Most days I’m just glad to have dinner made before 6 pm. Forget having time to deep clean.
But oh, how I love having a deeply cleaned home.
Isn’t it so dreamy to finally get all of those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies cleaned?
Deep cleaning vs. tidying
Tidying your home is all about making it neat and presentable. It’s usually the first step prior to doing a deep clean. And sometimes, it’s all we can get to during the week.
But deep cleaning goes beyond the basic things like sweeping, decluttering, and taking out the trash.
Deep cleaning is also rewarding in that you know your home is *actually* clean and doesn’t just look clean.
Doing a deep clean means going the extra mile
Deep cleaning can be a little aggravating at times, because you’re working on cleaning things that may not be noticed or appreciated by anyone but you.
That’s why, I’m going to start with the areas in the home that will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to your time, energy, and the results you’ll get.
Lets “pop the hood” and dive in.
In this article:
- Walls, trim & doors
- Toilet, tub & bathroom sink(s)
- Appliances
- Pantry
- Cabinets & drawers
- Entryway
- Shoes
- Pets
Walls, Trim, & Doors
I wish someone would have told me about this years ago—the importance of cleaning your walls, trim, and doors.
It’s one of those things where you don’t notice how dirty they are until you finally get them clean.
And you can’t really get them clean with just a spray bottle and a rag: you need to bust out an actual scrub brush. We have bead board in our kitchen so this is a non-negotiable for us.
Plus, a lot of the dirt and grim on floor board trim and toe-tick trim can be really stubborn to lift with just a cloth or rag. Using a scrub brush will give you a better end result and save you time.
Materials needed:
- An all purpose cleaning spray
- An old-fashioned scrub brush with a handle that’s meant for scrubbing floors, not dishes
- Microfiber cloth (or an old shirt or rag will do)
If your walls, trim, and doors are especially dirty than you should wipe them down with damp cloth first.
Then, use an all purpose cleaning spray and a scrub brush to scrub out any scuffs or hard-to-reach notches or grooves. Scrubbing quickly back and forth is the fastest way to work.
However, I like to slow down and use circular motions for stubborn scuffs and stains.
Hot tip: save your all purpose cleaning spray for the actual cleaning part and use water when you’re just dusting. This will help you stretch your cleaning product for longer and save a few pennies along the way.
Most people don’t deep clean their walls, trim, or doors
Having clean walls, trim, and doors is a new level of clean most people never even knew they were missing.
But I suspect it’s why we like freshly painted walls and trim so much… because it usually never looks that clean again.
If you’re willing to get out the scrub brush, though, it’ll look almost as good as a fresh paint job—without all of the added paint costs.
Toilet, tub, and bathroom sink
This is such an important area of your home to deep clean.
Not only will your guests notice how clean (or not clean) your bathroom is, but you will enjoy such a cleaner lifestyle by limiting the dirt, bacteria, and grime growing in your toilet.
It’s a high yield area to focus on because it will help you fight germs throughout your home if you can keep this one area as clean as possible.
01 Do the initial wipe down.
This usually involves clearing everything off the the counters, tub shelves, and toilet tank. Then, you can quickly spray every surface in the bathroom and allow it to soak three to five minutes prior to wiping it all down.
Do not forget to wipe down the flush handle on the toilet tank as well as the light switches and faucets.
02 Bust out the bleach (or baking soda)
Soak the toilet bowl and tub floor with bleach or a baking soda + water combination.
I like to apply the bleach or baking soda and give it a quick scrub right away, and then let it soak for upwards of fifteen minutes.
I’ll scrub it one last time and then rinse everything—including the toilet brush and holder I used to clean the toilet bowl.
03 Clean your shower curtain liner
Shower curtain liners can build up pink mold in no time. If your shower curtain liner isn’t washable then do your best to scrub it down with a bleach and water cleaning solution.
Or, swap out your shower curtain liner with one that is washable and save yourself some time in the long run.
Note: I used to keep buying cheap, $3 plastic curtain liners from Walmart because I had such a hard time getting them clean after they turned pink. I didn’t like doing that, though, because it felt wasteful.
Finally, I splurged on a $20 high-quality, washable shower curtain and haven’t looked back in three years. Highly recommend.
Appliances
I rarely hear people talking about the importance of give your appliances a deep clean—both large and small—but it makes for such a more pleasant meal prep experience.
Note: I also like to use this opportunity to declutter, or donate, any unused appliances as well.
Small appliances
Any frequently used small appliances should be cleaned.
Do you have a coffee pot? Wipe it down. A stand mixer? Wipe it down.
