Ways to Keep Your Office Kitchen Clean

Office kitchens are often notoriously messy. Between the smells from the garbage and the food on the cabinets or counters, office kitchens can be unpleasant places to store and eat food. The best way to ensure that your office kitchen is in good condition is to establish rules, create a culture of clean, and work with professionals.

Here's what you can do to make your office kitchen a pleasant place for everyone.

Clean Out the Fridge Once Per Week

Make a point of cleaning out the fridge once per week at the end of the week. Send an email to your office before the refrigeration cleaning happens to ensure that everyone in the office knows the cleaning will take place.

During the refrigerator cleaning, throw out everything except foods belonging to the business. This establishes the expectation that the refrigerator is not a place where food can be stored permanently.

If you allow food to sit in the refrigerator for more than one week, employees will grow to expect that they can leave their food in the refrigerator over a long period of time. This may further prompt them to leave food in the refrigerator for longer and longer periods, until food is in the refrigerator indefinitely.

If you don't like the idea of cleaning out the refrigerator and throwing away everything at the end of every week, go through the refrigerator once per week, and tag items with a note saying that the food will be thrown away in on week. On the following week, you may throw those items away if they are still in the refrigerator.

Doing this will give employees a chance to remove items from the fridge and will also allow you to clean out the refrigerator before items develop an odor.  

Establish Kitchen Use Rules

Office kitchens need rules, or people may use the kitchen in ways that are not conducive to keeping a clean room. For example, your office might establish a rule that no dishes can be left in the sink but cleaned and put away immediately. This will prevent the sink from being dirty and will always ensure that the sink is ready for use when someone needs it.

To ensure that everyone knows the rules of the kitchen, post the rules somewhere visible. Update the rules periodically. If someone breaks the rules, you may need to have a plan in place to address the problem.

Create a Culture of Clean

Encourage managers in your office to create a culture of clean. In other words, managers in your office should model good behaviors like cleaning their own dishes, following the kitchen rules, and cleaning the refrigerator periodically. Doing this allows your managers to set a good example and an expectation that the office should be clean at all times.

Work With a Cleaning Service

The best way to ensure that your office kitchen will be clean is to work with a reliable cleaning service. When establishing an agreement with a cleaning service, read the contract first to ensure that the contract includes the kitchen.

The cleaning service may decline to clean dishes or remove food products. If you expect your cleaning service to handle this type of cleaning, negotiate a contract that works for both parties.

Contact a Reputable Cleaning Service

If you're a business owner hoping to keep your kitchen office clean, talk to a professional cleaning service today. For more information about how you can keep your office kitchen clean, contact Janitorial Services Atlanta. We'll be happy to answer your questions and give you information about how you can keep your office clean and healthy for your employees.