The ultimate checklist for cleaning your entire home (2023)

FAQs

The ultimate checklist for cleaning your entire home? ›

A Broom, Dustpan, and Mop. If you have any hard surfaces like wood, tile, cork, and linoleum, you'll need tools to get them clean. You should check out the instructions for different types of floors before you start, but most people can get along with a broom and dustpan and/or a dust mop.

A Broom, Dustpan, and Mop. If you have any hard surfaces like wood, tile, cork, and linoleum, you'll need tools to get them clean. You should check out the instructions for different types of floors before you start, but most people can get along with a broom and dustpan and/or a dust mop.

A cleaning checklist helps keep household chores under control and ensures you live in an organised and sanitised home. To ensure that you're left with a dirt-free environment, they stick to a basic cleaning checklist.

The short answer for how long to deep clean a house is to allow roughly 8 hours for a three bedroom house with a family bathroom, and move up and down by one hour for each additional bedroom and bathroom.

Bathrooms and kitchens are known as 'wet areas'. These often take the most time to clean. That's why they should be first in the order you clean your house. Once you've done step 1 and 3, dust everything and then get down to work in your bathrooms and kitchen.

Turns out, the key to keeping a consistently clean house is staying on top of chores a little bit at a time. Rather than attempting to clean the entire house all at once, try tackling small tasks — like wiping down counters, starting a load of laundry or putting away stray items — when you have a few minutes to spare.

We recommend dusting before vacuuming, this is because dust particles usually get moved around the room when you dust, meaning all your hard work will go to waste. A top tip is to wait at least 2 hours after dusting to get the vacuum out.

What time of day is best to clean the house? ›

Make sure to do any loud cleaning (like vacuuming) before bedtime, however. You should clean whenever you have the most energy. Morning people can clean bright and early while night owls may prefer cleaning while the rest of the world is asleep.

There are two basic principals in all cleaning; pH and physical removal. Physical removal is one of the best microbial decontamination processes. It lessens the numbers of pathogens from all surfaces as well as removes the food sources that aide in their growth.

There are three basic rules when cleaning a room or an area. Work from the highest point in the room to the lowest point in the room. Work from the outside walls of the room to the center of the room. Work from the cleanest surfaces in the room to the dirtiest surfaces in the room.

There are five key factors involved when cleaning that are equally important: time, temperature, mechanical action, chemical reaction and procedures. Balancing these factors will produce the best possible results.

According to this method, there are only five things in a room: trash, dishes, laundry, things that have a place, and things that don't have a place. When you need to tidy up an area, focus on one category at a time. This allows you to see your space in a different way, and gives you a simple, clear process to follow.

Are floors clean and clear of waste? Are signs posted to warn of wet floors? Are floors in good condition? Are there holes, worn or loose planks or carpet sticking up? Is anti-slip flooring used where spills, moisture or grease are likely?

A master cleaning schedule includes cleaning of equipment, tools, containers, structures, and grounds, and identifies the area or equipment to be cleaned, the time period between each cleaning, and the person(s) responsible for the cleaning.

The average hotel housekeeping worker is required to check and/or clean between 12 and 20 rooms in an eight-hour shift. That allows for only 20 to 30 minutes for room at best, since time to restock the cart and traveling between floors must be considered as well as breaks in the hotel housekeeper's shift.

Do you tip house cleaners? ›

You're not obligated to tip your housekeeper, regardless of them being with a service or doing an extraordinary job. It's simply a way to show appreciation and recognition for the work they're doing.

Generally, one hour is long enough for one person to keep on top of the basic cleaning tasks needed in a home – hoovering and dusting, for example. An hour, however, isn't ideal if you need your cleaner to clean more of your home, and if your house is bigger and dirtier.

Professional cleaners know that a timesaving secret is to vacuum every floor in the house, including bathrooms and the kitchen. It's the fastest and most efficient way to pick up dust, hair, and all the little bits of debris that like to hide in corners.

Clean Top to Bottom, Left to Right

Likewise, cleaning left to right ensures that you cover the entire room instead of darting from place to place. “Most people see something and clean it, then they look up and see something else and clean it, and the dirt falls down on what you just cleaned,” Sardone says.

Glass cleaner, floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner, stovetop cleaner, disinfectant, deodorizer… each one has a never-ending list of chemicals, insisting you need it for the task at hand.

Mattress and Bedding

The bedroom is the first place to begin when tackling allergens in your home. This is because you spend most of your time there, making some of the items found there difficult to clean. Cleaning the mattress, washing the pillows, and encasing them in dust-mite proof covers isn't an easy task.

