The basic thinking behind colour-coded cleaning is to segregate the different types of areas you have to clean, washrooms, kitchens, general areas etc and assigning coloured-cleaning equipment that is used in that area only ie red equipment for toilets and toilet floors and yellow for washroom surfaces.

Obviously if you have different colour cloths cleaning the toilet to the ones cleaning a food table, this reduces the likelihood that bacteria from the toilet will find its way to the table.

Never before has it been so important to stop cross infection during cleaning, with COVID-19 still very much an issue for all of us.

What are the colour codes for cleaning?

There is no right or wrong answer, you just need to be practical when selecting your colour scheme, there is no point choosing colours that you can’t get the required cleaning equipment for.

Cleaning equipment is readily available in the following colours from cloths and buckets to colour coordinated mop head and handles, trigger spray bottles and dustpan and brush sets etc:

Which colour for which area?

Nothing written in stone here and there are many variations used. Above are the old British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) universal colour codes and the most widely used, this is the colour-coding that we would recommend.

Never before has it been so important to stop cross infection during cleaning, with COVID-19 still very much an issue for all of us.

NHS Colour Code

In 2007 the NHS revised the colour coding they use and they now use the same colour cloth for toilets and for hand wash basins in the toilet.

If this option is chosen it is imperative to work to the 'Golden Rule' of always working from the cleanest area towards the dirtiest, greatly reducing the risk of cross contamination.

Using this method it is still best practice to clean sinks and toilets with different disposable cloths.

If you are not cleaning in an NHS organisation, we would NOT recommend this colour code system.

Potentially you could end up using the same cloth for cleaning the toilets and the sinks, spreading the bacteria from one to another.

What equipment should you colour code?

The common sense answer is whatever equipment that you can easily find in the four cleaning colours. However you should at least colour code the following:

Mops & buckets
Cloths
Brooms, dustpan & brush sets
Trigger spray bottles

Whether you need to colour code gloves is a bit questionable and you certainly don’t need to have colour coded vacuum cleaners!

Staff training

Which ever colour code you settle for, the most important thing is that your staff know which colours are to be used in which areas.

The best thing to do after training is to provide staff with a cleaning reference poster to be displayed in a prominent place in the cleaning cupboard, serving as a constant reminder to prevent errors.

The part that some staff struggle with is segregation within the washroom.

To make it clear, the actual toilet bowl and the toilet floor should be one colour (red preferably) and then all the other surfaces in the washroom (the sinks, the partitions and the doors) should be another colour (yellow in our recommended system).

FREE Cleaning Colour Codes Chart

Simply click download below and print off this Cleaning Colour Codes Wall Chart to display in all your cleaning cupboards and cleaning equipment storage areas.