Deep House Cleaning vs. Regular Cleaning

Deep House Cleaning vs. Regular Cleaning

When talking about weekly house cleaning, we all know the drill. We must do the weekly house cleaning checklist, vacuum, mop, dust, and pick up all odds and ends around the house. But what about deep house cleaning? How does that differ from your regularly scheduled weekly house cleaning?

What is Deep House Cleaning?

Person Wipes Counter with Yellow ClothDeep house cleaning refers to going beyond weekly house cleaning and doing a more involved and extensive cleaning of your house. Deep house cleaning is only done seasonally, before significant events, or before or after a move. Due to its more vigorous cleaning intensity, it requires more time and may need to be spread out over several hours or even across an entire day.

What Should Be Covered in a Regular Weekly House Cleaning?

When you are working through your weekly house cleaning checklist, here are the things you should concentrate on each time:

  • Appliances
  • Furniture
  • Carpet and rugs
  • Tubs and showers
  • Bathroom surfaces
  • Toilets

Wiping Down Kitchen Appliances 

While your microwave, stove, fridge, toaster oven, and other appliances may not look dirty, don’t skip them whenever you do your weekly house cleaning. Clean kitchen appliances of fingerprints, food items, grease, dust, and debris you cannot see. Make sure to avoid build-up by wiping them down with a clean sponge or disinfectant wipe, at the minimum, each time you do your weekly house cleaning. Pro tip: remember to wipe down the handles.

Dusting Furniture 

While you may think dusting is just a cosmetic concern (how do those cobwebs multiply so fast?), dust can be abrasive and potentially put fine scratches in your furniture if something rubs against it. In addition, dry cloths move dust around, so you will want to use a multipurpose spray cleanser or water to dampen a cloth when dusting.

Directions for DIY Natural Dusting Spray Cleanser

Cleaner Dusts Phone on DeskUse this recipe to make your own DIY natural dusting spray with items from around the house.

Ingredients:
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 10 drops of lemon essential oil
  • 2 cups water
  • Spray bottle
Directions:

Use microfiber towels to avoid leaving lint on your furniture! Pour all ingredients into a spray bottle. Shake to mix thoroughly.

Vacuuming Carpets and Rugs

It is of utmost importance to vacuum your carpets and rugs during your weekly house cleaning, even if you don’t see visible dirt. Heavy dirt will get ground in, and light dirt will remain on top. This advice is especially critical in high-traffic areas, such as family rooms, hallways, and bedrooms. You can even add a robot vacuum to your home to maintain the floors in between your cleaning days.

Washing Tub and Shower

Due to the presence of moisture, cleaning your tub and shower during your weekly house cleaning is critical to avoid allowing mildew and soap scum to build up. To keep your tub and shower ahead of the game, wipe it down daily with a DIY cleanser and a squeegee. Use the following recipe for your DIY daily cleaner:

Ingredients for DIY Daily Cleaner:

  • Diluted vinegar
  • Water
  • Few drops of lemon oil (optional) 
  • Spray bottle

Directions:

  1. Place equal parts vinegar and equal parts water into a spray bottle. If the vinegar scent is too overwhelming, add the lemon oil to give the mixture a citrus scent. 
  2. Spray the shower walls with the combination after each use.

For weekly house cleaning, you will need to mix a couple of different ingredients to add additional cleaning power to your DIY natural cleaner:

Ingredients of DIY Natural Cleaner:

Cleaner Sprays Surface to CleanBaking soda

Liquid dish soap

Directions:

  1. Mix one or two cups of baking soda with several drops of your preferred liquid dish soap.
  2. Using a brush or sponge, apply cleanser to the walls of your tub or shower. Run the shower to wash it away.

The baking soda will remove stubborn soap scum as an abrasive agent, and the soap will break down grease and oil.

Disinfect Bathroom Surfaces 

Your bathroom may look clean, but this is one of the germiest areas of your house. Make sure to wipe down every surface in the bathroom with disinfectant spray or wipes during weekly house cleaning to keep it sanitary.

Cleaning Your Toilet

The toilet is definitely a must-clean item while doing weekly house cleaning. Make sure to wipe it down with your bathroom cleanser and an eco-friendly toilet cleaner.

What is the Difference When Deep House Cleaning?

When you decide to do deep house cleaning, each room requires a different checklist of extra items to cover, separate from your weekly house cleaning chores. So, let’s review them room by room.

You’ll want to focus on these rooms during your deep house cleaning: 

  • Kitchen
  • Bathroom
  • Living room
  • Bedroom

Deep Cleaning In Your Kitchen:

Man Cleans Inside OvenRefrigerator – Empty your refrigerator, remove all expired or spoiled items, wipe down each shelf, and clean behind and under.

Oven – Scrub inside the oven, clean the stovetop, hood fan, and stove grates, and clean behind the oven.

Backsplash and counters – Take the time to move all items off your counters and thoroughly wash the backsplash and all surfaces.

Dishwasher – Clean the filter, wipe out the utensil holder, clean the drain, and wipe down the control panel.

Microwave – Take the turntable out of the microwave, and wipe down all surfaces, including the door.

Freezer – Remove all contents from the freezer and review them for expired items. Wipe down all surfaces and return all unexpired food to the freezer.

Cabinets and pantry – Remove all items from the cabinets and pantry and discard any expired food. Wipe down shelves. Organize remaining food items and replace them in cabinets and pantry.

Floors – First, sweep all floors, and then vacuum. Once all dust and various debris have been removed, mop the floors.

