Looking for ideas for keeping a barn looking and feeling extra clean. I have worked in a few barns and gathered good habits from fastidious trainers. I want to hear more! Organizational things, cleaning ideas, big projects, daily tasks, etc.
To start off:
Nice if you can afford someone to sweep constantly, and if the clients can afford new matching everything.
I’m assuming your barn is a boarding barn. I don’t think things necessarily have to match, but everything should have a place. And I mean EVERYTHING. Hooks for halters, bridles, martingales, etc with horse’s names above them so nothing gets mixed up. Same goes for the feed room, no such thing as too many labels. Label everything that belongs to you, you don’t want homeless equipment to be “adopted” by ignorant boarders. Buckets and bathing supplies have their place in the wash rack. A big whiteboard, chalkboard or cork board to write important announcements, scheduling changes, barn rules, etc. Basically, you want to make it so organized that when a new client or staff member arrives, they have almost no trouble locating anything they need.
Replace equipment ASAP when it breaks or malfunctions, and replace it properly, no duct tape/zip ties/twine unless it’s not very noticeable.
PLEASE keep the bathrooms clean (and keep toilet paper, soap stocked at all times), peeing with 16 spiders watching you from every angle is not a very pleasant experience :). I’d recommend keeping an eye on anything that’s painted, nothing makes a barn look older or more dingy than peeling paint.
Sweeping often is a good idea, but you do have to accept that dust and dirt is inevitable and no one expects any barn to be completely spotless. I would put up signs to encourage boarders to clean up after themselves, and maybe you could hire someone to clean on the weekends in exchange for lessons/board.
If you have an office at this barn, make sure to keep all of your files and papers organized and out of the way of dust.
If you care about clean aisles you could get everyone to pick out their horses feet before they leave the stall and before they leave the arena that would drive me crazy 
but would eliminate the biggest source of aiske debris if you sweep after cleaning and feeding.
At our barn we have different daily tasks for workers to do each weekday
monday- dust tack room, scrub outside waterers
Tuesday- clean fridge and bathroom
wednesday- clean leather halters
Thursday- weeds and scrub all outside auto waterers
friday- wash all brushes and cubbies in wash bays
we have Dutch doors on backs of stalls so horses with dirty feet go out back door and come in to wash bay to have feet cleaned and be groomed, clean hooves can use the aisle to go back into stalls.
Whenever we clean stalls we take a broom, pitch forks and shovel and knock down any spiderwebs/dust from corners, walls or under feeders with the broom.
I worked at a barn that had a little cloth hanging in front of each stall for morning workers to wipe waterers, feeders and stall fronts. Same barn also insisted boarders clean their horses feet over a small bucket so aisle stayed tidy.
There’s usually an ambitious worker who wants extra hours and will volunteer to clean outside of barn, or inside stall and wash bay walls…
but we only have 6 horses and it’s a private barn so it’s pretty easy to keep things tidy.
How many horses/boarders are at your barn?
I have a small private barn - just six stalls - and finally can indulge my OCD preferences for having everything be super clean and tidy. Here is what works for us:
We have the luxury of a separate storage barn - all the stuff that gets dirty lives in there, not with the horses (spreader, tractor, supplies like lime, fertilizer etc.)
The feed room has lots of shelving so stuff can be put away neatly, off the floor. The horses’ smartpaks live on those shelves along with other basics. We have a small fridge in there for horse medications, ice boots, etc. There is a separate set of shelving for saddle pads, towels, boots, etc. Polos live in nice (breathable) fabric bins on the shelves to keep them clean and organized. Feed is in metal cans with locking lids, properly labeled underneath the feed chart. The whiteboard in there also notes key phone numbers - owners, vets, farrier, etc along with any upcoming events (clinics, shows, farrier appts and so on.) Any needed supplies are noted there as well.
