Cleaning Mishaps? Tame RimWorld's Messy Floors

🧹 RimWorld Floor Cleaning Guide
Comprehensive Strategies for Keeping Your Colony Spotless (2025)
📋 Table of Contents
🏥 Why Clean Floors Matter in RimWorld
💡 Key Benefits of Clean Floors
🩺 Health Benefits
Reduces infection chances and food poisoning odds
😊 Mood Improvement
Clean environments boost colonist happiness
⚡ Work Efficiency
Clean labs increase research speed by up to 9%
Keeping your colony's floors clean isn't just about appearances – it has real gameplay effects on your colonists' health and happiness. Filthy environments can drastically reduce room quality and colonist mood, often giving negative thoughts if someone spends too long in a dirty area. More critically, room cleanliness directly influences infection chances, food poisoning odds, and certain work speeds. In fact, cleanliness is one of the four key factors that determine room impressiveness, making it essential for maintaining colonist happiness and meeting noble requirements.
⚙️ Vanilla Cleaning Strategies
👥 Work Priorities & Home Area Management
⚠️ Important: Colonists only clean areas marked as "Home" - trim your home zone!
🎯 Priority Setup
Set at least one colonist with Cleaning at priority 1
🏠 Home Zone Tips
Only include base and critical areas, not distant sites
🆕 New in 1.5
"Clean Room" command - right-click any room!
🧹 Dedicated Janitors & Schedules
On higher difficulties or larger colonies, dedicate a pawn solely to cleaning. Even colonists with poor skills can contribute effectively as cleaners. For comprehensive colony management strategies, including work priority optimization, check out our beginner's guide to RimWorld.
💡 Pro Tip: Slavery for Cleaning
With Ideology DLC, slaves can haul and clean regardless of work restrictions. While morally questionable, it's an effective vanilla solution for full-time cleaners.
Fast Pawns
Bionic legs, Jogger trait
Backup Cleaners
Researchers when not busy
Scheduled Bursts
Everyone cleans after raids
🏗️ Base Design & Zoning to Reduce Filth
🚪 Dirtlocks
Small entry rooms with cheap flooring to contain dirt at entrances
🛤️ Paved Walkways
Stone paths outside reduce dirt tracking indoors
🐕 Animal Zones
Keep animals out of clean areas - they're major filth sources
☔ Rain Cleaning
Unroofed areas get cleaned by rain automatically
💡 Pro Tip: Optimal Base Layout
For comprehensive base design strategies that minimize cleaning workload from the start, including traffic flow optimization and room placement, see our detailed optimal colony layout guide.
🔧 Choosing the Right Floors
🏆
Sterile Tile
The Gold Standard
Cleanliness: +0.6 (Excellent)
Cleaning Speed: 60% (Fast)
Cost: 3 Steel + 12 Silver
Best for hospitals, labs, and kitchens. Expensive but provides maximum cleanliness bonus and significantly boosts room impressiveness.
⚙️
Steel Tile
Budget Alternative
Cleanliness: +0.2 (Good)
Cleaning Speed: 60% (Fast)
Cost: 7 Steel
Excellent value. Close to sterile performance at fraction of the cost.
🌾
Straw Matting
Hidden Gem
Cleanliness: 0 (Neutral)
Filth Prevention: 95% Reduction!
Cost: Hay (Cheap)
Prevents dirt from accumulating in the first place. Great for high-traffic areas.
🏗️
Concrete
Basic Coverage
Cleanliness: 0 (Neutral)
Cleaning Speed: 80% (Slow)
Cost: 1 Steel
Cheapest option for covering large outdoor areas and preventing weeds.
🧪 Maintaining Sterile Environments
🏥 Hospitals & Medical Rooms
Critical: Dirt in hospitals can literally cost lives! Clean = 30% infection chance, Dirty = 50%+
Best practices:
• Use sterile tile if possible
• Limit traffic - doctors and patients only
• Clean before every surgery
• Clean immediately after battles
• For advanced hospital optimization tips, see our medical care guide
🍳 Kitchens & Food Prep
Food Safety: Dirty kitchens cause food poisoning outbreaks!
