The Five S’s of Using Linen in a Covid World

Posted on May 7, 2021 | 0 comments

No one has been immune to the pandemic – literally or figuratively. As our world attempts to return to something resembling ‘normal,’ organizations everywhere are performing Olympic-level gymnastic moves to keep up with ever-changing sanitation and safety standards in order to remain open. With months of shutdowns, reduced occupancy capacities, and increased sanitation protocols, leaders have been tasked with keeping their businesses up to standard and their bank accounts full enough to pay the bills. It can be tempting to cut costs by adopting a DIY mentality, but when it comes to your linens and hiring a professional laundry service, here are five reasons to NOT cut corners – especially right now.

Sanitary Benefits

If you’ve been laundering your own bar rags, napkins, or other linens yourself in a residential washing machine with warm or cold water, we beg you to reconsider. While household washing machines are generally safe for a family’s everyday use, they aren’t effective for commercial purposes unless you’re washing everything on the hottest setting possible and dousing it with bleach. Washing fabrics in warm or cold water, even with bleach, will not eradicate germs or prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid, as bleach is most effective in hot water.

An article published by CNN quotes Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiology professor at the University of Arizona, as stating that if you wash your towels in cold water “you’ll get more E-coli on your face when you dry it with a towel than if you stuck your head in a toilet and flushed.” We’re pretty sure you don’t want that, and we’re positive your customers don’t either. Besides the germ factor, bar mops, towels, and other heavily-soiled linen is difficult to get completely clean in residential-grade machines, and often still look dingy even after you’ve washed them. No customer wants to watch you clean your bar top with a rag that appears dirty, no matter how many extra rinse cycles you’ve put it through.

Saving Money

Paper napkins and towels seem like a no-brainer for cost savings, and in our current climate it may appear they are the more sanitary option as well. Surprisingly, neither of those statements are entirely true – and here’s why. The average consumer uses five paper napkins for every meal vs. just one linen napkin. If you get a family of five with young children into your restaurant, you can say goodbye to half a package of those ‘cheap’ paper napkins to milk spills, runny noses and, well, you get the idea. It’s true that paper napkins may cost less initially, but over time they aren’t cost efficient. Cloth is up to four times more absorbent than paper, meaning you can use much less with significantly better results, and since they’re reusable their cost-effectiveness wins out in the long run. While purchasing and laundering linens outright is a monstrous upfront investment that most businesses cannot absorb, a local linen company can provide the best of both worlds for business owners looking to tighten their purse strings after weeks or months of being closed and losing profit.  

Sustainable

Linen rental is not only the more sanitary and cost-effective option when compared with paper, it’s also much friendlier to the planet. The impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on solid waste production is concerning, with landfills teeming with plastic, medical waste, and PPE equipment. Recycling efforts have been significantly reduced as waste management companies struggle to keep up with collecting residential and medical waste. Linen laundry services help reduce the waste going into our landfills and provide an earth-friendly alternative to disposable products. As an added bonus, Your Linen Service is proud to be green and all of our laundry facilities have been awarded the Clean Green Certification by TRSA.

Sense of Sophistication and Normalcy

As people begin to venture out to restaurants, bars and other public places, their guards are up when it comes to cleanliness, especially for dine-in experiences. However, they also want something in their lives to feel normal again. Linen tablecloths and napkins are the natural go-to for a more sophisticated dining experience, pandemic or not, but in today’s reality they can also provide a sense of class and normalcy when patrons are navigating first dates with masks and socially-distanced gatherings with friends they’ve known for years. On top of all that, having a fresh linen tablecloth can give the comfort of knowing they are sitting down to eat on a clean surface that wasn’t just covered in commercial-grade disinfectant – or worse, one that was just covered in someone’s Covid sneeze!  

Saves You Time

We haven’t seen a business owner yet who isn’t hustling or doing more than one job post-shutdown, as they try to regain the business they had before the pandemic began and often operate with a skeleton-crew staff. If you’re currently playing more than one position in your organization, delegating out jobs such as laundering linens can help save you time and headache, while keeping everything clean and sanitary. Your Linen Service also provides other hygiene services such as soaps, sanitizers, cotton hand towels, and hands-free products to make sure your business is clean, meets all CDC requirements, and keeps your guests healthy, safe and comfortable.

If you’re ready to ditch your laundry duties or upgrade your hygiene services, we’re here for you. We’re all in this together, and as your local linen company we want to see your business not just survive, but thrive as we embrace a new normal and create a cleaner, brighter, more sustainable tomorrow.

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