In the barn, we de-cobweb several times a week. If you do it as part of a routine, it’s a quick job. We sweep several times a day, including around the ends of the mats where stuff collects otherwise. I know people do use blowers and it’s likely quicker but I feel like you end up with more dust in the air and it’s not nice to breathe. We have a watering can that gets filled with water + a few glugs of Lysol that we use to wet the aisle down with prior to sweeping = no dust and keeps things smelling fresh. The matted wash rack likewise gets cleaned with the same mixture; we “scrub” with a stiff broom to get rid of any grime so there is never any build up. We have a tack hook and a cleaning station (small shelf with soaps, conditioners, sponges & small bucket) right by the wash rack so the tack gets done as soon as it comes off the horse.
After the horses are turned out in the morning, we pull water buckets and feed tubs and scrub them clean. They are hung in the sun to dry while the stalls are being done. When we muck, we pull the clean bedding up in big banks on the walls and use SweetPDZ to address any wet spots that remain after the dirty bedding is removed. The stalls then get a layer of pelleted bedding that is misted to open them up a bit, which gives us a really nice super absorbent layer below the shavings that go on top. I feel like that really helps keep the stalls fresh and they are easy to clean.
The stalls are cleaned by mucking directly into the (small) spreader and before we pull the spreader out, we sweep up the stuff that inevitably gets into the aisle so it goes out with the rest of the dirty bedding. We have a large enough property to use spreading rather than a manure pile, which is one of my favorite things about the property. No need to trek back and forth with wheelbarrows and no icky pile drawing flies!
I spent a bunch of time making my tack room pretty and so I am a bit crazy about ensuring all the tack in there is clean, conditioned and put away neatly. The bridles are hung properly on pretty brass bridle brackets that are slightly bigger than normal ones - I have dressage bridles with blingy browbands and this helps them keep their shape. Saddles are likewise put away on pretty brass saddle racks that allow the saddles to breath; they can sit on half pads but we don’t store square pads in the tackroom so it looks very tidy. There is also a show themed mirror in there that has pegs below it to hang helmets, spurs etc. Other equipment and tack (shipping halters, longeing rig, etc) are hung on larger brass hooks so everything is organized and easily accessible. Other nice “extras” include a whip holder, dedicated 2 prong hooks for extra girths, a small fridge for human drinks and snacks, and boot keepers so we can keep our tall boots neatly organized and fresh smelling even in our humid summer weather (they are cedar filled and awesome.) We have nicely embroidered saddle covers that match the tack trunk covers and show stuff (scrims, show pads and so on) which is an easy way to keep things looking coordinated even if they are all different brands.
In the evening, we hang the halters (again on brass hangers) properly from the noseband rings and we put up the lead shanks by doubling them and then wrapping the excess length of shank around the doubled portion so they look like they do when you originally buy them. Just a little extra touch that makes the aisle look neat and tidy!
sounds so lovely! Show us pictures, please!!
[QUOTE=Lucassb;n10191853]
I have a small private barn - just six stalls - and finally can indulge my OCD preferences for having everything be super clean and tidy. Here is what works for us:
Wow! We were at a barn for several years. During that time, the boarders were required to pressure wash their stalls twice a year and sweep up after your horse (after picking feet, droppings, etc.) The barn workers cleaned the wash rack and blew the aisles clean (50 horses) daily. We cleaned our own stall waterers whenever we wanted - nothing required and the same went for the outside waterer in the pen where our horses were kept. We weren’t allowed to have tack trunks or anything in front of the stall and we shared tack rooms (it averaged about 3-4 horses per tack room). You’re a lot more organized.
[quote="“SPRINGBORO,post:7,topic:449471”]
sounds so lovely! Show us pictures, please!!
I just took a few snaps for you this morning…but it says the file sizes are too large to upload?
I get the need for functional tidiness. But honestly when I m evaluating a barn I’m looking at the things that serve the horse’s health and well being.
That would include turnout, pasture access, frequent feedings, good arena and trails. If I had horses at home I think a good pasture with run in shed would be ideal, maybe some kind of barn or shedrow for icy weather or injuries. Basically minimize the busy work on the property to maximize saddle time.
I honestly don’t think a big working barn where people are riding their horses daily is going to stay pristine. Indeed at my barn I find there’s a correlation between the amount people ride and the amount they tidy. The lead n feed folks in general have more time to putter and micromanage. So do parents and spouses of riders.
