How to Keep Your Portable Toilet Clean & Tidy

Portable toilets are an indispensable element of any major public event or private gathering. After all, everyone needs somewhere safe, clean and discreet to answer the call of nature. They’re also a legal obligation in many situations, such as at construction sites or during multi-day festivals and fairs. As such, arranging adequate sanitation facilities for the occasion in question should be a top priority.

However, simply ordering and installing the toilets is not enough on its own. You’ll also need to ensure you’re offering your guests or employees clean portable restrooms, since facilities that are allowed to become dirty or unsightly can pose a hygiene risk. Unfortunately, standards can slip when it comes to portable toilet maintenance, especially at an event that takes place over several days or even weeks.

But while portable toilets often carry a reputation for nasty odours and unsanitary conditions, it doesn’t need to be that way. The design behind modern portable toilets has advanced significantly since their invention several hundred years ago, allowing site organisers and project managers to maintain high levels of cleanliness and give their patrons a similar experience to relieving themselves indoors.

Are you eager to keep your portable toilet clean and tidy, but aren’t too sure about how to go about it? Don’t worry. All that’s required is a little forethought and planning and no small amount of elbow grease and attention to detail. Follow these simple steps and you’ll have visitors to your site pleasantly surprised at the comfort and convenience of the bathroom experience you offer.

Order enough toilets

The number one reason why portable toilets descend into an unholy mess and become the bane of music festivals or other mass gatherings of people is an insufficient supply to meet the demand. If your toilets are in continual use from morning to night, it’s inevitable that accidents will happen and messes will be made – and with so many people waiting to use them, there’s no time to clean things up.

This can lead to a downward spiral in slipping standards, as a person who enters a soiled or stench-filled cubicle is much less likely to care about keeping it clean than if it was pristine upon their arrival. As well as compromising hygiene protocols and potentially violating health and safety codes, an inadequate number of toilets will also lead to lengthy queues and unhappy guests.

While the exact number of toilets you require will vary depending upon the nature of the event you’re organising and the purpose to which they will be put, a good rule of thumb at mass gatherings is to ensure there is at least one toilet per 100 attendees. For smaller affairs such as weddings, it’s a good idea to arrange three cubicles for males and four cubicles for females per 150 guests. If you’re in any doubt about the quantity of toilets you should order, our knowledgeable staff will be happy to lend their expertise and advice.

Get the right kinds of toilets

As well ensuring you have enough toilets to meet the needs of visitors to your site, you’ll also need to guarantee you’ve ordered the right kinds of toilets. Sanitation facilities come in a variety of shapes and sizes which have been specifically designed to cater to the demands of different situations. Doing your homework beforehand will allow you to understand the requirements of your situation and plan accordingly.

For example, if you’re ordering toilets for a construction site, you might wish to plump for a chemical toilet, a mains connected toilet, a hot wash toilet or even a welfare unit, depending upon the size of the project, its duration and its unique circumstances. While chemical toilets can be convenient and efficient in the fact that they don’t use water, they can be harder to keep clean, so that’s certainly something you should bear in mind.

For larger events, it might be a good idea to stretch to luxury toilet trailers, which are more spacious and well-equipped. This not only contributes to a superior service for those using them, but makes their maintenance much easier. Four-man urinals are a great way to slash toilet queues and ease demand, while the provision of easy access toilets for disabled or disadvantaged users is also a consideration you cannot afford to overlook. Get the type of toilets right and you’ll find that keeping them clean becomes far easier.

Place your toilets strategically

After figuring out which kinds of toilets you need and ordering enough of them to satisfy demand at your event, it’s also very important to ensure they are located at strategic and sensible distances from one another. This is especially pertinent if the site you’re supervising is large and sprawling, since attendees will not want to traipse from one side to the other just to use the facilities.

Consider which areas are most likely to be in high demand, such as those next to food and drink stalls or near main attractions at your site, then arrange for plenty of toilets to be situated close by. This will ensure that they don’t become overwhelmed with footfall and descend into a dank and dirty mess. At the same time, you shouldn’t neglect lesser visited areas, since these will inevitably receive a certain amount of traffic, too.

One final thing to consider when planning out the placement of your toilets is their exposure to the elements. If possible, try to position your sanitation stations under the cover of trees or other structures which can give them shade. Toilets that are left to the mercy of the full strength of the sun can quickly overheat, causing the smells inside to become more potent and unpleasant on the nostrils.

Address odours

Speaking of disagreeable odours, many people immediately associate portable toilets with an unbearable stench as a matter of course. While indoor bathrooms or those connected to the mains sewerage system can simply flush away their business, portable toilets collect urine and faeces in a tank below ground. The accumulation of this waste inevitably leads to bad smells over time.

