How to Clean Rest Stop Restrooms

During the summer months, lots of friends and families to get together to go on road trips. As a result, rest stops receive a high volume of traffic during this time of year. Because travelers are only passing through your restrooms on the way to their ultimate destination, they have no investment in the enduring cleanliness of the facilities, which can get quite dirty throughout the day. Here are some tips on the best practices for cleaning rest stop restrooms.

Rest Stop Hazards

During this busy season, a constant stream of customers use your restrooms every hour, and they often have little regard for the conditions they create for the next visitor. In addition to the usual restroom hazards, there are some potentially dangerous conditions that are unique to rest stop restrooms. For instance, drivers passing through may bring trash from their car inside with them so they can throw it away in the receptacles you provide. This trash brings with it another opportunity for bacteria transfer, especially if your receptacles begin to fill up, which could cause the materials to spill over onto the floor.

Rest Stop Restrooms Cleaning Checklist

Your custodial team's first priority when cleaning your restrooms should be soil removal. As such, they should avoid using traditional cleaning tools, such as mops and rags, which have proven to be inadequate when it comes to effectively removing bacteria. In an effort to prevent cross-contamination, your team should follow these best practices for cleaning rest stop restrooms.

1. Sinks. Because visitors go to use restroom sinks when they have dirty hands, this area can be a breeding ground for bacteria. In an effort to prevent the spread of this bacteria, your custodians should clean the sinks with no-touch spray-and-vac devices.
2. Toilet areas. Your team can also use a spray-and-vac to clean the toilet area. Custodians should spray the cleaning solution on, above, and around the bowl, as well as on the floor and wall surrounding the toilet. Then they should vacuum the soils away.
3. Touch points. In high-traffic rest stop restrooms, there are various points that visitors touch on their way in and out of the facilities, including soap dispensers, paper towel holders, stall doors, and door knobs. Bacteria builds up on these touch points throughout the day, so it's important to make sure that your team has a system in place for cleaning each spot. Custodians should avoid reusing rags on different surfaces, as this could lead to dangerous cross-contamination. Instead, they should use disposable wipes or a numbered microfiber towel to clean these touch points.
4. Trash receptacles. Overflowing trash bags can introduce bacteria to the floor and sink areas. As such, it's important to make sure that your cleaning team enters your restrooms regularly to empty out your trash bins. Because many travelers will bring their own trash into your facilities, custodians will likely have to take out the trash more often than they would in other restroom settings.

Cleaning rest stop restrooms requires constant vigilance, so it is important that your team uses effective tools and techniques that will allow them to work quickly in tight spaces.

For more information on restroom cleaning, click here.