It’s a New Year, and you know what that means: time for a pest control resolution! Right?! Pest control resolutions are great, because they’re clear, measurable, and best of all: easy! These resolutions are even better when a whole business commits. Everyone in the office benefits! Plus, you can delegate pest control tasks so that no single person is too burdened by responsibility.

Here are four pest control strategies we recommend implementing in your workplace this year. If you can manage to get your co-workers to commit to all four, you’ll go a long way towards keeping the pests–and your favorite pest control experts–out of your hair.

Vacuuming Schedule

One of the easiest ways to prevent pest infestation is to vacuum regularly. Vacuuming hardwood floor grabs crumbs, dust, and cobwebs, even from between the boards. Vacuuming carpet is even more important. There’s no better way to remove dust mites, insect eggs, and food sources from hard-to-reach areas.

The problem with vacuuming in an office is nobody wants to do it. It’s loud, disruptive, and mundane. Plus, if you do it once it becomes, like, your job. To prevent this fate-worse-than-death, create a vacuuming schedule for the office to follow. Make it someone’s job to vacuum each distinct area of the office once a week. Weekly vacuuming will make a huge difference in how secured against pests your workplace is.

Scheduled “Clear-Out” Days

Ooh, more scheduling! We can almost see the Excel documents! Clear-out day is a kind of “Get Out of Jail Free” card for the office hoarder . At the end of the day once every couple of months, have everyone thoroughly look over their personal work spaces. Dig into your cabinets, desks, filing cabinets, wastebaskets–everywhere. Look for anything you don’t absolutely need. Then, toss it all out!

his is the most important part: there must be absolutely no judgment on clear-out day. No matter what horrors your co-workers pull from their respective offices of iniquity, you must not say anything. Pizza boxes containing half-finished pizzas, floor-to-ceiling paintings of koi fish in a pond, bear pelts–let them be. In fact, encourage them. If you can create a judgment-free, pro-clear out culture in the workplace, the whole office will be more organized, and of course, more pest-free.

Practice Fridge Discipline

It’s a cliché for a reason: without a little TLC, the office refrigerator can become nasty. Food spoils, rots, or generally becomes pungent, and when you go looking for a culprit, it’s always: “That’s not mine! I don’t even like tuna!” We want to believe adults can clean up after themselves. It’s a beautiful dream. But sometimes pragmatism must come before idealism. Sometimes the fridge. Must. Be. Cleaned.

Make this part of the cleaning schedule, and ensure everyone knows it. It should be clear that if you don’t eat whatever by X, it’s going in the garbage. We try not to be paranoid, but we swear pests know about office fridges. They’re waiting for the first hint of weakness. Let your co-workers keep their homemade fish tacos somewhere else this year; the resolution is on the line!

Take Your Snacks Home

It’s 6:30. You’re working late again. The office wound up ordering bagels for breakfast so you didn’t need the energy bar you brought. You’re finally going home. Just as you’re shutting the front door, you remember your energy bar is still sitting out on the table. You’ll just leave it there, you think. It’ll be fine, right?

Wrong! When you and your co-workers are safe at home, your office is now their domain… The pests. Rats, mites, cockroaches, and other creepy-crawlies looking for one thing: food. That energy bar you left out is just a snack to you, but to them it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, and the wrapper is just an appetizer. You can bet once they’ve got that first taste, they’ll be back for more. Every night. Don’t give them that first taste.

These four routines don’t sound like a big deal, do they? You’re right; they’re not supposed to! The truth is, a little preventative work is worth considerably more than the sum of its parts when it comes to keeping pests out.

But hey, we get it: things happen. If your business does wind up with a pest problem, let the team at Assured know right away. We’ll devise a strategy optimized to your specific business and get your problem fixed ASAP. Trust us, we’ve been at this awhile.

Happy New Year!