Room cleaning for nursing homes best practices
UKHSA's adult social care guidance recommends cleaning bedrooms daily in communal settings, ensuites included. That is the baseline, and the rest of room cleaning for nursing homes best practices builds on it: the extra cleaning when someone is unwell, the terminal clean afterwards and the records that show it all happened.
This guide follows a room through three kinds of day: the ordinary one, the unwell one and the one when the room empties. It draws on UKHSA guidance, CQC's regulations and published care home procedures.
Room cleaning for nursing homes best practices start with the daily clean
CQC's Regulation 15 says premises and equipment must be clean, properly maintained and suitable for their purpose, and that the registered person must maintain standards of hygiene appropriate to that purpose. It does not say how. UKHSA's standard infection control precautions fill the gap.
Cleaning the bedroom daily is the headline, but the detail sits in the touch points. UKHSA lists door handles, grab rails, call bells, light switches, bed rails, bedside tables and mobile devices. It says to clean them daily, or more often if they look dirty. Toilets and bathrooms need cleaning at least daily, and more often when soiled.
None of that works without a written schedule. UKHSA says to use documented schedules so it is clear how to clean each area and how often. Derbyshire County Council's procedure for its own residential homes shows what that looks like: whoever completes a task initials the box, and the home keeps the schedules for two years. We work the same way: a daily flow chart sets out the clean, and sign-off sheets record that it happened.
Order of work and colour coding
The order matters as much as the product. Community infection prevention guidance for care homes (CH 24, May 2025) says to start in the cleanest areas and finish in the dirtier ones, with a separate cloth for bathrooms and toilets that never goes anywhere else. UKHSA's terminal clean principles add that work runs from top to bottom.
UKHSA's colour scheme puts bedrooms under blue, bathrooms and toilets under red, kitchens under green and the bedroom of a person with an infection under yellow. Providers may use a different scheme if every member of staff understands it. Either way, the equipment has to stay in its colour, which is why Derbyshire gives each area its own pieces and cleans them at the end of every working session.
The mistake we see most in care homes
In our care home work, the most common mistake is reused mops and microfibre cloths. A mop head that has been used once and is not cleaned before it goes back on the floor leaves marks and a smell behind. Reused microfibre cloths cause the same problem, and the high-touch areas that need the most attention are the ones that get missed.
CH 24 points the other way. It recommends single use disposable cloths, says to discard disposable mop heads after use and to launder reusable ones daily at the highest temperature the manufacturer allows. Each toilet gets its own brush and holder, and the home replaces the brush when it is visibly stained.
A bedroom is a home, so the soft things count
Surfaces are only half a room. Derbyshire tells anyone changing bedding to check that the mattress is intact, report problems to the manager and record the bed change. Staff clean non-permeable mattresses at bedding change if there is any soiling or odour.
The same procedure has staff inspect carpets daily and spot clean marks, with bedroom carpets deep cleaned on a rolling programme. CH 24 adds sensory aids, which it says need regular cleaning (weekly, for example) and a clean straight away if soiled. It also wants cushions with removable covers.
Disinfectant is not a substitute for cleaning
UKHSA is direct about this. Cleaning removes dirt and contamination yet leaves some pathogens behind, and disinfection removes most pathogens but not every one. When disinfectant is used, it comes after cleaning, because organic matter can deactivate it, as CH 24 notes. Routine disinfection of the general environment is not usually needed.
Disinfection earns its place after contact with blood or body fluids, in sanitary areas and wherever infection is known or suspected. UKHSA suggests 1,000 ppm chlorine for those cases. Combined detergent and disinfectant products do both steps at once, so long as you mix the solution exactly as the manufacturer directs and replace it regularly. CH 24 asks homes to document when they make up disinfectant solutions.
When the person in the room is unwell
The yellow equipment comes out. UKHSA's guidance on transmission based precautions says to clean the bedroom daily with a combined detergent and disinfectant at 1,000 ppm chlorine, or a general purpose neutral detergent, or another disinfectant agreed with local infection prevention advice. It also says to increase cleaning of touch points such as door handles, light switches and bed rails, and to clean shared toilets and bathrooms more often than daily.
Some infections need more. CH 24 says confirmed or suspected C. difficile needs enhanced cleaning with a sporicidal disinfectant. Derbyshire's outbreak procedure switches to disposable mop heads and cloths and cleans touch points with a chlorine based product three times a day.
The details change with the organism, so follow your manager or local infection prevention team, as UKHSA says.
The terminal clean, and the clean when a room empties
A terminal clean happens after the infectious period, as directed by a healthcare professional. UKHSA says to use the same combined solution at 1,000 ppm chlorine and follow the manufacturer's contact times. Before the cleaning starts, take out waste, disposables, bedding, curtains, linen and reusable equipment, and decontaminate what you can inside the room first.
Then clean from top to bottom and from clean to dirty, paying particular attention to door handles, light switches and rails, plus bedside tables.
Launder or steam clean soft furnishings and privacy curtains where feasible. Clean or replace mattresses and cushions, along with pressure relieving aids, according to local guidance. Vacuum carpets and upholstery with a HEPA filter if you have one. Replace anything that will not clean properly, with the person's permission.
We treat the terminal clean with discipline. One trained cleaner can handle a room that is not too large, and a bigger room gets two cleaners. Including a proper inspection, expect 45 to 60 minutes per room.
A room that empties for other reasons gets a deep clean too. Derbyshire's rule is a deep clean when a bedroom is vacated or on an annual basis.
Spills, and who deals with them
Only trained staff should clean spills, and everyone else keeps away until they finish. UKHSA says to assess the risk before choosing PPE. The minimum is an apron and non sterile gloves, with a gown and face and eye protection for large or splashing spills.
For urine, faeces, vomit and sputum, soak up the spill and then clean with 1,000 ppm chlorine on surfaces it will not damage. UKHSA's warning is short: never put chlorine directly on urine.
For blood, use chlorine granules or a 10,000 ppm solution and leave it for the manufacturer's contact time, or at least three minutes. Chlorine releasing agents belong in a locked cupboard in communal settings.
Products are part of the paperwork
Anyone who cleans needs to understand their duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and COSHH, according to UKHSA. Derbyshire lets staff use only products approved by its COSHH group, with instructions for each on a wall chart. CH 24 goes a step further and wants documented risk assessments for approved cleaning products.
Hiring a cleaner does not hand over the responsibility
CH 24 puts it plainly: contracting out cleaning services does not mean contracting out responsibility. It expects each home to have a designated infection prevention lead for environmental cleanliness, who may also be the overall lead, and to assign and communicate cleaning duties clearly.
Training is part of that. UKHSA says anyone with a cleaning role needs training in technique, solution preparation and contact times, from a formal training package rather than an on the job demonstration.
Audit closes the loop. CH 24 says to audit environmental cleanliness on induction and annually, with action plans carried out afterwards.
Putting it into practice
If you manage a care home, read your own schedule against the sections above, line by line, with a pen in hand. That is room cleaning for nursing homes best practices in one sentence: a daily clean that is written down, an enhanced clean for illness and a terminal clean for the end of it. Check that the daily clean covers bedrooms and touch points, that the unwell and terminal cleans have their own written procedures, and that the equipment really does stay in its colour.
Tidy Spaces provides healthcare cleaning for care homes and clinics across the UK. For more on infection control, see our guide to care home cleaning and infection control, or call +44 7442 633361 or discuss a care home cleaning schedule with us.