We just built a new private barn too. My best “friend” is a leaf blower that sucks up stuff too. It has a bag that fills up like a vacuum cleaner. I can easily clean corners and edges (i.e. stuff that the broom won’t get) with very little effort. I hate big ugly cobwebby build-up. Call me crazy. Now if I can only get my horses to stop pooping on their walls, I’ll be a happy woman :eek:
A leaf blower that also sucks stuff up! That solves the problem with shop vacs which is that they get quickly clogged inside with hay. Though I suppose the leaf blower is gas operated and probably on the pricey end of things.
Personally, I would have to be pretty desperate to board at a barn that required me to buy special/matching tack trunks.
The barn and tack rooms can be kept neat and tidy without the need to ask your boarders to spend extra cash to suit your personal aesthetic, IMO.
The feasibility of any of this stuff is obviously dependent on whether you’re talking about a private farmette, a busy boarding barn, or a high-end show barn. Cleanliness and tidiness are two separate things, and do not require matching stuff though it certainly looks nice. From the highest-end show barns I’ve experienced, in no particular order:
Keeping a barn/farm immaculate is like half of a work day for a team of barn workers. That’s why it’s usually not reasonable for a private farmette owner who would like to ride as much as possible, or for a boarding barn where only so much can be required from a diverse group of boarders.
Scribbler: No, it’s cheap! It’s electric but luckily I have lots of outlets in the barn. The bag isn’t huge but I can clean all of my edges several times before emptying it.
I thought your list was great! But I haven’t found that it takes a huge team to keep things clean & tidy on a farmette. I have one person who works part time feeding, cleaning stalls and doing turnout, and I work full time at a desk job. However, between us, we keep the place pretty buttoned up. It does help that we are both neat freaks 
If I can ever figure out how to make the pictures small enough, I will post a few.
In many show barns, this is pretty routine, though I know people get themselves in a tizzy about it, especially here on COTH. When I had hunters and did a lot of showing, we expected to have certain things in the barn colors, from trunks to scrims, coolers and blankets, and it looked lovely to have everything matching, monogrammed, etc. If you happened to leave the barn, you could frequently sell the barn color stuff to someone else so you weren’t stuck with it.
I also know of lots of barns that only allow trunks in their colors to be out in the aisles; if you had a different type or color, it was perfectly fine with them but it would be in the storage room (and at the end of the aisles at shows so as not to disrupt the pretty set up.)
The whole matchy thing would be unusual in most boarding barns, where everyone usually does their own thing, but for show barns it is pretty normal.
@Jan Jan I was just thinking about something like this! We have one rat that lives in our barn. Possibly it scared the snake away as I haven’t seen the snake lately. So I don’t have many droppings, I keep my feed in metal containers, etc, but every morning, I pull the shop vac out and do the hallways. This is an easier way! Thanks so much!
[quote="“SPRINGBORO,post:7,topic:449471”]
sounds so lovely! Show us pictures, please!!
@SPRINGBORO I did try to reduce the file sizes but was not terribly successful. However, I do have a little blog about the farm and it has pictures that show what things look like. You will see it is not a super fancy barn but we do try to keep it tidy!
https://hedgerow-farm.com/
^^This. The spotless beautiful thing is nice, but I would not ride if I spent that much time being spotless and cleaning tack. I do the basic chores, ride, and then tackle the rest of the stuff if there is time. The amount of time I spend riding seems to be directly correlated with how well I do at competitions. No brainer.
I love my shop vac - I guess it’s like the reverse blower - I vacuum the tack room and feed room and do the walls and up in the corners and along window sills etc. It’s also great for cobwebbing in some areas of the barn.
Closed storage is much better than open storage if dust is an issue. It’s much easier to dust off lockers or cabinet doors rather than having dust collect on stuff that is stored in open shelves.
Store unused stuff away somewhere - I have the tack I am not using in my house and regularly go through the barn and storage areas and get rid of stuff that just seems to be sitting. I have large rubber/plastic bins for stuff that I “might need” someday. DONATE stuff you have not used in years - saddle pads, halters, buckets, etc. There is a rescue somewhere that could really use that stuff.
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