Essential tips:
• Separate butchery from cooking
• Use steel tile or straw matting
• Clean before cooking sessions
• Keep animals out of kitchen
• For detailed kitchen setup and butchery room design, check our butcher table optimization guide
🔬 Laboratories & Research
Efficiency Boost: Clean labs increase research speed by up to 9%
Optimization:
• Sterile tile for end-game research
• Low traffic, occasional cleaning
• Combines well with hospital rooms
• Affects biosculpter pod speed
• Clean labs boost room impressiveness for better mood effects
🤖 Modded Enhancements for Cleaning
🤖 Cleaning Robots and Automation
🛸 Biotech Cleansweeper
Official DLC mechanoid that cleans 24/7. Slower than humans but never needs rest.
Downside: Produces toxic wastepacks
🔧 Misc. Robots
Popular mod adding craftable cleaning bots. Works like "Roombas" for your base.
Benefit: No mechanitor required
⚙️ Android Tiers
Create android colonists dedicated to cleaning and hauling tasks.
Complexity: Large mod with many features
🧠 Smarter Pawn AI
⭐ Common Sense (Must-Have Mod)
Makes pawns automatically clean before critical tasks:
• Doctors clean hospitals before surgery
• Cooks clean kitchens before cooking
• Crafters clean workshops when dirty
🎯 Cleaning Priority
Set priority zones - hospital first, then kitchen, then rest
📦 Pick Up and Haul
Fewer trips = less dirt tracked around base. See our hauling optimization guide for more efficiency tips
🛡️ Filth Reduction & Prevention
🚪 Doormats
Place at entrances to catch dirt before it spreads inside
Popular QoL mod - almost essential!
🗑️ Trash Cans (VFE)
Slowly clean rooms automatically and store waste
Part of Vanilla Furniture Expanded
☔ Filth Vanishes
Outdoor filth washes away with rain or degrades over time
Realistic and helpful for exteriors
🐕 No Animal Filth
Reduces or eliminates filth from animals
Balance consideration - can make game easier
⚖️ Vanilla vs. Modded Approaches
🎮 Vanilla Approach
✅ Pros:
• No additional downloads needed
• Maintains intended challenge
• Free resource-wise (just time)
• Emergent storytelling potential
❌ Cons:
• Time-intensive micromanagement
• Requires dedicated colonist labor
• Can become overwhelming in large bases
• Constant vigilance required
Best For:
Small-medium colonies, purists, challenge seekers
🔧 Modded Approach
✅ Pros:
• Massive time savings
• Frees colonists for other tasks
• Scales well to huge bases
• Quality of life improvements
❌ Cons:
• Resource costs for automation
• Can trivialize cleaning challenge
• Potential compatibility issues
• Less emergent drama
Best For:
Large colonies, QoL focused, automation lovers
🎯 Recommended: Hybrid Approach
Start vanilla in early game → Gradually add QoL mods like Common Sense → Introduce automation as base grows
🎯 Final Tips and Summary
🏗️ Think Proactively
Design your base to minimize filth creation from the start. See our colony layout guide for comprehensive planning tips
🏥 Prioritize Critical Rooms
Hospital first, kitchen second, everything else can wait
⚙️ Scale Your Solution
Manual → Dedicated cleaner → Mods/automation as needed
🔧 Use the Right Tools
Sterile tile for hospitals, straw for high-traffic, concrete for outdoors
A clean colony is a thriving colony! 🧹✨
📚 Related Guides
🏠 Base Design & Layout
Master colony layout design with traffic flow optimization and room placement strategies
→ Read Colony Layout Guide
✨ Room Impressiveness
Understand how cleanliness affects room impressiveness and colonist mood
→ Read Impressiveness Guide
🍖 Kitchen & Butchery
Optimize food preparation areas and separate butchery from cooking for food safety
→ Read Butcher Table Guide
🏥 Medical Care
Advanced hospital setup and medical room optimization for better patient outcomes
→ Read Medical Guide
📦 Hauling Efficiency
Reduce dirt tracking with better hauling strategies and carrying capacity optimization
→ Read Hauling Guide
🎮 Beginner Tips
Essential colony management fundamentals for new RimWorld players
→ Read Beginner Guide
📅 Updated for RimWorld 1.5 (2025) | 🎮 Compatible with Biotech, Ideology, and popular mods
Happy cleaning, colony manager! May your floors stay spotless and your colonists healthy. 🚀