If it smells clean, it must be clean. If you’ve quite incorrectly made this assumption at some time or another, you’re far from in the minority. Nevertheless, you’ve still been sorely mistaken!
Much of the confusion stems from the fact that when you take a look at things at the exact opposite end of the scale, it does tend to hold some truth. Generally speaking, if something smells absolutely foul, it probably isn’t particularly clean. Nevertheless, even when something smells quite immaculate, this doesn’t in any way mean it is clean.
The problem is, the vast majority of people these days have become used to the kinds of cleaning products and air fresheners that are so loaded with overpowering scents, we automatically associate these kinds of scents with cleanliness. As such, if the first thing you note when walking into a workplace is a wonderful smell in the air, you automatically assume that it must be clean. In reality, this pleasant fragrance doesn’t tell you anything at all about its cleanliness.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good idea to immediately stop using fragranced products and go exclusively for fragrance-free cleaning supplies around the office. After all, if the only things in the office contributing to its freshness are the people and equipment in it, you can’t expect it to smell like a bed of roses for very long! Instead, it is simply a case of understanding the fact that scenting and sanitising are two very different things.
Tackling the Source
There are two kinds of air fresheners available these days – those that neutralise unpleasant smells and those that simply mask them. For obvious reasons, the former of the two is slowly but surely being pushed out of the market entirely, having been identified as a product of very little purpose or value. After all, masking smells simply means inviting them back, just as soon as the fragrance has faded.
But at the same time, this doesn’t mean that even the most effective neutralising air fresheners will not prove to be ineffective as a long-term solution. The reason being that if you are dealing with a prolonged or frequent case of unpleasant smelling air around the office, the problem must have a source. And if you do not tackle the source, you cannot expect to tackle the problem.
Which is where things once again swing back to sanitising over scenting. If your office is kept meticulously clean from top to bottom, it is highly unlikely that you will ever find yourself having to deal with these kinds of problems. As already mentioned, while fresh smells do not necessarily indicate cleanliness, unpleasant smells do have a tendency to suggest cleanliness could do with being stepped up.
You can go on fighting bad smells the traditional way all you like, but unless you get to grips with comprehensive cleaning, it could turn out to be a fight you’ll never win!