The buzz of Saturday night has finally ended, and you have a pub that looks like a stampede ran through it. The next thing on your mind as you look around is: where do I start?
This list will teach you how to properly clean your pub, so you don’t have sticky tables and grimy glasses.
Buy the right equipment.
If you don’t have the right equipment, you won’t get anywhere. You may even wind up doing more damage. You will need the following things to clean your pub properly:
- A steam cleaner.
It may seem like a hefty purchase, but you’ll be far better off splashing out for a good steam cleaner than entirely new carpets every few months because they look dirty.
Steam cleaners work similarly to vacuum cleaners, except the steam works its way into the carpet and extracts the dirt hiding in between the fibres.
- BS EN1276 or EN13697 Sanitizer.
If your tables are varnished, then you need to be very careful about what sanitizers you choose to use because if you aren’t, you’ll make your tables more sticky. This is because the chemicals in the cleaner and the chemicals in the table varnish react when combined and leave a sticky surface residue.
You need to use neutral, high-quality cleaning products with these European Standard certificates to ensure that your customers aren’t drinking at a sticky table.
- Paper towels, not rags and cloths.
Instead, use paper towels. Sheets of paper towels are far easier to use than material cloths, as they absorb moisture better and can easily be thrown away and replaced.
They also hold on to far fewer bacteria than cloths do. So by cleaning with them, you’re creating a cleaner environment.
- A vacuum.
A vacuum will be your best friend. Crumbs from crisps and pork scratchings will litter the floor, and the easiest way to deal with them is to purchase a good quality vacuum.
If you choose to buy a cheaper vacuum, you will find that it leaves crumbs behind in the carpet, and your steam cleaner will simply make them mushy and adhere them to the carpet fibres.
- Nitrile gloves.
Nitrile gloves will act as a fantastic barrier between the bacteria on your hands and the table. Nitrile gloves are both affordable and extremely high quality, so you won’t need to worry about chemicals weakening your gloves or susceptibility to punctures that could expose the area you’re cleaning to the bacteria on your hands.
Other kinds of gloves don’t offer all the protection of Nitrile gloves, so these are the best gloves to buy.
- A good and fast dishwasher.
You’ve got enough to do without needing to worry about spending time by the sink washing unspeakable numbers of glasses.
Investing in a good dishwasher will save you a lot of time and hassle and have your glasses looking far cleaner than they would if you had washed them yourself. Dishwashers run at a temperature of approximately 51-60°C, a temperature too hot for your hands to touch. This temperature will far more effectively pull the stickiness from your glasses and have them all looking sparkly and new in no time.
Know how to use your equipment.
It may sound silly because how hard can it be to vacuum a carpet? There are ways to complete your tasks more effectively that you may not have thought about or maybe can’t be bothered to do when you want to go home after a long night.
But it is important when cleaning to know how to do it properly and to follow instructions carefully to ensure that you’re not just wasting your time.
- How to properly vacuum.
Vacuuming is an annoying job, but it must be done, and you can’t rush it. The best way to vacuum is to do it slowly to ensure that you’re pulling as much dirt out of the carpet as possible. If you do this quickly, the dirt will not have time to loosen from the fibres.
However, before you even start vacuuming, you should be sure to check the filters and the recovery bag. If the recovery bag is over halfway full, a vacuum can become up to 80% less effective.
- How to correctly use a steam cleaner.
Steam cleaners can be tricky because if you don’t use them properly, you could end up with a carpet that smells of wet dog, which definitely won’t draw customers.
When using your steam cleaner, you should be progressing slowly across your carpet to effectively draw the dirt out. But you can’t step over the section you’ve just cleaned, or the dirt from your shoes will soak back into the carpet.
After you’ve cleaned your carpet, you must provide it with at least 6 hours to dry, as this is when most parts of your carpet will be suitable to walk on.
Once your carpet is completely dry, you can vacuum. As with walking on it, if you vacuum it before it is completely dry, then you risk transferring the dirt from the vacuum to the floor, rendering your deep cleaning completely useless.
Finally, ensure that you only do this every 3-6 months because you might risk permanently damaging your carpet, as the process can be harsh on it.
- Use paper towels.
Pathogens don’t cling to paper towels as to cloths and rags. Combined with sanitizer, paper towels are the most hygienic way to clean your surfaces.
- Research your dishwasher.
Don’t assume that you can throw all your glasses into your dishwasher and it will work as intended. There are things that you can do to make your dishwashers more efficient.
If you fill your dishwasher but don’t overcrowd it, then you have a better chance of the water being able to clean each of your glasses well. Rather than struggling to get around all of the glasses at once.
Make sure you’re using the right amount of detergent, else it’ll leave residue and your glasses will look cloudy and unwashed.
We hope that you learned something from this article and will apply it in your pub.