With that in mind, even the most sensibly placed and sparingly used toilets are likely to pong before too long. Fortunately, there are actions you can take to address the issue and cover up those nasty aromas. Deodorising products are readily available online or from hardware stores and are specifically designed to tackle human waste. The most effective options are often a deep blue in colour and are comprised of four main elements – biocides, dyes, fragrances and surfactants.

Biocides attack the gram-positive bacteria which is the main culprit behind nasty bathroom scents, inhibiting their growth and targeting the stench at its source. Dyes cover up the contents of the waste tank so that toilet users are not subjected to its site every time they use the cubicle. Fragrances, as you might expect, mask the smell with a scent of their own, while surfactants help them dissolve into the water and work more effectively.

Air them out

While chemical concoctions can be great at masking unpleasant smells, the best way to get rid of them altogether is to allow the air inside the cubicle to mingle with that in the atmosphere outside, which will help to dilute the stronger smelling elements and create a less offensive aroma. That’s because the confines of a portable toilet are invariably on the smaller side, meaning there’s simply nowhere for the guilty particles to go.

While opening the door of a cubicle for a prolonged period of time might sound like quite a primitive technique in tackling unwanted odours, you may be surprised at just how effective it is. Even propping the door open for half an hour at a time to let it breathe and allow the ambient air outside of the unit to combine with the trapped gases inside it can deliver remarkable results from an olfactory point of view.

Ideally, such respite periods should be arranged several times per day. Of course, at a busy festival site, that kind of luxury is hard to come by, which is again why it’s important to provide enough facilities so that some can be aired while others are being used. And it goes without saying that nightfall is a perfect opportunity to open those doors wide and let the fresh air in.

Contract professional cleaners

When you’re organising a multi-day event, it’s only logical that you won’t have time to perform portable toilet maintenance yourself. Nonetheless, maintaining standards of cleanliness is an imperative facet of providing sanitation facilities for your guests, which is why it might a sensible idea to hire portable toilet cleaning services, which can take the strain off your shoulders.

Not only will a portable toilet cleaner have extensive experience in keeping your loos spotless, but they will be able to dedicate their entire attention to the endeavour. That makes a huge difference compared to someone who is merely juggling toilet upkeep with umpteen other tasks, resulting in a much higher standard of sanitation and hygiene in the facilities at your site.

We know what you might be thinking – where can I find a portable toilet cleaning service near me, especially at short notice? Fear not! At LetLoos, we offer expert toilet cleaning services for all occasions. All of our unit rentals come with a weekly cleaning visit as standard, but we’re more than happy to arrange for additional services on a more frequent basis if need be.

Hire a toilet attendant

The best way to ensure that your toilets are consistently clean and tidy is to have an individual manning them at all times. This is especially helpful for intimate events, larger toilet trailers or sites with hundreds of cubicles to supervise. An onsite toilet attendant can clean up any spills as and when they happen, as well as keep an eye on essential supplies such as toilet paper, soap, hand sanitiser and the suchlike.

While toilet attendants might seem like an unnecessary extravagance, they can actually prove to be worth their weight in gold. That’s not only due to the fact that they guarantee your toilets will remain in pristine condition for the duration of their rental, but they also lend your event an air of prestige and panache. This can be particularly helpful at VIP areas of a site or for special events like weddings, ensuring that guests go home with a lofty opinion of your organisational skills.

If you’re interested in hiring one or more toilet attendants to service your sanitation facilities, feel free to get in touch with LetLoos. We have a dedicated team of highly qualified and experienced attendants who are proficient in all aspects of portable toilet maintenance. We’re also happy to offer impartial advice on how many attendants you might require depending upon your unique circumstances.

Wave goodbye to unclean toilets today

Are you in need of professional toilet cleaning services for your next event or project? Don’t let concerns over the hygiene of your facilities add to the stress of organising such an occasion – delegate it to us. Our friendly team of experienced cleaners are well versed in all aspects of portable toilet maintenance, ensuring that your cubicles remain in tip-top condition for the duration of their use.

Even if you’d rather handle the maintenance side of things inhouse, we’re still here to help with all your rental needs. From portable toilets to luxury toilet trailers and easy access toilets to four-man urinals, we have the solutions to meet your requirements. We can also arrange for delivery at a time and location that suits you, and we’ll pick up the facilities once your event has run its course. That’s portable toilet rental made easy.

To take the first step towards an immaculate portable toilet experience today, simply get in touch our friendly team online or over the phone. We’ll be happy to answer any queries you might have and provide you with a free, no-obligation quote for our services, whatever your project specifications. Don’t delay, get in touch with LetLoos right away!