, uses less water, and delivers more consistent results than manual mopping. The labor savings alone justify the investment, but the better results are reason enough to make the upgrade as well. 

What cleaning agents does my floor need? 

A pH-neutral cleaner is usually the right choice for daily maintenance. You may need a degreaser for certain types of messes. Always choose based on your flooring type first and foremost so you don’t damage it.