Cleaning Schedule Maker for Your Restaurant
You know the extraction filters have to be done weekly. What is written down nowhere is on which day — which is why the oven, the filters and defrosting the freezer all land on one exhausted Sunday and all get skipped together. This tool spreads your week, puts the right method against every job, and says honestly what will not fit in your hours.
How it works
- 1
Tell it when you are open
Tick your open days, how many services you run per day and how much cleaning time you really have per day. That last number is what makes the rest honest.
- 2
Tick what your venue has
Eight rooms. No terrace or no bar and those jobs disappear from the schedule — and so do the hours they cost.
- 3
The week spreads itself
The weekly jobs go one by one to whichever day is lightest at that moment, the monthly ones across the weeks of the month, the quarterly ones across the months of the quarter.
- 4
Put names against them
A job with no name is a job nobody does. Fill in who does what; anyone left without a name is named first in the verdict.
- 5
Print the week card and the method card
The week card hangs by the sink with boxes to tick off. The method card is what you hand to whoever is new here.
Cleaning is not disinfecting — and that is the whole difference
Almost every kitchen in Europe sprays and wipes straight off. That is not laziness: nobody ever put the contact time on the schedule. These are the four moves, and which surfaces need all four.
Clear away
Loose scraps and soil go first. A disinfectant that lands on soil disinfects the soil.
Clean
Hot water and detergent. This is what takes the grease and the residue off — and it is what most venues mean when they say the place has been cleaned.
Disinfect and let it work
Apply the product AND leave it standing. The contact time comes from the label of YOUR product, and without that time the step has not happened.
Let it dry
In the air. A cloth used afterwards puts back what you have just taken off.
How often does what have to be done?
The table is built from the same model the tool derives your week from, so the two can never say different things. The time is that of a full venue with six open days and two services a day.
| Rhythm | What is in it | Number of jobs | What it costs over a full week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every service | Tables and chairs · Terrace tables · Toilet round during service | 8 | 11 h 48 |
| Daily | Toilets, full clean · Kitchen floor · Dining room floor | 22 | 24 h |
| Weekly | Oven interior · Degrease the fryer completely · Floor under the equipment | 13 | 5 h 50 |
| Monthly | Benches and upholstery · Ice machine · Windows, inside | 9 | 1 h 38 |
| Quarterly | Defrost the freezer · Extraction hood and ductwork · Light fittings and air vents | 3 | 21 min |
The words on the schedule
Five terms every inspector uses and that no kitchen schedule ever explains.
- Cleaning
- Taking soil, grease and residue off with water and detergent. Cleaning makes a surface visibly clean; on its own it kills almost nothing.
- Disinfecting
- Bringing the number of micro-organisms down to a safe level, with a product meant for it. It only works on a surface that has already been cleaned.
- Contact time
- The time the disinfectant has to stay wet on the surface in order to work. It is on the label of your own product and differs per brand.
- Food-contact surface
- Anything unwrapped food touches directly: chopping boards, worktops, knives, the slicer, the ice machine. This is the class where cleaning alone is never enough.
- Cleaning schedule
- The plan set out in advance: what, how often, by whom and with which method. Not to be confused with the record kept afterwards, where you sign off that it was done.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as the cleaning plan in my HACCP folder?
No, it is the other half. Your HACCP record is the sheet where you sign off afterwards that the cleaning was done. This is the plan that sheet is kept against: which day, who, and with which method. The same relationship as between a rota and a time sheet — you need both.
Why does the tool spread my weekly jobs itself?
Because nobody does it well by hand. The heaviest job goes to whichever day is lightest at that moment, and so on down the list. That way your busiest day ends up at most one job heavier than your lightest — a hand-written plan has no such property, which is exactly why the oven, the filters and the freezer always sit on the same day.
My week does not fit in the hours I have. What now?
Then the tool says so, with the number of hours you are short, and names the jobs you would take off your heaviest day — always the lowest risk class first and never a food-contact job. If more than four have to go, it is no longer a planning problem but an hours problem, and the tool says that too.
Why does the tool not fill in the contact time itself?
Because it differs per product. A number that does not match the bottle in your cupboard is worse than no number: your team reads it once, remembers it wrong and uses it for years. Copy the time off your own label; it is then printed against every food-contact and hand-contact job.
Can I add my own jobs?
Yes. Give them a room, a risk class, a rhythm and the minutes they cost, and they take part exactly like the rest: they are spread over the week, they count towards your hours and they get the method of their class.
Is my schedule saved?
Yes, in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and no account is needed. Clear your browser data and it is gone — so print the schedule as soon as it is right.
This is a house document, not a legal text. What has to be cleaned, how often, what you have to record and which products you may use differ per country and per inspecting authority. Always follow your own HACCP plan and the labels on your products.