If you run a janitorial or commercial cleaning business, you already know this pain point: your cleaning is only as good as your supplies. And one of the most overlooked bottlenecks in the entire operation is laundry.
Mops, microfiber cloths, towels, and other reusable cleaning textiles are the backbone of professional cleaning work. They need to be clean, sanitized, and ready to deploy every single day. When they are not, the quality of your cleaning suffers, your team wastes time improvising, and your clients notice the difference. For years, that laundry dependency was one of the biggest operational headaches we faced at ServiceMaster TBS, and it is a problem we eventually decided to solve ourselves.
The Problem: Depending on Someone Else for Your Core Supplies
For much of our history, we outsourced the laundering of our cleaning textiles to third-party laundry services. On paper, it seemed like the logical choice. Laundry is not our core business. Why not let someone else handle it? In practice, the reality was far more frustrating.
Turnaround times were unpredictable. We would send out a load of microfiber cloths on Monday and not see them back until Thursday or Friday. That meant our teams either had to carry excess inventory to cover the gap or, on busy weeks, make do with supplies that were not properly cleaned. Neither option was acceptable for a company that prides itself on delivering a consistent standard of clean.
Quality control was another persistent issue. Commercial laundry services process textiles from many different clients. Our microfibers would come back with chemical residue from other clients’ loads, or they would be washed at temperatures that degraded the fibers prematurely. Microfiber in particular requires specific wash temperatures and detergent types to maintain its cleaning effectiveness. When those standards are not met, the cloths lose their ability to trap dust and bacteria, which directly impacts cleaning performance.
And then there was cost. The per-pound or per-piece pricing of outsourced laundry services adds up quickly when you are processing hundreds of mops and thousands of microfiber cloths every week. Over the course of a year, the expense was significant and growing.
The Decision: Bringing Laundry In-House
After years of managing these frustrations, we made the decision to invest in our own industrial-grade laundry operation. We purchased commercial heavy-duty washing machines and dryers capable of handling the volume and specific requirements of professional cleaning textiles. We set up dedicated laundry facilities within our operations, established wash protocols tailored to each type of textile, and trained our team on proper handling, sorting, and quality inspection.
The transition was not trivial. Industrial laundry equipment represents a significant capital investment, and building the processes around it required time and iteration. But the results were immediate and dramatic.
What Changed When We Took Control
Turnaround Dropped from Days to Hours
Instead of waiting three to five days for a third-party service to return our supplies, we now process and turn around laundry within the same day. Mops and microfibers go into the wash in the morning and are back on the trucks by the afternoon. This eliminates the need for excessive backup inventory and ensures our crews always have fresh, properly cleaned supplies for every job.
Quality Became Completely Consistent
Because we control every aspect of the wash process, we set the exact water temperature, detergent concentration, and cycle time for each textile type. Microfibers are washed without fabric softener, which clogs the fibers and destroys their effectiveness. Mop heads are sanitized at the correct temperature to eliminate bacteria without degrading the material. The result is supplies that perform the way they are supposed to, every single time.
Costs Came Down Significantly
The upfront investment in equipment paid for itself faster than we expected. By eliminating outsourced laundry fees and extending the useful life of our textiles through proper care, we reduced our annual laundry-related expenses substantially. The textiles themselves last longer because they are being washed correctly, which reduces replacement costs as well.
Our Cleaning Quality Improved
This was the outcome that mattered most. Clean supplies produce better cleaning results. Our teams noticed the difference immediately, and more importantly, so did our clients. Floors looked better, surfaces were cleaner, and the overall consistency of our work improved across every account.
Supporting Other Janitorial Businesses with Laundry Services
Once our in-house laundry operation was running smoothly and we had built out the capacity to handle our own volume efficiently, we realized we were in a unique position to help other cleaning companies facing the same challenges we had struggled with for years.
Today, we offer laundry services for other janitorial and commercial cleaning businesses in the region. We process mops, microfiber cloths, towels, and other cleaning textiles using the same protocols and quality standards we apply to our own supplies. For smaller janitorial companies that do not have the volume or capital to justify their own industrial laundry setup, this provides access to the kind of textile care that larger operations benefit from, without the overhead of purchasing and maintaining their own equipment.
We understand the specific requirements of cleaning textiles because we use them ourselves every day. That perspective makes a meaningful difference compared to a general commercial laundry service that treats your microfibers the same way they treat hotel bed linens.
Why Textile Care Matters More Than Most People Realize
For anyone outside the cleaning industry, the idea that laundry could be a competitive advantage sounds unusual. But if you are a janitorial business owner, you understand intuitively that the tools your team uses directly determine the quality of the work they produce.
- Microfiber performance depends on proper laundering. A microfiber cloth that has been washed with fabric softener or at the wrong temperature will not pick up dust and bacteria the way it should. It becomes just an ordinary rag.
- Cross-contamination is a real risk. In a commercial laundry facility, your cleaning cloths may be washed alongside textiles from restaurants, medical offices, or other environments. Proper sorting and dedicated wash cycles prevent this.
- Textile longevity is directly tied to care. Microfibers that are properly laundered can last 500 or more wash cycles. Improperly handled microfibers may only last 100. The cost difference over a year is substantial.
- Your clients can tell. A fresh, properly sanitized mop or cloth produces visibly and measurably better cleaning results than one that was hastily washed in a generic load. Your reputation rides on these details.
A Solution Built from Experience
We did not set out to become a laundry service. We set out to solve a problem that was holding back the quality of our own cleaning operation. The fact that we can now extend that solution to other businesses in the industry is a natural extension of the investment we made.
If you are a janitorial business owner who is frustrated with inconsistent turnaround times, questionable wash quality, or rising outsourced laundry costs, you are not alone. It is a problem the industry has tolerated for too long because the alternatives seemed out of reach. We have been in your shoes, and we built the infrastructure to do it better.
