How To Clean Public Restrooms – Washroom Checklist

Are you searching online for how to clean public restrooms? Here is a well-detailed guide that explains everything you need to know about it.

In this article, we will walk you through every step involved in cleaning and making a public bathroom a very comfortable place for guests.

Keep reading!

How To Clean A Public Restroom

A dirty public restroom can easily dent the image of a facility. Nobody ever enjoys coming across such.

Clogged toilets, offensive smell, dirty walls, water leaks, dirty floors, and lack of toilet paper, are all some of the things that can easily turn anyone away from any public bathroom.

How Often Should A Public Restroom Be Cleaned?

A dirty public restroom can quickly turn into a breeding ground for all kinds of germs, leading to a spread of different diseases. The number of harmful bacteria and viruses that can be gotten from there is a major reason to take cleanliness very seriously.

“But how often should a public restroom be cleaned?” You asked.

Well, the answer to that depends on foot traffic. By foot traffic here, I mean the number of persons that use the public restroom per day.

In a small facility where there are not many people, cleaning the public restroom at least once a day would be fine.

However, in a place where there are so many people (like a factory or a large gathering), public restrooms may need to be cleaned more frequently than that. So, it all depends on the daily foot traffic.

On a general level, public restrooms need to be cleaned between once and ten times per day. That way, they can be constantly neat and free of bad odors, with vital items like toilet tissue, paper towels, and soap restocked.

Why Cleaning Your Public Restroom More Often Must Become A Priority

There are so many reasons you must make every effort to ensure that public restrooms in your facility are kept clean constantly.

The following are just some of them:


  • Loss Of Customers

For businesses with public restrooms, you stand the chance of losing your customers regularly if they keep finding your bathrooms dirty every time they want to use them. Especially businesses in the hospitality industry.


  • Low Income

Every good businessman understands that happy customers mean more income for the business whereas unhappy customers mean the opposite.

Once you start losing customers as a result of the poor hygiene of your public restrooms, you start losing real money.


  • Health And Safety

Like we earlier mentioned, a dirty public bathroom can easily become a breeding ground for germs.

This puts the health of everyone (staff and customers) at risk. The only way this can be avoided is by making the cleaning of the public restroom a priority.


  • Fines And Legal Actions

If the government agencies in charge of health and sanitation in your state discover the public bathroom in your facility is constantly dirty, you stand the chance of being fined after several warnings.

It can also lead to legal action against you, which puts you at the risk of losing your business.

Cleaning A Public Restroom: A Step By Step Guide

To properly clean and sanitize a public restroom, the following are all the steps you need to take.


  • Place “Wet Floor” Signs Outside The Restroom

This will warn people trying to enter the restroom to prevent a fall. The warning signs here should be placed in a position where people can easily see them. Do not ignore doing it to avoid casualties.


  • Use Personal Protection Equipment

Gloves, splash googles, and other personal protection equipment must be worn before the cleaning can begin. This will help prevent contact with both germs and harmful chemicals.

Cleaning a public restroom without using any of this personal protection equipment is never a wise decision.


  • Apply Disinfectants Or Sanitizers

This is always the first thing to do once you have entered the restroom. Applying the disinfectant/sanitizer first before the main cleaning will give it enough time to work.

High-touch surfaces like the faucets, handles, sinks, toilets, and urinals must be well applied.


  • Vacuum/Sweep The Floors

This will help remove small and large debris from the floor surface. While doing that, give attention to the corners of the room and along the walls. It’s easy to miss those places when sweeping and yet the amount of dirt that usually buildup in such there is much.


  • Restock Supplies

Restock toilet paper, paper towels, hand soaps, hand sanitizers, sanitary napkin bags, and other important supplies needed in the public restroom.


  • Clean The Toilets And Other Surfaces

Now is time to finish cleaning the toilet and other surfaces you applied the disinfectant on.

To do this, ensure you use a solution of detergent and disinfectant. Do not rush this.

While cleaning, give special attention to the stains and hard water buildup in the toilets. Also do the same for the urinals, sinks, toilet seats, and high-touch surfaces in the public restroom.

These are places germs often find very comfortable to live on.


  • Wash The Walls And Mop The Floor

Starting with the walls, wash them clean using a solution of disinfectant and detergent and a microfiber rag or a soft brush.

You can wash from top to bottom or from bottom to top. But when it comes to rinsing, remember that it must be from top to bottom. Regularly washing the walls of the public restroom will help prevent it from being stained, dirty, and becoming an eyesore.

Once you are done washing the walls, you can start mopping the floor. To mop the floor of the public restroom, begin from the part of the room farthest from the entrance/exit. Also, pay attention to the corners of the room.

After you have finished the first mopping, you can repeat the process using clean water to rinse it. Once you are done with that, ensure that the floor is well dry before removing the “wet floor” warning signs.

Dispose of the trash once you are done with all of that to complete the cleaning.


  • Inspect The Cleaning

After you have finished cleaning everything you need to clean in the restroom and restocked the supplies, inspect your work. See if everything is the way you want.

If everything is perfect then your cleaning is complete.

Maintaining A Clean Public Restroom

Having a consistently clean public restroom should be the goal of every person that owns or manages a facility where there is one. It will not only improve the reputation of your facility, but it will also improve the overall health of your staff and customers.

To achieve this, the following things are to be done:


  1. Use Smart Solutions In The Public Restrooms

With the increase in technology daily, it is now easier to get some things done in the bathroom automatically, with much human input.

Installing smart solutions in your public bathroom will help you keep it constantly clean, even without your staff and customers’ input.

For instance, a sensor that detects when a person is done using the urinary and flushes it automatically. A smart solution that notifies you of when the bathroom needs to be cleaned and so on.

With these automated solutions, your public restroom will start adding credibility to your facility’s reputation instead of destroying it.


  1. Always Use The Right Cleaning Products

Make it mandatory to always use the right cleaners, disinfectants/sanitizers, and other cleaning products when cleaning a public restroom.

The staff responsible for cleaning the public restroom must be provided with every material or supply to effectively clean the place.

Everything. From detergents to bleach, hand wash soaps, sanitizers and disinfectant, and so on.


  1. Use A Cleaning Log

This helps to monitor when last the public restroom was cleaned, who cleaned it and whose turn it is to clean it next.

With this, you can also be aware of issues the housekeeping staff observed in the restroom while cleaning it.

For instance, supplies that need to be restocked, devices that need to be repaired, water leaks, clogging of the shower drain, french drain, and many others.

That will help you deal with the issue on time before they become a very big problem that will gulp a lot of resources to handle.


  1. Ensure That All Housekeeping Staff Are Well Trained

Without knowing what to clean and the best way to do it, the housekeeping staff may end up not doing a good job in maintaining cleanliness in the public restroom.

All employees that are responsible for cleaning the public restroom must be made to pass through some form of training. That way, you will have the public restroom constantly.

In Summary

Public restrooms need to be regularly cleaned to be safe and comfortable for use. Failing to do keep it clean can result in a lot of things. From health issues for both customers and staff to loss of customers, loss of a facility’s reputation, and even money.

Are you searching for how to clean a public restroom effectively?

I hope you find the information here useful.

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