Most offices these days have a canteen space and sometimes, even a kitchen. It ensures the employees do not have to go out for food and stay more productive. But maintaining this office kitchen can be extremely difficult working with so many people.
Crusty microwave, bread crumbs everywhere, the stale smell from the fridge- various issues happen. The worst part is these problems will permeate the main office space if not cleaned on a regular basis. Imagine holding a client meeting with a stale food smell hovering all over the place because the fridge has not been washed!
Here we have shared a guide to maintaining the office kitchen daily and what kind of professional cleaning services you should get to sort the issues.
Make a checklist to clean.
The first and foremost thing to do is make a checklist of all appliances, utensils, and food items in the kitchen. This will help you sort out and de-clutter the space. Here is a general list that professional cleaners can follow to clean the office kitchen. Prepare this and share it with the janitors before they start working-
Clean the plates and other utensils
Clean all the kitchen appliances
Kitchen floor and sink cleaning
Countertop cleaning
Decluttering the fridge
Discarding expired and stale food
Taking out the trash
Start with the sink
The first thing to clean should be the sink. The sink gets dirty daily with all the dirty plates put down in it. If you have an office dishwasher, put the dirty dishes in there and clear the sink first. Now use a regular cleaning liquid to rinse off all the gunk and stale food crumbs lying around in the sink. Unless the sink is cleaned, it cannot be used at all.
Clear the refrigerator
Next, start decluttering the refrigerator. Take out all the packaged as well as fresh food left in the fridge. Sort out the expired and stale foods from the fresh ones. Throw away anything that stinks and is stale. If there are food items like fish that are fresh, make sure it is kept in an air-tight closed container. Once you have sorted all the items, clean the fridge racks with dishwashing liquid. Keep the fridge open for a few hours and defrost it. Stock it up again only when the smell has dissipated.
Clean all kitchen appliances.
Now take all the kitchen appliances one at a time and do the basic cleaning. The rotating microwave dish will need the maximum cleaning. If it is cleaned thoroughly, any weird smell in the microwave is likely to go away. If you have a juicer or an instant coffee machine, those must be cleaned too. Often the instant machine gets clogged if the coffee powders or milk powder solidifies. You need to check these too.
Put up a bulletin on healthy habits.
Put up a bullet with a list of do’s and don’ts for the office kitchen. If the employees follow all of these, the kitchen can be maintained much better. Here are a few things you can mention in the bulletin:
Wash the dishes after eating.
Do not keep food with a pungent smell uncovered in the fridge.
Avoid heating anything with a strong smell in the microwave.
Throw wrappers and any waste in the dustbins, and do not scatter them around.
Schedule a professional clean-up.
The best solution would be to schedule professional commercial cleaning services at least once a month. This way, you can keep the situation in your kitchen under control. In the meantime, between two scheduled clean-ups, ensure you maintain essential clean-up habits in the office kitchen.
Now that you know the different ways to clean the office kitchen, you can ensure the space remain hygienic and fresh till the next scheduled professional cleaning service is done. Hygiene in the canteen and kitchen should be a priority to ensure the entire office remain sanitized and well maintained for a more extended period.
Contact Metrowest Cleaning Systems for top commercial cleaning services in town. Our services are based in Massachusetts, New Hampshire & Connecticut.