The Ultimate Deep Cleaning Checklist for Your Home

A home provides its inhabitants with privacy, identity, belonging, control, shelter, security, and so on. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you keep your home beautiful, clean, and tidy at all times.

Cleaning involves the removal of unwanted substances like dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities. The process entails regular cleaning and deep cleaning.

Regular cleaning involves a set of cleaning tasks frequently carried out in your home while deep cleaning has to do with cleaning areas not covered by regular cleaning.

Regular cleaning can be performed daily or weekly while deep cleaning is carried out every 6 or 12 months. Examples of regular cleaning activities are mopping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, and cleaning the kitchen.

Deep cleaning involves full and deep dusting off cobwebs from the rooms, cleaning the window frames, inner and outer parts of the windows, oven, tidying the inner part of the sink, and so on.

In this article, we shall be letting you know the importance of deep cleaning and provide the complete deep cleaning checklist for your home to enable you to have a neat, beautiful, and radiant-looking home.

 

Importance of Deep Cleaning in the Home 

1. Improves Indoor Air Quality

Deep cleaning allows you to eliminate dust and improve indoor air quality. It also helps to prevent allergy symptoms like eye irritation, asthma attacks, hay fever, sneezing, and coughing.

 

2. Gets Rid of Bacteria and Viruses

Dirty homes are the abode for viruses and bacteria. Also, the bathroom, kitchen, and living room contain the most bacteria and viruses in the home. While regular cleaning helps to keep them in check, deep cleaning goes a long way too.

 

3. Improves Your Mood

A dust and dirt-free environment helps to uplift your mood and decreases the symptoms of depression.

 

4. Lessens Allergy Symptoms

Doing deep cleaning helps you to lessen allergy symptoms by getting rid of dust, which is an allergen.

 

5. Wards off Pests

Most homes have microscopic pests, rodents, and bugs. Although regular cleaning helps to curtail them, deep cleaning is more efficient in wiping them out.

 

6. Helps You to Achieve a Spotless Kitchen

It is very important to clean your cooking appliances. They include the oven, microwave, and so on. Even though you clean them regularly, you should go the extra mile to ensure that all food-buildup are scrubbed off thoroughly.

 

Deep Cleaning Tools

• Vacuum
• Broom
• Mop or steam mop
• Sponges
• Microfiber cloths
• Duster
• Toilet brush
• Toilet bowl cleaner
• Window cleaner
• All-purpose cleaner
• Dishwasher cleaner
• Garbage disposer cleaner
• Washing machine cleaner
• Gloves
• Furniture polish
• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• Old toothbrush

 

Deep Cleaning Tips

Image credit: sheknows.com

• Deep cleaning can be strenuous; hence, you can employ the service of professionals. However, if you plan to do it yourself, then note that it is not a day’s job. Take things slowly, focus on an area at a time (go from room to room), and allocate plenty of time to each room to avoid being overwhelmed
• Find a routine that works for you. You can decide to deep clean every 6 months or one year. During this period, you can go for two or three rooms per week
• Involve your family members and assign age-appropriate tasks to them. This will help to motivate you and make your work faster
• Prepare your supplies. You will need plenty of paper towels and trash bags
• While cleaning, listen to something interesting from your phone or home theatre, light a candle, put on some comfy clothes to motivate you
• You can start with your kitchen. The sparkle you get after deep cleaning will motivate you to continue with others

 

Professional Deep Cleaning Checklist

Do you want a deep cleaned home? Below is the ultimate checklist that you can follow.

1. Kitchen

Image credit: viscorner.com

This is one of the most important parts of the home because the family meal is prepared here. But it is probably one of the dirtiest spaces in the home too.

Regular cleaning is very compulsory here because stains build up and can turn to the primary place for harmful bacteria to thrive. So, the floor must be swept and the counters should be wiped daily.  

Deep cleaning the kitchen involves cleaning the kitchen appliances thoroughly. The following should be considered.

 

Refrigerator/Freezer

1. Clear out all food items and unplug from the socket.
2. Throw out expired food items.
3. Clean the inner and outer parts with warm soapy water. Consider the walls and floor.
4. Clean underneath the fridge if you can move it.
5. Clean the water rubber gasket around the door seals with warm soapy water and then disinfect.
6. Vacuum the coils of your fridge coils and vent to remove dust, at least, once a year. Doing this helps to keep your fridge running and avoids expensive repairs.

 

Gas Stove Top

1. Soak the pot grates in hot soapy water and clean with a scrub brush.
2. Clean the entire stovetop with baking soda paste. You can do this for an electric stovetop.
3. For an electric oven, remove/unplug the coils to ease the cleaning.
4. Scrub down all surfaces and control knobs with a soapy sponge, clean with a wet rag, and disinfect.

