Wholesale Cleaning Supplies

Commercial Cleaning Supplies: What You Need to Know

Providing your employees with the right cleaning supplies ensures your business can operate in compliance with FDA guidelines and without fear of endangering your guests. When it comes to purchasing restaurant cleaning supplies, operators must consider their employees' health and safety, their guests' comfort and satisfaction, and the rules and guidelines laid out by the local health department for their back-of-house operations.

However, many commercial cleaning supplies are as crucial for achieving sanitation and cleanliness in offices and commercial businesses as they are in restaurants and bars. Keeping hand soaps in your restrooms and hand sanitizers stocked throughout your building can ensure hands are routinely sanitized to prevent the spread of bacteria. Dishwasher aprons and elbow-length gloves can protect your employees from hot water and chemicals, while shorter gloves can be used when cleaning restrooms. Depending on the type of floors in your business, you can pair broom and mop handles with different mop heads, dust mops, squeegees, and push brooms. Air fresheners keep your restrooms smelling clean, and durable trash bags and can liners expedite sanitary trash removal.

Common Questions About Cleaning Supplies

What commercial cleaning supplies improve employee safety and comfort?

Cleaning floors, equipment, and restrooms can be a laborious and potentially dangerous chore that often requires employees to work with hot, chemical-laden water. To make the process as efficient and comfortable as possible, we recommend keeping heavy-duty aprons and gloves on hand.

Made of vinyl or nylon, dishwashing aprons protect the user's torso and legs from soapy water, sanitizing chemicals, and other potentially hazardous materials. Although they're worn most often by employees tasked with washing dishes and other items manually, these aprons also can be used to protect employees' clothes during other messy tasks. To prevent cross contamination, aprons worn for cleaning tasks in the restroom and other areas of your facility shouldn't be worn when cleaning equipment and tools in the kitchen or other areas where food is prepped and handled.

Whether employees use cleaning gloves while scrubbing down floors or washing dishes, there are several styles to choose from. Most are made from neoprene or nitrile rubber, which are heat-resistant materials that can withstand temperatures as hot as 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Aside from their material and color, gloves vary in their overall length. Elbow-length gloves are usually worn for washing dishes and other tasks that require arms to be submerged in water, while shorter gloves provide enough coverage for other general cleaning tasks.

What cleaning supplies can improve customer satisfaction?

Customers and guests expect your restrooms to be clean and tidy. If your restrooms don't have an automatic hand dryer, a paper towel receptacle should meet this expectation. Simplify the process by using durable trash bags that won't rip and pairing your receptacle with a lightweight can liner that can be lifted, transported, and cleaned without strain.

In addition to verifying restrooms are cleaned frequently and maintained throughout the day, you should also invest in commercial cleaning supplies that prevent unpleasant odors. Dozens of air fresheners are available, from simple gel fragrances that work for 30 days to automatic, programmable devices that spray a refreshing fragrance at specific intervals.

Popular restaurant cleaning supplies include spray bottles that make it easy for front-of-house staff to spray down tables, menus, and seating between uses. These can be filled with your preferred cleaning and sanitizing solution and clearly labeled to prevent incorrect use. For daily cleaning procedures or large spills, plastic and metal buckets can be used to transport a cleaning solution to the location of the mess; some of these are marked for collecting broken glass, an inevitable task in any restaurant or bar that serves beverages in glassware.

Which cleaning supplies do I need for my floors?

Because so many types of industrial cleaning supplies are designed for floor maintenance, it's important to consider what kind of floor you'll be cleaning – carpet, hard surfaces, or tiled floors with grout – as well as the sizes of the rooms in your facility. This information can help you choose the most effective style and size for your needs.

Floor buffer pads are attached to floor machines, which are designed to clean large rooms efficiently. Push brooms are recommended for sweeping large rooms and can be as wide as 36 inches. The brooms themselves may be sold separately from the handles, so you can choose the best combination for your operation. Dust mops also can be used on hard floors to pick up dirt and small debris.

Handheld squeegees can be used to clean windows, but floor squeegees measuring as wide as 30 inches are also available to remove water from hard surfaces. Traditional mop heads remain a popular choice for mopping hard surfaces, though you should pair them with mop buckets and wringers to reduce your employees' labor while mopping. These are an especially important type of foodservice cleaning supplies to have on hand, since a visibly dirty dining room can ruin a good meal.