How Often Should You Clean Your Restroom?

A clean restroom can be the difference between positive customer perceptions and a horrible experience that loses you business. It also impacts employee morale, safety, hygiene, and, in some cases, could expose you to health code violations.

It’s clear you need to make time for regular restroom cleaning, but just how often should you clean your restroom? After all, this falls outside of core business activities and is going to cut into productivity. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for the proper restroom cleaning frequency. It comes down to the amount of traffic your restroom gets and who is using it. 

The ideal schedule for a corporate office might be different from a high school, a gas station, a fitness center, but all of these applications need to strike a balance between efficiency and thoroughness. 

That’s why investing in a restroom cleaning machine is one of the best decisions you can make.  SweepScrub has the equipment to help you clean your commercial restroom facilities in a third of the time it would normally take, all while eliminating manual touch points. 

Learn more about what makes it the #1 choice for commercial restroom cleaning today!

The Importance of Regular Restroom Cleaning

Restrooms may not be the face of your business, but they certainly shape how people remember it. A clean, well-stocked restroom sends the message that you care about the details - and, more importantly, your customers and employees.

Whether you're running a retail shop, restaurant, gym, or office building, this isn’t something you can afford to overlook or put on the back burner. Because it’s not just about appearances.  

High-touch surfaces in these shared spaces can harbor bacteria, viruses, and unpleasant odors if not cleaned properly and consistently. Regulatory compliance could be a concern, as a failed inspection may lead to fines or worse. 

The problem is, restroom cleaning takes time - especially if you’re trying to do it right. Keeping your space inviting and sanitary is just one of many tasks you’re juggling, so coming up with a clear cleaning plan is so important. It saves time, stress, and guesswork.

That said, how often should you clean your restroom?

How Often Should You Clean Your Restroom?

Like we said from the start, only you can set the cleaning frequency for your restroom based on how often it gets used, how dirty it gets, and your own standards for cleanliness and hygiene. Let’s look at some of the factors to consider to come up with the ideal schedule.

Factors Influencing the Optimal Restroom Cleaning Frequency

A small office with a handful of employees has very different needs than a busy gym, airport, or restaurant. These are the things you should think about when it comes to restroom cleaning frequency: 

• Foot traffic: The more people using your restrooms daily, the faster things get dirty. High-traffic areas usually need cleaning multiple times a day.
• Type of business: Facilities like healthcare clinics, food service establishments, and schools are held to higher cleanliness standards than a gas station would be, so they tend to require more frequent cleanings.
• Time of day: Restrooms in retail or public-facing businesses might need scheduled cleanings before, during, and after peak hours to maintain a clean impression.
• Customer expectations: In industries where image matters - like hospitality or upscale retail - even slightly messy restrooms can leave a negative impression and cost you business, or worse, harm your reputation. 

So, how often should you clean your restroom? Once per day might be more than enough for low-traffic restrooms like in a small office. Cleaning twice a day might be necessary for higher-traffic settings, though, like a gym, airport, arena, etc.

Some businesses do light touch-ups daily and a more thorough deep cleaning every couple days or once a week. The best way to figure out your restroom cleaning frequency is to look for the signs your restroom is getting dirty and plan accordingly. 

How Do You Know if You’re Cleaning Often Enough?

There will be signs if your restroom is not getting cleaned enough. Though there may be some trial and error while you try to find the point where you’re cleaning enough without overcleaning, these are the things you should watch out for:

• Customer complaints about dirty or smelly restrooms
• Overflowing trash or empty supplies mid-day
• Visible buildup on fixtures or floors
• Lingering odors despite recent cleaning

It’s time to reassess your cleaning schedule if any of these happen regularly. A restroom log or inspection sheet can help keep track and identify gaps. 

Our advice is always to err on the side of caution and clean more frequently than you think you need to. Because staying proactive not only keeps things cleaner - it protects your reputation and saves you time and stress in the long run.

What Should Be Cleaned (and How Thoroughly)?

The best way to streamline your process is following our intuitive commercial restroom cleaning checklist. It’ll eliminate guesswork and help you narrow your focus to the most important tasks. Here are some tips on what should be cleaned, when it should be cleaned, and how thoroughly you need to clean it. 

Daily Cleaning Must-Haves

These are the non-negotiable tasks that need to happen every single day, often multiple times depending on usage:

• Toilets and urinals: Scrub bowls and clean external surfaces with disinfectant.
• Sinks and faucets: Wipe down and sanitize handles, basins, and surrounding countertops.
• Touchpoints: Door handles, stall latches, light switches, and soap dispensers should be wiped and disinfected regularly.
• Trash bins: Empty and replace liners to prevent odors and overflow.
• Floors: Mop with a disinfectant solution, especially around toilets and entry points.
• Supplies: Restock paper towels, soap, toilet paper, and any air fresheners.