 

Microwave

1. Clean the inner part with a sponge and all-purpose cleaner, remove the tray, and clean as well.
2. Wipe the exterior down with a sponge, then clean with a microfiber cloth.
3. Remove the food platters with lemon and vinegar.
4. Use a glass cleaner for the face and keypad of the microwave.
5. If your microwave is placed in a cabinet or on the countertop, remove it and clean its underneath.

 

Dishwasher

1. To clean the interior, empty it, clean the filter, add a cup of vinegar, and run it on the hottest setting. Then add a cup of baking soda and run again on the hottest cycle.
2. For the exterior part, wipe down with vinegar spray, finish with glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth.
3. Vinegar and baking soda are important in cleaning your dishwasher because they help to remove soap water and buildup that must have accumulated over time.

 

Sink

1. Clean your sink last. This is because after cleaning the appliances and surfaces, your sink will be filthy.
2. Wipe it with hot soapy water and pay attention to the openings in the backsplash and around the tap.
3. Use a disinfectant spray with bleach for stubborn stains.
4. Don’t forget to remove soap scum and debris from your sink faucet.

For all the appliances you will be cleaning in your kitchen, disinfect their handles to remove germs.

 

2. Bathrooms

The bathroom is very prone to dirt; it is where you wash off germs from your body. It requires regular cleaning and deep cleaning. To deep clean your bathroom, follow the steps below.

 

Bathtub

1. Make a paste of baking soda and water and scrub with a brush (a detail brush or an old toothbrush) to clean in and around your fixtures. Then, clean it with a microfiber cloth to help it shine.

 

Shower curtain

1. For your linen curtains, wash and dry according to directions. Toss and replace them if they are too old and past the point of cleaning.
2. For the plastic curtain behind the linen, you can decide to clean it too. But replacing it is a better idea because cleaning it can be quite difficult. The good thing is that it is cheap.

 

Water Closet

1. Clean with a toilet brush. Pay attention to the base and behind while cleaning.

 

Taps/ Faucets

1. Descale faucets/ showerheads throughout the home with vinegar.

 

3. Living Room and Bedroom

Image credit: indiamart.com

1. Couches and chairs: Clean your couches once a month, vacuum the creases where pet hair, popcorn, and other tiny items sit. Wipe down your couch with a damp microfiber cloth, clean and vacuum underneath and behind it. If you have throw pillows, wash their covers.
2. Electronics: Using a microfiber cloth, dust the devices, and wipe the underneath.
3. Dust and vacuum all the hard-to-reach areas during your routine. Dust shelves, windows, light fixtures, and above your cabinets.
4. Ceiling fan: Wipe down ceiling fan blades with a wet microfiber cloth to avoid breathing in allergens every night.
5. Doors: Wipe down doors and door frames for fingerprints and surges with a wet microfiber cloth.
6. Strip off and wash off your beddings that don’t get washed frequently. They include pillow shams and duvet covers. Flip your mattress to prevent it from wearing out too quickly, sprinkle some baking soda on top of it and leave it for a while to soak up odors. Clean the headboard and beneath your bed.
7. Take everything out of your closet vacuum and wipe down the shelves and walls— reorganize and declutter. There will be enough room for clothes to move freely when you move your clothing in.
8. Cabinets/drawers: Empty each of them, vacuum and wipe with a clean wet microfiber cloth/cleaning spray and wipe down cabinet faces.
9. Spray your blinds with vinegar and scrub them down.
10. Garbage cans: Wash with warm soapy water and sponge, or sanitize them.

 

4. Laundry Room

Your washing machine also requires both regular and deep cleaning. For regular cleaning, keep the door open after use. This gives it a chance to dry out because it can grow mold. You should also endeavor to clean the lint filter.

For deep cleaning:

1. Sanitize your washer by using a vinegar mixture and the self-cleansing cycle to remove any dirt that has built up. Clean the dryer duct once a year to reduce its risk of turning into a fire hazard. But make sure you don’t hurt yourself or break the dryer.
2. Vacuum the lint filter once a month to remove any stubborn lint.
3. Wipe the interior and exterior of the washer and dryer with a wet microfiber cloth. Spray the interior with a vinegar spray. Wipe clean by paying special attention to the rubber gasket on the machine door, add 2 cups of vinegar into the drum and run on the hottest setting, add a half cup of baking soda directly to the drum and run on the hottest setting.
4. Leave the door ajar to fully dry out.

 

Conclusion

Having a clean home should be a priority for every homeowner. It goes a long way in protecting you and your family from sickness and diseases.  A clean environment gives peace and utmost satisfaction to virtually all homeowners. This is why we have given you a detailed deep cleaning checklist on how to effectively clean your home.