Many people consider cleaning an insignificant low status job with no development opportunities. Most people are taught how to clean by their parents, and people usually do it in their own homes. A trivial job which most people want to get done as quickly as possible.
This attitude is actually a very good indication of the focus we want to put on cleaning. Similarly, the daily handling of cleaning procedures in e.g. hospitals is deprioritised in favour of treatment, care and research.
In Denmark, billions are spent each year on cleaning, since it is a priority to create a good environment in public buildings, facilities and institutions which constitute the framework for learning, health treatment and care, as well as for administration citizen service.
But despite the extensive amounts allocated to this area, the level of cleanliness in schools, day care facilities, hospitals and other public buildings is often criticised, and public authorities are accused of not allocating sufficient funds for this extensive cleaning task. Most often cleaning is performed once a day, typically in the morning, which means that during the day dirt and bacteria accumulate.
Naturally, the schools, institutions and hospitals are used by a high number of children and adults every day, and hence, as the day progresses, dirt, bacteria and vira will accumulate. The challenge is that an unclean environment affects people's well-being and health. Depending on the context, an unclean environment may have different consequences. It is not difficult to imagine that in schools, unclean surroundings can affect children's readiness to learn. It is difficult for a child to focus and concentrate if, for instance, it has a stomach ache caused by contamination by a pathogenic alimentary tract bacteria. And in the event that the child is so ill that it has to stay at home, it is precluded from participating in academic and social learning processes. In hospitals and nursing homes, where the patients/residents often have weak immune systems, an unclean environment can be life-threatening. Every year the number of people dying from hospital acquired infections far exceeds the number of people dying in traffic accidents.
Macro-economically, there is a great potential in cleaning which, if planned and performed wisely, may reduce contamination and spread of infections and hence save society billions in the form of expenses saved associated with sick days and hospital readmissions.
As mentioned above, rooms and areas are often only cleaned once per day, even though they may have a high level of activity and thereby load. This influences the overall cleanliness of the room or area and especially of critical surfaces in the rooms/areas, i.e. surfaces often touched by human hands and/or fingers, and from which surfaces micro-organisms can thus easily spread. There is therefore a need for providing a solution which facilitates more cleaning of the critical surfaces in the rooms/areas.