Childcare Cleaning Guides
These childcare cleaning guides are written for directors, educational leaders and educators who run the cleaning side of a service themselves, or want to check the cleaner who does. They cover the rules, the routines and the paperwork: what the National Quality Standard and Staying Healthy expect, how to clean toys and nappy areas properly, and what belongs in a cleaning policy or contract. Everything here is free to use. For the service behind the guides, see our childcare cleaning across Melbourne.
- Free to useNo sign-up, no email
- SourcedFrom official guidance
- Checked yearlyLast checked September 2026
- Written by cleanersWho do this every night
Which childcare cleaning guide should you read first?
Start with whatever is pressing. An assessment visit coming up points to the NQS and Staying Healthy guides. A new educator team needs the checklist and the three-step process. Illness in a room calls for the infection control guide, and a cleaner's contract up for renewal calls for the contracts guide.
Know what the standard asks for, then make sure your policy says it.
The method first, then the list that keeps everyone doing it the same way.
What changes during gastro, hand, foot and mouth, or a bad cold season.
What a fair contract covers, and the outdoor jobs that are easy to leave out.
Each guide stands on its own, but they share one idea: cleaning in childcare is a routine that other people can see and check. That is why every guide ends with the record you would keep, not only the job you would do.
If you are new to running a service, the order above is a sensible first month of reading. Most directors we meet read one guide when a problem lands on their desk, then come back for the next one when the next problem arrives. Either way works, and none of the guides assume you have read another first.
What does each guide cover?
Ten guides in three groups: standards and policy, daily method, and choosing help. Each one answers a single question fully, then points to the one service page that matches it, in case you would rather hand that job to us.
Which guide answers your question?
Find the question closest to yours in the left column. The middle column names the guide that answers it, and the right column names the service we offer for the same job, for the days you would rather not do it in-house.
| Your question | Guide | Matching service |
|---|---|---|
| What will the assessor check about cleaning? | NQS cleaning standards | NQS compliance support |
| Detergent or disinfectant on this surface? | Staying Healthy guidelines | NQS compliance support |
| What should our cleaning policy say? | Policy and procedure template | NQS compliance support |
| Gastro is in the toddler room. Now what? | Infection control guide | Outbreak cleaning |
| What should educators tick off each day? | Daycare cleaning checklist | Daycare cleaning |
| Why wipe twice before disinfecting? | The 3-step process | Our cleaning process |
| How often do the blocks need washing? | How to clean toys | Toy sanitisation |
| What is the right order at the change bench? | Nappy change procedure | Nappy change cleaning |
| How do we keep the sandpit safe? | Sandpit cleaning | Areas we clean |
| What belongs in a cleaning contract? | Contracts guide | Childcare cleaning prices |
Each guide links once to its matching service page, near the end, and nowhere else. The guides are there to be useful whether or not you ever hire a cleaner.
How are these guides kept current?
Every guide is checked against the official source it relies on at least once a year, and sooner when that source changes. The last-checked date sits near every guide's title, and any change to advice is made in the guide itself rather than in a new post.
- Staying Healthy, 6th editionThe NHMRC's infection control guide for early childhood services, published in August 2024.
- National Quality StandardQuality Areas 2 and 3, as set out in ACECQA's Guide to the National Quality Framework.
- National RegulationsThe Education and Care Services National Regulations, including Regulations 77, 88 and 168.
- Department of Health, VictoriaExclusion periods, outbreak guidance and food business classifications.
The two sources behind most of the advice are the NHMRC's Staying Healthy guidelines and the Victorian exclusion table for schools and children's services. If you spot something that no longer matches them, tell us and we will correct it.
What do readers ask about the guides?
Two questions that come in about using these guides.
01Are the guides updated?
02Can we copy the templates into our own documents?
Rather hand the cleaning over?
The same method, done nightly, with a fixed written quote to start.