They set cleaning systems in place

Clean homes don't just miraculously clean themselves—neat people have a protocol in place to keep things maintained and orderly. “People with neat homes tend to have a cleaning schedule and routines so dirt and laundry don't have time to pile up,” says Higgins.

What is cleaning paralysis? ›

It's what I call “clean house paralysis.” I'll do a deep clean—take out the trash, donate a few items I don't need anymore to Goodwill, wipe every surface with those fancy spray cleaners, light candles. And after all that housework, I still can't bring myself to start my work-work.

You want the cloth to be damp enough to pick up dust without leaving moisture streaks behind on surfaces. Using this method will ensure that your home's surfaces and furniture are cleaned in a safe and green way.

If you don't vacuum your carpet, the dirt will break down carpet fibers and create a breeding ground for dust mites and bacteria. In addition, your home will begin to smell musty from the dirt, mites, and other organisms settling into the fibers.

Just as you do with mopping, start vacuuming at the end of the room farthest from the door. Work your way backward from left to right, making multiple passes over each area as you go; once pass rarely picks up all dirt and debris.

“You should always wet your shower before cleaning it unless the instructions on your cleaning product say otherwise,” Cooper says. Why? By wetting your walls, you can rinse off the dust, dirt, and other loose debris—making it easier for your cleaning products to go to work.

Friday is the best. You are looking forward to the weekend and probably have plans for happy hour. You can go home to a clean home and, either have company over, or feel good about going out knowing that your home is clean and waiting for you. Of all the house cleaning days, Friday is the one that I would choose.

In general, you should give your bathroom a good clean at least once a week. This includes wiping down the toilet and sink. The floor and bathtub should be cleaned every two weeks or so. It is also important to invest in a deep clean every month or so.

But as a rule of thumb, you should mop your floors at least once a week—especially in areas that are more likely to get stains from drips and spills, like the kitchen and bathroom. “Of course, you need to vacuum or sweep the floor before mopping,” explains Leiva.

How often should you clean your bathroom? ›

Clean your bathroom once a week as a good rule of thumb. Kelly Reynolds, PhD, MSPH, professor and director of the environment, exposure science and eisk assessment center at the University of Arizona, recommends cleaning your bathroom at least weekly. More often than that might be overkill.

The rule is: put away your things immediately and avoid handling them more than once after you're done with them. That's it.

You can incorporate the 80/20 rule in your home by filling in the time between a 'big clean' by tidying 20 percent of your things more regularly. This keeps your home looking tidy on the surface and makes it feel less daunting when it comes to deep cleaning the other 80 percent of your home.

The main clean stage of the procedure targets any contaminants that you were unable to remove during the pre-clean stage. It involves trying to loosen any stubborn dirt, grease or debris using water and/or specific detergents.

I call it the 5 x 5 system. You start by choosing 5 spaces in your house (similar to the Flylady's zones) and you spend 5 minutes in each one. The rule is: you cannot leave that room until the 5 minutes is up OR unless it's really super clean.

The six daily tasks include making the bed, washing dishes, scrubbing the sink, wiping down counters, vacuuming floors and doing a load of laundry. On top of those are 10 weekly tasks, which the Tiktoker says she does on one day of the week.

What are the 7S of good housekeeping checklist? ›

7S of Good Housekeeping is an expanded version of 5S of Good Housekeeping. 7S stands for sort, systematize, sweep, standardize, safety, self-discipline and sustain.

A master cleaning schedule includes cleaning of equipment, tools, containers, structures, and grounds, and identifies the area or equipment to be cleaned, the time period between each cleaning, and the person(s) responsible for the cleaning. As it is completed, it also becomes a work record.

The cleaning levels are as follows: Level 1 Orderly Spotlessness, Level 2 Ordinary Tidiness, Level 3 Casual Inattention, Level 4 Moderate Dinginess, Level 5 Unkempt Neglect.

Start with the daily tasks and work on completing them every day. If the daily tasks are overwhelming, just start with one – one load of laundry from start to put away, pick up clutter, check floors, or wipe counters. Add one every week and before you know it you'll have built a little routine into your schedule.

A schedule must be drawn up and implemented which specifies the frequency of cleaning, the persons responsible, the method of cleaning, the amount and type of chemical to be used and precautions to be taken (i.e. protective clothing).

A master cleaning schedule includes cleaning of equipment, tools, containers, structures, and grounds, and identifies the area or equipment to be cleaned, the time period between each cleaning, and the person(s) responsible for the cleaning. As it is completed, it also becomes a work record.