Equipment at Great Prices

Janitorial equipment is not cheap. Certainly not new equipment. But you can find real bargains if you scan eBay and Craigslist on a daily basis for equipment that is more than adequate for your initial needs. I mostly use my metro-area’s Craigslist because with eBay, many items are out of state and you most certainly will be paying the shipping cost. With Craigslist, if I see something I like, and it’s still available, I’ll drive on over, review and decide then and there if I want to buy.

I’m assuming that you already have a home vacuum and some basic cleaning supplies and chemicals. But if not, you can even find that for cheap on Craigslist. Eventually, though, you’ll be needing a mop bucket and floor buffer which you probably don’t have at the moment. As you can see in the below picture, these items can be found for incredibly low prices.

Although there’s greater abundance on eBay, not only are the machines costlier, but the freight charge can easily rival the cost of the machine, particularly with floor scrubbers weighing 100 plus pounds. Many of the sellers want nothing to do with the hassle of shipping and simply advertise their equipment as Pick-up Only. That said, I certainly don’t want to discourage eBay shopping as I have found some interesting bargains, especially for vacuums.

If you do buy a floor scrubber online that you intend to have shipped, be sure that the machine comes with a pad drive. Many sellers don’t list whether the machine comes with one or not. The pad drive is the detachable disk that holds floor pads. If it doesn’t come with the machine, you may find yourself spending an additional $75 to buy one let alone the hassle of finding one either through a janitorial supply store or from the machine’s manufacturer.


Incredible! All of the equipment in the above photo was advertised on Craigslist for $1,500. The Equipment: two top of the line floor buffers, one 2,400 rpm burnisher, four upright vacuums (3 which were expensive), one water vacuum (again, top of the line), two collection barrels, two mop buckets, one carpet extractor, and window cleaning equipment.

Never underestimate what you’ll find online. There are exciting bargains out there!

Craigslist saves the information that you previously searched for. Just double-click inside the search for: dialogue box. A menu will drop-down with your previous searches ready for you to click into the dialogue box. I recommend that you make these searches twice a day to be first in line for the new equipment offerings. Because people call a floor buffer by many different names, list all of them as you see that I have done. Next, make sure you have all for sale/wanted in the subsequent dialogue box as well as checking the has image box.



Chapter 19__Employee Checklist