Here in Maine, we spend a lot of time worrying about the big stuff — roof leaks, frozen pipes, whether the parking lot got plowed before the morning rush. But there’s one category of workplace problem that tends to sneak up on businesses completely unnoticed: the spots nobody cleans.
Not because people are lazy. Because they’re invisible until they’re not.
After years of cleaning commercial spaces across Bangor and Central Maine — offices, medical practices, retail stores, industrial facilities — we’ve developed a pretty solid mental map of where the gross stuff hides. Consider this your guided tour.
1. The Light Switch
Every single person who enters or exits a room touches the light switch. It gets flipped on in the morning with coffee-covered fingers, tapped off at night after a long day, and wiped down… essentially never. Studies have found that light switches can harbor more bacteria per square inch than a toilet seat. We’re not trying to ruin your morning, but there it is.
2. The Office Coffee Maker Handle
The coffee maker is the social hub of most workplaces. It’s touched dozens of times a day by everyone in the building — before they’ve washed their hands, after they’ve shaken someone’s hand, in between everything. The carafe handle, the brew button, the water reservoir lid. These surfaces almost never get wiped down, and in the winter when everyone’s already sharing cold viruses, a dirty coffee maker is basically a germ accelerator.
3. Elevator Buttons (and Their Cousins)
If your building has an elevator, the call button and floor buttons are touched hundreds of times a day and cleaned… when? Same goes for the shared printer buttons, the microwave keypad in the break room, and the thermostat. These small touchscreens and buttons are the forgotten cousins of the door handle — everyone touches them, nobody wipes them.
4. The Bottom of Your Chair
Nobody looks under their office chair. But if you did, you’d find dust buildup, hair, and in carpeted offices, a fine collection of everything that’s been tracked in over months or years. Chair wheels pick up everything from parking lots and hallways and redistribute it across your floors every time someone rolls backward. It’s a small thing that makes a real difference when addressed regularly.
5. Door Frames and the Top of the Door
Doors get wiped down. Door handles get attention. But the top of the door frame? That horizontal ledge collects dust silently, indefinitely, until someone tall walks through and notices a gray stripe at eye level — or worse, a client does. Same goes for the tops of file cabinets, the top of the refrigerator, and the crown molding in conference rooms. Out of sight, out of mind, until it’s embarrassing.
6. Baseboards Along High-Traffic Walls
Walk slowly down any hallway in a busy office building and look down at the baseboards. Scuff marks from shoes, dust buildup from foot traffic, the occasional mysterious stain from a cart that was pushed too close to the wall. Clean baseboards are one of those subtle signals that a space is genuinely well-maintained — not just surface-cleaned. It’s the difference between a space that looks clean and a space that is clean.
7. The Space Behind and Under Everything
Behind the refrigerator. Under the copier. Beneath the reception desk. The gap between the wall and the last row of desks. These are the dark zones — places that are physically hard to reach and easy to skip. They’re also where dust builds into actual drifts, where crumbs become an open invitation for pests, and where odors originate that nobody can locate. In a Maine winter when everything is sealed up tight and there’s no fresh air coming in, these spots matter more than ever.
So What Do You Do About It?
Honestly? The best solution is a cleaning crew that actually looks for these things — not one following a bare-minimum checklist. At Clean Scene, our teams are trained to catch the spots that most crews miss. We’re not just cleaning what’s visible; we’re maintaining the whole environment.
If you’re a Bangor-area business owner who’s ever looked around your office and thought “this place should feel cleaner than it does” — that feeling is usually right, and it’s usually because of one of the seven things on this list.
We offer free on-site consultations with no pressure and no obligation. We’ll walk your space, tell you exactly what we’d do differently, and give you a straight quote. Reach out here or call us at (207) 835-4515.
Clean Scene Inc is a locally owned commercial cleaning company serving Bangor, Brewer, Orono, Augusta, Portland, and communities throughout Central Maine. We’re fully bonded, insured, and staffed by background-checked professionals.
