Restaurant leaders have a lot on their plate (pun intended). Between managing staff, maintaining the menu, engaging with customers, and posting on social media, organizing restaurant laundry can easily fall by the wayside.
However, restaurant laundry is one of those tasks that can’t be underestimated. Anyone who’s run out of tablecloths during dinner rush or spilled on the last clean uniform knows what we’re talking about. Plus, customers will be the first to notice if a crisp white napkin isn’t crisp or white enough!
Ready to ramp up your restaurant’s laundry system? Keep reading for our top tips!
7 Ways to Simplify Your Restaurant Laundry Process
1. Choose a Consistent Laundry Day
Restaurants may be chaotic by nature, but your laundry process will benefit from some consistency.
Is there a day of the week that’s slower than the rest? Or a time of day when everything mellows out? Just like with your at-home laundry process, it’s best to choose a laundry day that works for your schedule.
Once you settle on a day and time to sort through linens, you can even consider making it a routine part of a specific shift. Don’t forget to add an extra day or two to this schedule ahead of busy times like Mother’s Day and graduation season.
2. Train Team Members on Laundry Best Practices
Your staff is undoubtedly skilled at serving and cooking, but that doesn’t mean they’re automatic laundry pros. Are laundry lessons a component of training? If not, it couldn’t hurt to teach the basics of restaurant laundry to your team.
Depending on your scale of services, your staff might need extra training on stain removal, ironing, and folding. This will require a different skill set than at-home laundry, so be sure to read up on restaurant laundry tips ahead of time—here’s a blog on washing linens like tablecloths, and another on washing white clothing like uniforms.
3. Consider Swapping to Disposables
Fabric napkins and linen tablecloths are status symbols in the restaurant industry. But if the pressure of maintaining restaurant laundry is taking a toll on service and staffing, it might be time to switch to disposable materials.
The free time could do wonders for your business, and depending on your supplier, it could be a budget-friendly move. However, there’s another option that doesn’t sacrifice status: investing in a commercial laundry service. Read these 7 reasons to make the switch and see if they resonate!
4. Analyze Your Color Palette
It should come as no surprise that one color makes restaurant laundry especially challenging: white. Though white imbues cleanliness and freshness, restaurant leaders have to work extra hard to keep this shade of linen sparkling.
Similar to switching to disposable materials, switching to a darker color palette can lower the stress of restaurant laundry. Black and navy napkins, for example, require a lot less work to maintain. They won’t suffer from discoloration like whites, and stains are far less visible in darker shades.
Of course, your restaurant’s design style and aesthetic need to be taken into consideration. If you’re switching the color of one linen, be sure to think about the impact on the overall feel of your space.
5. Allocate a Space For Linens
Perhaps time and training aren’t slowing down your restaurant laundry. For businesses in tight quarters, laundry storage could be to blame. If you’re currently storing soiled linens, clean linens, cooking supplies, and cleaning supplies in the same place, it’s no wonder you’re feeling stressed!
To avoid dirtying up otherwise clean laundry, it’s important to allocate a specific space for fresh linens. This area should be out of reach of trash, dirty dishes, and soiled linens—ideally a good distance apart. The less exposure your clean laundry has to the mess of back-of-house, the better.
New cabinets, bins, hooks, and labels can all be a quick fix.
6. Get Ahead of Stain Removal
Feel like you’re throwing out more linens than necessary? Nothing screams staining like a busy kitchen, making it challenging to crank out unmarred materials.
Even if you’re sticking to a consistent cleaning schedule, the secret to stain removal is in the first few hours after soiling. The sooner you react to an accidental spill, the better. Laundry experts call this the pre-treatment process, but you don’t have to be a pro to implement it. Home remedies as simple as baking soda and hydrogen peroxide can do the trick!
Active stain removal can even improve the efficacy of a commercial laundry service. If you outsource to professionals, be sure to ask for their pre-treatment advice.
7. Invest In a Professional Restaurant Laundry Service
At the end of the day, you’re a restaurant pro, not a laundry pro. As important as crisp napkins, tablecloths, aprons, and towels are to your business, you likely have bigger fish to fry. Have you considered tapping a commercial laundry service?
There’s a common misconception in the culinary industry that professional laundry is reserved for high-end spots and big businesses. However, even hole in the walls stand to benefit from commercial restaurant laundry. Here are just a few reasons why:
Commercial laundry pros know how to treat every type of restaurant linen. Without the risk of damaging materials in-house, your linens can last longer and look better.
Outsourcing to professional launderers frees up your staff’s time. Without napkins to fold, your people can focus on cooking, serving, and making customers happy.
In the post-COVID era, your customers have a heightened sense of cleanliness. Luckily, health and hygiene are guaranteed with a commercial laundry service.
Though customers know us for our Thornton laundromat, WaveMAX also offers top-tier commercial laundry service in the Denver metro area. Our commercial-sized machines get fresh linens into the hands of restaurant leaders as quickly as possible, and we never skimp on premium products.
Want to know why Denver’s best restaurateurs trust us with their laundry and linens? Click here to learn more and schedule a pick-up service in North Denver Metro.
