How to Keep Your Restaurant Clean Every Day: A Complete Checklist

When it comes to running your own restaurant, cleanliness is one thing that you should never put on the backburner.  If you do, you could get hit with a health violation, which will put you on the fast track to getting shut down regardless of how good your food is. 

This is why you should train every single one of your employees on the basics of cleaning and create a list of chores they must do before they leave each shift. This is the only way you’ll be able to keep your restaurant clean.

If you’re still having neatness issues after that, check out this guide to find out more about how to keep your food business tidy. 

1. Train Your Staff 

The secret to restaurant cleanliness starts with your employees. If you take the time to train your staff on the basics, then you shouldn’t run into any health violations. 

When you hire a new staff member, walk them through each area of the kitchen and tell them not only how to work the equipment but how to clean it as well. You can also invest in a dry erase board. Write down each thing that needs to be cleaned for the day on the board, so your employees know what needs to get done before they leave each day. 

Another thing your staff can take care of is their uniform. There can be different styles of chef pants, chef hats, and aprons to choose from. Having a clean and professional uniform is not only important for health reasons but also helps create a good impression on customers.

2. Cleaning During and After Each Shift  

You don’t have to do all the cleaning right at closing time. Make things easier on yourself by setting aside a few chores for employees to do before and after each of their shifts. Some of these chores should include wiping down the prep areas and cutting boards, washing the prep equipment such as blenders and slicers, brushing off the cooktops, emptying drip trays, taking out the trash, and wiping up any massive splatters on the floors or counters. 

You should also have someone do the dishes, so there’s always clean silverware available for customers. This company can help you out with getting stains out of stubborn glasses. 

3. End of Day Cleaning 

Some tasks can’t be done until after your restaurant closes for the day. Not only would it be fruitless to do these chores before closing, but they may disturb customers as well. 

These end of day cleaning tasks you should be doing are sweeping and vacuuming the floors, cleaning the washing stations, wiping down the floor mats, getting any splatters and spills off the walls, cleaning the beverage dispensers, washing the countertops, cleaning and shutting down the fryers and cooktops, and changing foil linings if your cookware uses them.  

4. Weekly Cleaning

Not all your cleaning tasks have to get done each day. There are some things in your kitchen that only need a scrub down once a week. Pour your cleaners down the sink drains and refill them with fresh, new cleaner. 

After that, you’ll boil out the deep fryers and check your metal faucets, sinks, and coffee makers for built-up limescale. Clean the outside of your refrigeration units and give the interior and exterior of your ovens and steamers a good scrubbing. 

5. Monthly Cleaning

Every month or so, you should give your restaurant a thorough deep cleaning. One important thing you should include is the condenser coils in your refrigerators. If too much grease buildup on these, it will stop the unit from working as it should. 

You should also clean the tubes, air filters, drain pans, and the interior of the refrigeration units while you’re at it. Empty all your grease traps and switch out any pest traps you have lying around. Last but not least, calibrate the thermostats on your ovens if they need it. 

6. Yearly Cleaning 

There are a couple of larger jobs that need to get done each year. Check your ice machines and dishwashers for limescale buildup. 

When winter weather starts to come around, you should have professionals come in to check out your plumbing and heating to ensure they work through the cold months. 

7. Other Little Things You Should Go Over   

There are some smaller cleaning areas that many don’t think about but need to get done for sanitation reasons. These include ice machine accessories, soda fountain dispensers, and menus.

Ice Accessories 

We mentioned above that limescale has its way of contaminating your ice machines. You have a little bit more to worry about then the ice maker itself, however. The accessories tend to get pretty gross over time. 

The primary problem child is the ice scoop. It comes into contact with your staff’s hands, so there is plenty of opportunity for cross-contamination. This being said, run it through the dishwasher at least once a day. 

Soda Fountain

The syrups used in sodas are pretty much sugar. It’s easy for the nozzles on your soda fountains to get sticky and gross fast. The good news is it’s not too hard to clean them off.

Once a day, remove the nozzles and diffusers from the fountain, give them a nice scrub down, and put them back. 

Menus 

Your menus come into contact with quite a few people each day, which means they also come into contact with germs. To avoid people getting sick, replace your paper menus often. 

You can also get your menus laminated, or if that’s too expensive, you can invest in menu covers.  

Keep Your Restaurant Clean and Avoid Violations

As a restaurant owner, one of the most important things to keep in mind is cleanliness. If you don’t keep your restaurant clean, not only will you push customers away from your business, but you could get hit with a health violation as well. Follow these cleaning tips to keep your food establishment from going under. 

While making sure your business stays tidy is an essential part of running your restaurant, it’s not the only part. Visit the restaurants section of our blog daily for more helpful tips like what you’ve read here.

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