The "Silent Week" Opportunity: Maximizing Holiday Downtime for Deep Cleaning

The calendars are flipping to December, the decorations are coming out of storage, and office holiday party invitations are being sent. It is the busiest time of the year for many businesses. But for facility managers, the upcoming holiday season offers something rare and valuable: Empty Buildings.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, many offices operate with skeleton crews or close entirely. At Vaakawi, we call this the "Silent Week."

While it might be tempting to dial back services while employees are away, veteran facility managers know this is actually the golden window of opportunity to tackle the disruptive, deep-cleaning projects that are impossible to do during a normal work week.

Why Clean When No One Is There?
Standard janitorial maintenance keeps your building running, but deep restorative cleaning often requires moving furniture, waiting for floors to dry, or running loud equipment. Trying to strip and wax a lobby floor on a Tuesday morning is a logistical nightmare. Doing it on December 26th? It’s a breeze.

Here are the top three projects we recommend scheduling during the holiday break:

1. Restorative Floor Care
Whether it’s carpet extraction or hard floor refinishing, these jobs need "cure time."

• Carpets: Deep extraction leaves carpets damp for several hours. Doing this over the break ensures they are completely dry and odor-free before the team returns.
• Strip and Wax: Refinishing VCT requires multiple coats of wax and significant drying time between layers. The holiday break allows our crews to build up a durable, high-gloss finish without rushing.

2. High-Level Dusting and Vent Cleaning
Look up. When was the last time the HVAC diffusers, ceiling trusses, or high lobby windows were cleaned? These areas accumulate dust that affects indoor air quality, but cleaning them usually involves ladders or lifts that disrupt foot traffic. The "Silent Week" is the perfect time to bring in the lift equipment and knock this out safely.

3. Deep Restroom Sanitation
We aren't just talking about a daily wipe-down. We are talking about machine-scrubbing the tile grout, steam-cleaning partitions, and descaling fixtures. This "reset" gets your restrooms sparkling and smelling fresh for the new year.

Start 2026 with a Clean Slate
There is a psychological benefit to walking into a freshly cleaned office on the first workday of January. It sets a tone of professionalism, renewal, and care for the year ahead.

Warning: The Schedule Fills Fast. Because this is the most popular week of the year for project work, our specialized floor and project crews get booked up quickly. If you want to take advantage of the holiday downtime, the time to plan is now.

Don't let the "Silent Week" go to waste. Contact Vaakawi today to schedule your year-end project work.