The Christmas Clean Up: Returning to Normal

We all love Christmas, the festive time of the year warms the souls of all, even those who profess to follow the mantra of “bah humbug”. But aside from the seasonal magic and family embrace, one of the main aspects of Christmas is the number of parties which we all attend during the festive period.

We have now passed by most businesses Christmas parties, but the hospitality industry still has to contend with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve and Day. This period for restaurants can be one of the busiest in their calendar and due to the high volume of meal prep and scheduling, deep cleans of establishments can fall down the list of immediate priorities.

As such if you are planning on performing a post-Christmas deep clean for your restaurant, pub or bar then we’d recommend the following procedures and strategies to ensure you tackle every aspect and start the new year with a fresh, clean venue.

Reception Rooms

If your venue makes use of reception rooms there will be no doubt that they will have been used heavily over the last month, as such you may find that festive inebriation has taken a toll on your floors leaving them sticky and potentially stained.

If you have hard floors which is commonplace across the UK, then there is a variety of cleaners available to you currently on the market. Most come in the form of a concentrated formula which is designed to easily remove stains and dirt without leaving the floor tacky to the touch. A great option is Flash Professional Multi Surface & Floor Cleaner on account of it also being great on a variety of surfaces alongside floors. For a greener option you could choose either ChemEco’s Bio Cleaner or Evans Vanodine’s GreenTick Heavy Duty Floor Cleaner and Degreaser.

Once you have cleaned your hard floors you may want to polish the area to return it to its pre-Christmas glory. Whichever floor maintainer / polish you advocate we’d recommend following the instructions as some require more coats than others whilst some formulas may have very specific guidelines to prevent cleaning lines forming.

If you have carpets these can sometimes require a bit more physical effort but there is still a huge range of products available. We would however always recommend reading the labels and instructions of any carpet cleaner / shampoo you are looking to use as incorrect application can be costly. A recommendation we’d suggest would be using Enhance’s Extraction Cleaner / Shampoo due to its built-in anti-foam properties whilst also being endorsed on wool carpets by Woolmark.

Washrooms

Following on from reception rooms another high traffic area are the washrooms. All venues which serve food should already have a well-structured cleaning schedule but after an extended period of trade a deep clean should be conducted. The obvious place to start would be to wipe down all surfaces with disinfectant, for smaller areas a ready-to-use formula is fine but for larger washrooms it may be cheaper to purchase a concentrate option. Flash’s 2D Spray with Bleach is a fantastic RTU cleaner which effectively cuts through visible grim and kills present bacteria.

Once surfaces have been given a thorough clean you can now look to employ specific clean-type options. Firstly, we’d start with toilet cleaners.

Toilet cleaners are typically stronger than standard cleaning solutions as they are designed to deal with a greater build-up of bacteria. When cleaning your toilet bowl always ensure you clean under the rim as this can be a haven for dirt due to it being typically missed by the water when flushed and not necessarily always reached during standard cleaning. Toilet Duck’s professional toilet disinfectant gel is a powerful cleaner which effectively kills germs.

For areas where there may be a build-up of either limescale or mould you may require cleaners which are formulated expressly for removing and preventing build up in future. Equally, for urinals you may want to replace your screens or blocks to reinvigorate the smell within the washroom.

One final note which we’d always recommend is having access to an odour neutraliser to help keep unpleasant smells at bay. You can buy concentrate options but generally a RTU spray is normally all you need.

Front of House & Dining Area

Front of house areas typically require a level of visual cleanliness above other areas. This is because your dining area and front of house is your customers first impression of your venue, so you want to make sure what they see is spotless and hygienic. The first cleaning task we’d suggest is cleaning the floor in the same manner previously discussed. Following this, employ a multi-purpose cleaner on all surfaces to ensure a level of cleanliness is achieved across the whole area. Once this has been done, we’d suggest then going over high traffic areas with a disinfectant spray for additional bacterial removal.

For panes of glass and windows you will need a glass cleaner and a microfibre cloth. Spray your windows and allow the glass cleaner to settle for 30 seconds to a minute before removing with the cloth. A microfibre cloth is always recommended as their softness ensures you won’t scratch the areas being cleaned and they prevent static cling on dust particles whilst cleaning.

Finally, for furniture and exposed wood we’d suggest applying some furniture / wood polish to make these areas pop with a subtle shine. This may be a laborious task but the pay off is always worth it as it can make tired areas of your restaurant or bar look brand new.

Kitchen

Finally, we come to what is possibly the most important cleaning task, the kitchen. Now obviously kitchens should be cleaned regularly, and we would always recommend kitchen staff employ a little and often approach to keeping their kitchens clean but after Christmas and New Year period a deep clean will likely be needed.

Understandably an entire kitchen can be intimidating so we’d suggest breaking it down into sections so you can create a checklist of task which need to be completed:

• Oven & Hob – Ovens and hobs can bare the brunt of busy periods due to their heavy usage. As such stubborn dirt can develop in the form of FOG (read here for more information), so you will need strong cleaners designed for removing such stains. We would also suggest using either a steel wool scourer or at least one with an abrasive side. A great product would be Cifs professional cream cleaner or Astonish’s oven and grill cleaner.
• Deep Fat Fryer – All chefs know how much of a messy job emptying and cleaning the deep fat fryer can be. Once emptied scrape any residual oil or debris off the sides and bottom. Once this has been completed, we’d suggest using a heavy-duty food safe cleaner to remove the remaining debris and germs.
• Extractor Hoods – A sometimes overlooked area is the extractor hoods and the filters which inhabit them. Remove the filters and ensure they are cleaned whilst also cleaning out any dirt which has accumulated in the ventilation system.
• Fridge / Freezer – Where your refrigerators are concerned you should aim to empty its contents and clean every surface inside to ensure there is no food debris left. Regarding freezers it is best practice to defrost a freezer at least once a year so following the New Years Day can be a great opportunity to defrost, clean and ensure it is in full working order.
• Food Storage Areas – From cabinets to hot boxes any area where food has been stored over the past month should be emptied and cleaned thoroughly with a food safe disinfectant / surface cleaner.
• Meal Prep Areas – Naturally, any meal prep area is normally cleaned after every shift but whilst performing a deep clean look to go over the area a couple of times with a disinfectant to be sure there is no residue or food debris left.
• Floor – Again like in other areas, floors can be overlooked sometimes but your kitchen floor can be subject to food droppage which will need to be removed. Check under all worktops, appliances and covered areas for any food which may have found its way underneath and remove it. After this you will need dilute either a floor cleaner or bleach and use a mop and bucket to clean the area.
• Sink & Drains – The final area which requires cleaning is the sink and drains. Stainless steel drinks are easy enough to clean using the techniques we have already specified, once you have cleaned the sink pour industrial drain cleaner down the plug hole and allow it to remove any stubborn FOG which has built up in the plumbing.

If you follow the above cleaning strategies, you can use the period after the festive season to effectively and efficiently clean your hospitality venue ready for the new year. When looking for cleaning equipment and chemicals Alliance Online has a huge and all-encompassing range which has been built up over our 23 years of operating. Our product selection has been assembled thanks to our experience in the industry and having excellent working relationships with a variety of industry leading manufacturers.

For more information on The Christmas Clean Up: Returning to Normal talk to Alliance Online Catering Equipment