Most restaurants hand the overnight clean to a vendor with a one-line scope: kitchen, dining room, restrooms. Then the arguments start, because nobody wrote down what “clean” means. One manager expects the fryer line pulled out every night; the crew thinks a mop pass counts.
Below is the checklist our crews run every night, area by area, and why each line is on it. Use it to check what you’re getting now, or as the starting point for your own.
Kitchen and prep
- Sweep, mop and degrease the floors with a deck brush. A mop spreads grease around. A deck brush and degreaser lift it out of the grout and the floor texture, which is what keeps a kitchen floor from turning slick.
- Pull out wheeled equipment and clean under and behind it. The floor under the line is where grease and food collect out of sight. It’s also where an inspector’s flashlight goes.
- Clean and sanitize the drains. Floor drains are where the smell in a kitchen starts.
- Degrease and polish firewalls and stainless. Grease film builds on vertical surfaces near the line every service.
- Clean the baseboards six inches up. Splash and mop water leave a line along the bottom of every wall.
One rule sits over all of it: no hosing near electrics. Around fryers, ovens and walk-ins, our crews use methods that keep water off the equipment. A clean kitchen that won’t start in the morning is not a clean kitchen.
Dining and banquet
- Sweep, vacuum and damp-mop tile and wood. Damp, not wet, so the floor is dry well before the opening shift.
- Move all the furniture and clean under and behind it. That includes pulling mobile booths out from the wall.
- Wipe table legs, bases and baseboards. Guests see them at eye level once they sit down.
- Put the tables and chairs back for open. The opening shift should be setting the room, not rearranging it.
Restrooms
- Floors swept, mopped and sanitized.
- Toilets, urinals, sinks and counters sanitized.
- Doors, handles, kick plates and push plates polished. These are the surfaces every guest touches.
- Walls and partitions cleaned and sanitized.
- Paper and soap restocked. An empty dispenser at lunch undoes the rest of the clean.
Guests never see your kitchen, but they all see the restroom, and plenty judge the kitchen by it.
Bar and close-out
- Wash, degrease and squeegee the bar floor. Squeegeed, so nothing is left sticky or standing.
- Clean the foot rail and take off the kick marks.
- Wash, degrease and rinse the mats. A clean floor under a dirty mat is dirty again by the first shift.
- Clean and arrange the janitor closet.
- Lights off, doors locked, alarm set, exactly the way you asked.
Every night, and once a month
Every light switch and door knob is dusted and disinfected every night. High dusting and the AC vents are done monthly, so dust doesn’t build up out of sight and then drop onto clean tables.
How you know it got done
A checklist only matters if someone checks it. These are the rules our crews work to on every account:
- A named supervisor. One person you can reach by name, who answers for your nights.
- Photo check-out every shift. Before the crew leaves, the finished work is photographed and logged in Connecteam.
- Our equipment, our supplies. Crews bring and use only Klene Supreme equipment and chemicals. Yours stay on your shelves.
- Equipment-safe methods. No hosing near electrics, and no water on the fryers, ovens or walk-ins.
- Fixed within 24 hours. Tell us something was missed and it’s put right within 24 hours.
Four questions for any cleaning vendor
- Can you show me, in writing, what a normal night covers at my restaurant?
- Do you pull the equipment out every night, or only on a deep clean?
- Can I see photos of last night’s work?
- When something is missed, who do I call, and how fast is it fixed?
If the answers are vague, the cleaning will be too.
This is the checklist behind our overnight restaurant cleaning, from Orlando and West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.