If you focus on these daily essentials the weekly and deep cleaning sessions will be far quicker and easier. It’s about staying ahead of messes. 

Weekly or Deep Cleaning Tasks

Some jobs don’t need to happen every day, but once a week or every other week, you should make time for these activities:

• High/low dusting: Clean vents, baseboards, and corners to prevent dust buildup.
• Behind and under fixtures: Get to hard-to-reach spots behind toilets, sinks, and trash cans.
• Wall and partition cleaning: Wipe down doors and walls to remove fingerprints, splash marks, and grime.
• Drain maintenance: Flush with safe solutions to prevent slow draining or odors.
• Grout and tile scrubbing: Use a scrubber or steam tool to deep clean grout lines and prevent mildew.

It sounds like a lot, but trust us - scheduling these tasks once a week or so will prevent small issues from snowballing into costly problems. Plus, it’s a lot easier than you may think once you have the best tile floor cleaner machine on hand - more on that in a moment.

Sanitizing vs Disinfecting vs Deodorizing

Before we show you how you can save time and stress while achieving better results in your restroom cleaning process, we want to quickly distinguish between sanitizing, disinfecting, and deodorizing.

It’s easy to treat these as more or less the same, but each serves a specific purpose - and you need to treat them as such. Sanitizing reduces bacteria to safe levels but doesn’t kill everything. It's useful for touchpoints and surfaces that aren't visibly soiled.

On the other hand, disinfecting goes further to kill most bacteria, viruses, and fungi when applied correctly. It’s essential for toilets, sinks, and any surface touched frequently.

Of course, deodorizing is just about making sure the facility smells pleasant - as pleasant as possible given the circumstances, at least. Use it as a finishing touch, not a substitute for proper cleaning. 

Invest in a More Productive, Thorough Restroom Cleaning Process at SweepScrub

There’s a lot that goes into proper restroom cleaning in commercial settings, but what if we told you that you could streamline the process to cut it by ⅔? You just need the right cleaning equipment in your arsenal. SweepScrub is here to provide it.

The Limitations of Manual Cleaning in Commercial Spaces

Mops, buckets, hand scrubbers can only go so far. They fall short in two major ways in high-traffic commercial spaces: efficiency and effectiveness.

Manual cleaning takes time, and even when done thoroughly, it often spreads more bacteria than it eliminates, especially on uneven surfaces or hard-to-reach areas. Labor fatigue, inconsistent results, and missed details add up quickly, making it hard to meet cleanliness standards during busy shifts.

That said, how long does it take to clean a public restroom with the right machine? 66% less time! Discover how an automated restroom cleaning solution can streamline your company’s processes.

How an Automated Restroom Cleaning System Can Help

SweepScrub is your one-stop shop for commercial cleaning. We’ve curated a catalog with the best dependable brands in the industry and their most sought after models, so you can rest assured the perfect solution is here waiting for you.

Our automated KleenLine™ Pro Versa, 12, 17 or 27 Gallon No Touch Restroom Cleaner changes the game. It’s built or the demands of commercial facilities, reaching every corner, reducing physical strain on staff, and cutting cleaning time by up to two-thirds.

With features like 500 PSI spray pressure, hands-free waste recovery, and chemical metering, you’re cleaning better AND faster at the same time - no compromise. 

You also minimize cross-contamination and leave restrooms more sanitary and presentable for guests and staff alike. In this sense, you’re making an investment in employee morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction all at once.

Here at SweepScrub we also provide all the chemicals you need to clean your restrooms to perfection, leaving behind no trace of grime or contamination. With world-class customer service from A to Z and the most competitive pricing online, what more could you ask for?

Whether you’re trying to learn how to start a commerical restroom cleaning business or you simply want to boost productivity for your janitorial team to bring costs down, our solutions are here to help. 

Final Words on How Often to Clean the Bathroom in Your Business

So how often should you clean your restroom? We hope this quick guide to finding the proper restroom cleaning frequency has left you feeling clear about your next steps.

How often you clean should be based on foot traffic, type of facility, and the standards your customers and staff expect. Daily maintenance is non-negotiable, and routine deep cleaning is necessary for long-term cleanliness and odor control.

You can learn more about the best way to clean concrete floors, warehouse floor cleaning, or how to clean a tennis court in our blog if you’d like. But whether you need an industrial floor sweeper machine or commercial floor scrubbers for sale, we’re here to help.

It’s time to rethink your process if cleaning feels like a constant battle, and more specifically, the equipment you use. Don’t clean harder, clean smarter with the right restroom cleaning machine at SweepScrub!