Coffeemaker – Thoroughly clean the coffeemaker by washing the pot and removable parts well with soap and water and running a vinegar cycle through your machine.  

Deep Cleaning In Your Bathroom:

Rugs – Take any bathroom rugs and wash them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Mirror – Clean your mirror with glass cleaner.

Sink – Take everything off the sink and wipe down each item. If you have a cup or toothbrush holder, wash them in the dishwasher or by hand. Clean and disinfect sink, faucet, and handles.

Cleaner Scrubs Toilet with Brush and CleanerToilet – As with your weekly house cleaning, you will want to wipe down every inch of your toilet to ensure germs and bacteria are cleaned off. Then, make sure to clean the tank and the base.

Shower and tub –You should wash the shower curtain and the liner according to the manufacturer’s directions, follow regular weekly house cleaning directions for the shower and tub, and make sure to clean the faucet and handles carefully.

Cabinets and toiletries – Empty your medicine and bathroom cabinets and review all of your toiletries. Get rid of anything that is expired or that you no longer need. If you find any medications you no longer require, follow the guidelines from the FDA.

Drug Take Back Programs

Check with your local pharmacy for ways to safely dispose of any unused medications. 

Flushing Medicines

Some medications that are particularly harmful to others may have specific directions to flush them immediately down the sink or toilet when they are no longer needed if you cannot get them to a “Drug Take Back” program. You will know they are on this list via the label or patient information leaflet you received with your medication. Please do not flush your medicines unless they are specifically on this flushable list.

Disposing of Medication in Household Trash

If you cannot take medication to a “Drug Take Back” program and it is not on the flushable list, you can throw it in your household trash, following the guidelines below.

Directions:
  1. Remove all medications from their original containers and mix them well with something unpleasant, such as used coffee grounds, kitty litter, or dirt. This is to make the medicine unappealing to children, pets, and anyone who might go into your garbage looking for drugs.
  2. Put the mixture into something you can close tightly, such as a re-sealable zipper storage bag, empty can, or another type of container, to keep the drug from leaking or spilling out.
  3. Throw the container that holds the medication into the trash.
  4. Take the original medication container, scratch out all your personal identifying information, and then throw the packaging away.

Grout

Gloved Hand Scrubbing Tile GroutCleaning your grout may be arduous, but it is essential to your bathroom deep house cleaning. To ease the burden and make it easier, utilize a natural, non-toxic cleaner like baking soda. When you clean grout with baking soda and vinegar, you clean your household without subjecting yourself to harsh chemicals, and you limit the presence of toxic fumes or potential damage to delicate floorings.

Before cleaning the grout in your shower tile flooring, clean the tiles as illustrated above. You want to remove all loose dirt and debris to ensure the grout is soap-scum-free.

DIY Baking Soda Grout Cleaner 

Here is a recipe for a DIY grout cleaner that is perfect for deep house cleaning:

Ingredients:
  • 3 cups baking soda
  • 1 cup water
  • Toothbrush
Directions:
  1. Mix water and baking soda until they form a paste. Slater the baking soda paste in between tiles and work it into grout using an old toothbrush.
  2. Once it has thoroughly saturated the grout lines with the baking soda paste, allow it to set for approximately 15 minutes. Once it has done so, rinse the tile with a cloth dampened with warm water—dry well.

Deep Cleaning Your Living Room:

Electronics – Gently dust all of your electronics. Use microfiber cloths to prevent merely moving dust around.

Remotes – This is the perfect time to wipe down all of your remotes with an anti-bacterial wipe since they are an ideal catch-all for collecting germs and bacteria.

Vacuuming CouchCouch – Using the accessories included with your vacuum, make sure to vacuum all around the cushions, between them, and under them. Next, wash the pillow covers and all the throw blankets.

Floors – Deep house cleaning is the time to shampoo your carpets and mop your wood floors. If you don’t get a chance to do this in your weekly house cleanings, you need to focus extra energy on your deep house cleaning to get out the dug-in dirt.

Rugs – Depending on the size and fabrics of your area rugs, you can wash them in your washing machine. If not, you may need to take them to a dry cleaner or use a rented or commercial carpet shampooer to get them fresh and clean. 

Deep Cleaning In Your Bedroom:

Bedding – This is the time to clean all your bedding when deep house cleaning. In your weekly house cleaning, you may wash and change your sheets. When you do your deep house cleaning, you will wash all your bedding, including your mattress cover, blankets, pillow covers, and anything else you may use on your bed.

Mattress – There are no set rules about when it is time to flip or rotate your mattress, so take the time to do this when doing your deep house cleaning.

Drawers and closets – Review what is in your drawers and closets. Then, get rid of those things you are not using and give them away! Deep house cleaning is the perfect time to reorganize your drawers and closets and make up a system that works for you. Then, remove all the extraneous stuff from your room and streamline your wardrobe!

End tables and bureaus – Utilizing your DIY dusting spray and some microfiber cloths, dust all the furniture in your bedroom, making sure to get behind and under each piece.

Underneath the Bed – Look underneath the bed, pull out anything stored there, and make sure it has yet to become a dust collector. Then, vacuum underneath and see if you can remove the content kept under there.

As you can see, deep house cleaning is much more involved than weekly house cleaning. Call professional house cleaners if the job requires more than you can (or want to) do. Pure House Cleaning, a network of local, Seattle-area cleaning professionals, is ready to make your home sparkle and shine with eco-friendly cleaning products and dedicated effort.