What are the most important factors when it comes to earning customer loyalty and support? Excellent service and great products are two qualities that every business strives for. But, for the retail, hospitality, and service industries, clean bathrooms might be just as important.
Having a dirty bathroom on your premises can set off major red flags for customers. Not only that, but a dirty bathroom can also pose health risks to your staff and customers. As businesses have picked up in recent years following widespread COVID-19 restrictions, public health has received a much greater focus. Maintaining clean, sanitary public restrooms is a major point of emphasis in this public health initiative.
But, for many businesses, keeping their bathrooms clean throughout the day can be challenging. This is especially true during high-volume operation hours. With customers going in and out of the restrooms, staff members struggle to keep up with their maintenance needs. But a clean restroom should always be prioritized, even when facing these challenges. Luckily, there are some tips you can use to make this task easier and more effective.
Follow this guide on how to clean a restroom to get the best results.
Clean Restrooms Are Good For Business
To begin, it helps to understand why cleaning the restroom is always important. As mentioned, dirty bathrooms both send a bad message to guests and also pose a health risk for everyone. These are not just empty statements. Studies support these claims, with one survey indicating that 95% of consumers would avoid a business in the future if its bathrooms were unclean.
The perceived link between bathroom cleanliness and business quality is particularly important for restaurants. Another survey revealed that up to 86% of adults equate bathroom cleanliness with kitchen cleanliness when dining out. Your kitchen staff may object to this correlation, but the facts cannot be denied. When customers perceive that your establishment doesn’t care about bathroom cleanliness, they are less likely to trust you. Dirty bathrooms are not just a health risk. They are also bad for business.
Dirty Spots in the Restroom that Need Extra Attention
The first thing to focus on when learning how to clean a bathroom is what to clean. The first things that come to mind when cleaning public restrooms are toilets and stalls. But this can make it easier to overlook other areas that require frequent disinfecting.
Without proper ventilation and sanitation practices, all sorts of bacteria and other germs will thrive on bathroom surfaces. When cleaning restrooms, a thorough, deep cleaning starts with covering all of these key areas.
Sinks and Faucets
Faucets are one of the most important spots to clean in a bathroom. Hand-operated sink faucets are one of the most frequently touched surfaces in the restroom. If left uncleaned, bacteria can spread easily in and around the sinks and faucets. It is important not just to clean your sink faucets, but the entire area in and surrounding your sinks.
Mirrors
Mirrors are not touched frequently, but bacteria can still linger on their surfaces. Airborne pathogens on mirrors are one of the most overlooked health hazards in public restrooms. On top of that, a dirty or streaky mirror will stand out to guests and reflects poorly on your business.
Restroom Walls
Similar to mirrors, we don’t often think about cleaning bathroom walls because most people don’t come in contact with them. But dirty bathroom walls can still be a problem, especially if there are visible marks on them. When cleaning bathroom walls, you should also disinfect other fixtures, such as light switches.
Restroom Floors
Commercial floor cleaning is important for every room in the building. But restroom floors are particularly important due to the increased risk of bacterial growth. Restroom floors are typically cleaned at the end of the night after the business has closed.
Door Handles
Everybody who goes in or out of a public restroom touches the door handles. Many people may adopt the trick of using paper towels to open the doors when exiting the bathroom. But this alone does not prevent the spread of bacteria on bathroom door handles. It is very important to regularly sanitize bathroom door handles throughout the day.
Soap Dispensers
Soap dispensers are very easy to overlook when cleaning bathrooms. After all, soap dispensers are there to provide sanitation, not spread bacteria. But most soap dispensers are manually operated, meaning they regularly come into contact with dirty hands. Daily cleaning is essential when it comes to bathroom soap dispensers.
4 Effective Ways to Start Cleaning Public Restrooms
Once it’s time to clean the bathroom, you should follow the proper steps to ensure everything is cleaned thoroughly. In addition to focusing on all of the areas mentioned above, you should also follow each of these cleaning steps.
Prepare The Appropriate Cleaning Materials
When doing a deep cleaning of your bathroom, the first step is to make sure you have everything you need.
For most public restrooms, you will need multiple cleaning solutions and tools. An all-purpose cleaning solution should be used first to remove tough stains and debris. Once that is wiped away, you should then apply disinfecting cleaning solutions to kill any lingering bacteria. Remember to let disinfectants sit on the surface for several minutes before wiping them away.
Other materials you might need include brushes, clothes, paper towels, and personal protective equipment like gloves or a face mask.
Start Cleaning From Top to Bottom
When cleaning a dirty bathroom, the most effective method is to work from the top down. Start with the walls, mirrors, and light switches. Then, move onto sinks and counters before eventually cleaning the floors. This simply makes it easier to avoid tracking debris or bacteria over areas you have already cleaned. Similarly, when mopping the floors, you should start from the corner furthest from the door.
