Beyond the Box

Protecting your guests and building occupants’ health and safety is important. Cleaning is one of the most effective ways to lower the risk of illness by removing germs and contaminants from high-touch surfaces in your building.  But, what do we mean by cleaning? 

Keeping any area clean and free of illness-causing germs and bacteria is important for businesses of all types, but it is especially critical in foodservice operations and other businesses that serve food.  Businesses serving food must lower the risk of cross-contamination and foodborne illness to keep guests protected from sickness.  Cleaning and sanitizing are essential to keeping your foodservice operation safe.

Every 12 months or so your resilient hard floors will need to be restored with a strip and wax to revitalize your dull, worn flooring.  This is a two-part process. The first step is to strip or remove all layers of finish from your floor. Then, once you’ve stripped all the wax (finish) from your commercial hard floors, the next step is to refinish.  Refinishing can be a daunting task especially if you have little experience. You’ve likely heard of some things that can go wrong when applying floor finish from low initial gloss to leveling and streaking.  To help you avoid these and other challenges of applying floor finish, we put together the key steps for a successful refinish below. 

Due to changes in health and hygiene, restroom management has become a top priority for facilities across the U.S.  People are spending more time than ever in the restroom due to increased hand hygiene requirements and health guidelines. As a result, the rate at which supplies are used is different and can be challenging to predict.  Increased usage, paired with the demand for enhanced cleaning and disinfecting and higher occupant expectations and standards, has driven the accelerated adoption of the internet of things (IoT) and connected devices in commercial restrooms.

The use of third-party delivery services like UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub are at an all time high.  While third party delivery services were gaining popularity before the Coronavirus Pandemic, the outbreak created increased demand and sped up adoption.  Pre-pandemic, third party delivery services were growing rapidly given that people loved the convenience. What’s easier than ordering your favorite meal from your couch, then having it delivered right to your doorstep?

In the midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic, take-out, delivery, and home-meal replacement options have never been more popular. Take-out and delivery skyrocketed when dine-in and social distancing restrictions were put into place at the beginning of the pandemic. However, even now, as restrictions have since loosened, off-premise dining options remain in high demand. In some cases, consumers still don’t feel safe returning to indoor dining, but they desire their favorite meal. They may also want to support their favorite foodservice establishments without having to spend a lot of time inside, so to-go options make this possible. Similarly, cafeterias and dining halls are trying to shorten the length of time students or guests are spending inside and are offering grab-and-go to limit germ spread and the risk of an outbreak. As a result, to-go options have become the norm. In an earlier article, Microwave Safe Containers: A Business’ Guide [VIDEO], we discussed the importance of selecting the right disposable container for to-go meals so that you can ensure your guests have the same experience at home as they would at your establishment. If you’re serving oven-ready hot meals, or dishes you’ll need disposable containers that allow food to be prepared, stored, transported, and reheated via oven, all in the same container.

Hard floors are common in many commercial facilities, requiring weekly and in some cases daily maintenance. Mopping is an age-old floor cleaning technique and is still one of the most common methods to clean commercial hard floors. 

When the cord on your janitorial equipment doesn’t quite reach the outlet, commercial extension cords offer a way for you to work beyond the equipment’s standard power cord length.  Extension cords provide electric power to a device, or in this case, a piece of janitorial cleaning equipment when its own power cord does not reach an electrical outlet. Extension cords enable your janitorial staff to work beyond the machine’s typical reach for improved productivity.  Without extension cords, your staff would have to transfer your equipment’s cord to a new outlet more frequently, reducing productivity and increasing overall cleaning times. But if they are not used with the proper precautions, they can be extremely dangerous.

Do you have the most efficient vacuum for your commercial hard flooring? Hard floors require additional attention when vacuuming to ensure that all dust and dirt particles are removed without damaging the floor. 

Automatic floor scrubbers are one of the most popular pieces of janitorial cleaning equipment.  There are several different manufacturers and models of floor scrubbers available on the market today. Choosing the best one for your facility will likely come down to the available features on a machine that will make it the most productive and effective in your facility.   So, how do you choose the best automatic floor scrubber for your facility when there are so many choices?  We previously shared a list of the 6 best stand on and ride on floor scrubbers of 2022 based on available features and benefits to help you narrow down your options. One of the automatic scrubbers on that list was the Clarke Focus® II Micro Rider™.