The hidden global cost of paper cleaning logs

Paper seems harmless. It’s familiar, it’s cheap, and it’s everywhere. But in the cleaning industry, this simple habit is quietly draining billions of dollars every year. Across Europe and the U.S. alone, millions of work hours disappear into handwritten cleaning logs — time that could easily be saved with a digital approach.

A Global Industry Still Stuck on Paper

Cleaning and janitorial services make up one of the largest workforces on the planet.

In Europe, there are roughly 4.2 million workers across 300,000 companies, generating up to €130 billion in annual turnover. Most of these firms are tiny — two-thirds have fewer than ten employees.

In the United States, more than 2.4 million people work as janitors and building cleaners, earning an average of $17 per hour. There are nearly 68,000 registered cleaning companies across the country.

That’s already 6.6 million cleaning workers between Europe and the U.S. And when you add Asia and Latin America, the total becomes enormous.

Yet despite this size and economic weight, most cleaning companies still rely on paper to record their daily tasks. Digital tools remain the exception, not the rule. In Europe, only 58–69% of SMEs even meet a basic level of digitalization — and among microbusinesses, the rate is much lower.

The result? Up to 90% of cleaning companies worldwide are still writing everything by hand.

Why Paper Is More Expensive Than It Looks

A few printed sheets and a pen might seem trivial. But paper has a hidden price — not in ink or printing, but in wasted time.

Here’s how it adds up:

• Filling out a paper log takes 30 to 45 seconds.
• Doing it digitally, with a QR code, takes about five seconds.
• That’s roughly 25 seconds lost per task.
• And supervisors often spend another 15 seconds retyping the same information into Excel.

In total, 40 seconds wasted on every single cleaning record.

It doesn’t sound like much — until you multiply it by thousands of cleanings per year.

The Scale of the Waste

Let’s keep it simple.

Each cleaner logs about 20 tasks per day, or 5,200 per year.

Forty seconds wasted per log equals nearly 58 hours per worker every year.

Now, apply that across Europe and the U.S.:

6.6 million workers × 57.8 hours = roughly 383 million hours wasted annually.

Even if only 60% of them still use paper, that’s 230 million hours lost each year.

Now convert that to wages:

• At $15/hour → $3.45 billion wasted every year.
• At $20/hour → $4.6 billion.
• At $25/hour → $5.75 billion.

And remember — that’s just Europe and the U.S. The global figure is far higher.

Why the Industry Hasn’t Changed

If paper is so inefficient, why hasn’t the industry moved on?

Because three things hold it back:

1. Fragmentation. Most cleaning companies are very small. Their focus is on getting the job done each day, not implementing digital systems.
2. Lack of regulation. Outside healthcare or aerospace, few sectors require digital traceability of cleaning.
3. The illusion of cheapness. Owners see the low cost of paper and printing — but not the thousands of dollars lost in wasted labor.

What Digital Logging Fixes Immediately

Switching to a digital system isn’t a luxury upgrade — it’s a smarter way to work.

• A cleaning log takes just five seconds with a phone and QR code.
• No transcription is needed — everything is stored automatically.
• Supervisors see real-time dashboards instead of piles of paper.
• Clients get instant, transparent proof of every cleaning performed.

Instead of wasting time writing and rewriting, teams can focus on what really matters: cleaning, quality, and service.

The Bottom Line

The cleaning industry is losing billions of dollars every year because of one outdated habit: paper cleaning logs.

Hundreds of millions of hours are wasted. Productivity vanishes. Entire teams move slower — not because of effort, but because of paper.

Paper isn’t free. It’s the most expensive part of your cleaning business — and it’s holding the industry back.