Avoid Using Steel or Wire Brushes
The best equipment to use when scrubbing bathroom surfaces is damp cloths and soft-bristle brushes. Steel or wire brushes are too rough, which can damage tile grout and other surfaces. So while they may remove grime and tough stains, they are also chipping away at your bathroom itself over time.
Use the Correct Cleaning Solutions for Tiles and Toilets
One common challenge is knowing what to use to clean bathrooms. This is because you might need several different cleaning solutions for different parts of the bathroom. Toilets typically require specialized disinfecting cleaning products, for instance. Floor tiles, likewise, require a specialized floor cleaner, while sinks and counters need a powerful disinfectant. Make sure that every area of the restroom is cleaned appropriately, and that you do not inadvertently mix any hazardous cleaning chemicals.
The Average Cost of Restroom Cleaning in 2023
Deep cleaning a public restroom requires the full-time attention of a professional cleaner. Businesses typically have two options when it comes to bathroom cleaning services. They can either hire their own in-house cleaner, or they can use a professional cleaning service to clean their bathrooms.
Hiring in-house cleaners might ensure that a worker is always present. But this option can be more costly and less reliable than hiring a cleaning service. In-house cleaners might miss a day of work or deliver inconsistent results. Also, when you employ your own cleaner, they will be paid for longer hours, even if they are not working at all times.
Hiring a cleaning service, on the other hand, is a highly cost-effective method. This method guarantees two things:
- You are always guaranteed to have a professional cleaner on hand
- You are only paying for the time spent cleaning
Cleaning services are also highly affordable, though prices vary depending on the type of cleaning required. Restaurant and bathroom cleaning services typically range from about $20 to $40 an hour. However, the cost of restroom cleaning services can vary depending on a wide range of factors.
Why Hire Cleaning Professionals For Restrooms
Hiring professional cleaners for your restrooms is about more than savings alone. There are also several practical reasons why it makes sense for professionals to clean your bathrooms. Professional cleaners typically deliver excellent results in every area of the building, but especially in bathrooms.
Here are some of the best reasons why it makes sense to hire professional cleaning services for your restrooms.
Fully Equipped with Cleaning Supplies
As mentioned above, cleaning a public restroom requires a lot of unique equipment and cleaning supplies. If you attempt to clean your bathrooms yourself, you will need to gather and store all of these materials yourself. But professional cleaners are already equipped with these cleaning supplies, and they don’t need to be stored on your premises.
Knowledge and Expertise in Restroom Disinfection
Cleaning a bathroom is about more than just appearances. Bathrooms also need to be thoroughly disinfected during each daily cleaning. When you hire professional cleaners, they will always go beyond surface-level cleaning. Professional cleaners understand what is required to properly disinfect a bathroom.
Professional Deep Cleaning of Restrooms
Daily cleaning is a good habit to get into when it comes to your restrooms. But occasionally, a deep cleaning is needed to fully sanitize and restore a bathroom. This is not practical to do every day, nor is it easy to attempt on your own. Bathroom deep cleanings might involve things like removing stains, washing, and disinfecting stalls and removing calcium build-up from sinks. Once again, professional cleaners will have all of the knowledge and equipment required to perform these tasks with ease.
Ensure Safety and Prevent Health Risks in Public Restrooms
On average, bathrooms take up roughly 5% of the space of most commercial buildings. Despite this, bathrooms also account for about 80% of building complaints and hold roughly 20% of dirt and grime. All of this is to say that dirty bathrooms are a serious problem for any business. Not only is appearance important, but dirty bathrooms are also a public health risk.
Even a clean bathroom poses a small public health risk. Infectious bacteria and viruses can easily live for hours or days on various bathroom surfaces. In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, sanitation of public spaces has become a much greater public priority. Maintaining a clean public bathroom is a public health responsibility, as well as a practical business decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do professionals use to clean bathrooms?
Professional cleaners use several different products to clean bathrooms. These include soft-bristle brushes, damp cloths, all-purpose cleaners, bleach, disinfectants, and toilet bowl cleaners.
How many times a day, week, or month should I clean the bathroom?
Public restrooms should be cleaned and disinfected daily, if not more, for high-traffic areas. Private restrooms should be cleaned about once per week.
How to clean a bathroom sink?
Fill the sink a couple of inches with warm water and mix in a small amount of cleaning solution. Then, scrub the sink bowl and counters with a damp cloth and cleaning solution. Drain the sink and dry the counter before disinfecting.
How long does it take to clean a restroom?
Cleaning a public bathroom can take between 45 minutes to an hour, though exact times depend on the size of the bathroom.
Is Your Commercial Bathroom As Clean As It Should Be?
Hiring professional cleaners is an excellent option if you are worried that your public restroom isn’t getting enough cleaning attention. If this is the case, consider hiring Dallas Janitorial Services for your restroom cleaning services.
Dallas Janitorial’s staff has the expert knowledge to sanitize your bathroom, and they keep it looking nice as well. DJS is one of the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s most trusted commercial cleaning companies across several industries.
Want to learn more, or get a free quote for restroom cleaning services? Contact us today.