Blender? Wipe it down. And don’t forget to clean in the inside of the blender base attachment!
Any food bits, crusties, or leftover smoothie grime can invite critters, mold, and other pests into your home.
Materials needed:
- All purpose cleaning spray or a DIY cleaning solution (one part white vinegar with one part water + ten drops of some essential oils like lemon or lavender)
- An old toothbrush
- Cloth or rag
Large appliances
All large appliances should be wiped down and you should also examine the interior as well.
If it looks a bit worse for the wear, then run a manufacturer’s cleaning cycle (any modern dishwasher, stove, or washing machines typically has a pre-programed cleaning cycles you can run that will help you “nuke” any bacteria or grime).
Dishwasher
It’s all about wiping down the sides of the dishwasher door (be prepared to see some serious grime!) and the food filter or basket that’s in the dishwasher.
Oven
Baked on food bits in the oven invite can create unnecessary smoke in your home while baking. And worse yet, can even become flammable (yes, I’ve learned this the hard way).
Grease, in particular, should be clean up and scrubbed out.
I will typically pull out the oven racks first and give them a quick scrub before moving on to the bottom of the oven and the oven door.
If you’re noticing you’re having a lot of smoke when baking, then pay close attention to the floor of your oven. Clear out any food scrubs and give it a good wipe.
If your oven has a lot of baked on food and hard to scrub areas, then make a baking soda solution and let it sit overnight.
Fridge
Toss any old and expired food. Look through your condiments and toss anything you don’t like or haven’t used in ages.
Then, give it a good wipe down.
Any stains that are underneath the glass or embedded into the shelves should get taken apart and washed in the sink.
Having a clean fridge in the kitchen is kind of like having a clean toilet in the bathroom: keeping that one area clean, helps keep everything else clean too.
Pantry
Consolidate your shelves to make as much space available (this will make the cleaning part easier).
Wipe down the shelves first and then sweep the floor (if it’s a walk-in pantry).
Any opened packages should be re-bagged or put into a storage container.
Inspect for signs of pests or critters. Throw out any suspect food.
Cabinets & drawers
It’s during the deep cleaning process that we often discover how much stuff we have that we no longer need.
I like to empty and wipe down our:
- Kitchen “junk” drawers
- Bathroom drawers
- Closet drawers
Then, I will place everything back into the drawers that’s important and toss the rest. Deep cleaning and purging go hand in hand.
Hot tip: use canned air for the corners of your drawers. The corner can be so hard to reach with a rag, and I’ve found canned air to work the best.
Entryway
The entryway is the first place people see inside your home. It’s also the entry point for dirt collect from outside and start spreading through your home.
I like to keep our entryway swept daily and during any deep clean that I do, I’ll make sure to give our entryway a once over:
For me, this means clearing out any jackets, clothes, purses, or other belongings that are collecting on our wall rack.
As a general guideline, the more stuff, the more dust. I keep our shoes on the porch and our jackets limited to two per person.
Shoes
Keep shoes outside! Or if they’re inside, keep them in cubbies or drawers. Walking around the house with shoes on is the quickest way to undermine all your deep cleaning efforts.
Pets
This is another piece of advice I’ve learned the hard way:
But, if you’re going to the trouble to deep clean your home, you should also give any inside pets a bath, too.
If you plan to shower your pets indoors, do this first, before you clean the bathroom. There’s nothing like finally getting your bathroom spot less and then having to pick up fur balls everywhere.
You can also use a deshedding brush before bathing them to cut down on the fur that gets washed into your shower drain.
Last but not least, do not forget their flea collar or flea ointment. I love animals as much as the next person (or more!) but they can bring fleas and worms into your home if you don’t treat them.
It’s so much easier to prevent than to treat. And that’s kind of like a metaphor for the deep cleaning in general.
Deep cleaning doesn’t need to be done in 1 day
It’s perfectly acceptable to spread out a deep cleaning schedule throughout the week. Deep cleaning an entire house can easily take 8, or more, hours.
Tackling an hour day, or even a half-hour a day, will mean you’re done in a couple weeks’ time without necessarily needing to change your schedule that much.
Frequent deep cleans mean shorter deep cleans. The more you stay on top of your deep cleaning routine, the easier it is to maintain.
Sometimes, I don’t even realize how much some dirt and grime was bothering me until I have it all clean up.
Ah, it’s like a breath of fresh air.
I hope this inspires you to take on this cleaning challenge and feel like you can reclaim all of the spaces in your home!
It’s your home, after all, and you should enjoy it.
