How Often Should You Deep Clean Your House?

From making homes allergen-free to boosting the immune system, improving mental health, and keeping household illnesses at bay, experts usually have a lot to say about the health benefits of regular deep cleaning.

This begs the age-old question, “how often should you deep clean your house?”.

If you don’t know the answer to this question, I’m going to answer it here for you today.

Deep cleaning is a crucial part of housekeeping, that’s it’s important to know how often you should carry out this task.

Deep cleaning your home is an important part of maintaining a healthy and happy household, but it doesn’t need to be done every day.

By breaking up your deep cleaning tasks into manageable chunks, you can keep your home looking and feeling its best without feeling overwhelmed.

Whether you choose to do a seasonal deep clean or tackle smaller tasks on a more frequent basis, remember that consistency is key. When you deep clean your house a few times a year, you will create a healthier and happier living environment for you and your family.

How Often Should You Deep Clean Your House?

When it comes to deciding how often should you deep clean your house, I would recommend doing this at least twice a year. However, if you have a family member who has asthma or something similar, I would recommend doing a thorough cleaning 3-4 times per year to ensure your house stays free of dust mites etc

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How Often Should You Deep Clean Your House?

The universal advice from most cleaning gurus is you should do this at least 2-3 times a year.

And while most households often do it during spring — we’re all familiar with spring cleaning — there’s no harm in carrying out a deep clean regularly.

But quite frankly, the question about how often you should deep clean your house mostly depends on a few personal factors:

How clean you always like your home to be
How flexible your schedule normally is
If you have a member of your family who has asthma or allergies

As for circumstances, here are some instances where doing a deep clean is a great idea. Whenever you’re planning to host a large number of guests, when you’ve moved into a new home, or when you want to sell your home,

What Exactly Is Deep Cleaning?

In the simplest terms, it’s basically thorough cleaning.

When you clean on a weekly basis, you may dust your shelves, vacuum the carpet, but you’re not making a huge effort to get into those hard to reach areas, or pulling down your window treatments to give them a good wash.

When you deep clean your house, you are tackling those areas you normally overlook on regular days, like your mattress pads, or getting behind the washing machine in your laundry room to give it a thorough deep cleaning.

It’s often more time-consuming and tedious since it requires a higher level of detail, this is why we only do it a couple of times per year.

If your schedule is packed with work and family obligations that you barely have time to thoroughly clean your house, consider contacting a professional cleaning service near you. Remember this is something you will only do a couple of times per year, but it is necessary that it gets done!

Why Bother To Do Deep Cleaning?

Besides taking your home’s cleanliness to the next level, here are many other benefits that happen when you deep clean your house.

#1 You’ll Get Rid of Harmful Germs

Even if your house is often in tip-top shape all the time (thanks to your everyday housekeeping efforts), truth is, there are unseen guests always lurking around on the “clean-looking” areas and surfaces — bacteria and viruses.

With thorough deep cleaning, you’ll use products that sanitize and disinfect surfaces, instead of ignoring thoise hard to reach areas, you will make an effort to get into these areas and clear your house of dust and harmful allergens.

By improving the overall sanitation of your home, you’ll protect yourself and your family members from illnesses and infections.

#2 Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality Improves

There’s a lot that can affect the air quality in your home — mold, dust, pet fur and dander, pollen that finds its way to your home, to name a few.

When you don’t often clean your home thoroughly, you’ll share your house with these common allergy culprits that often lower the quality of air indoors and compromise your immune systems.

#3 You’ll Rid Your House of Pests

There’s nothing as frustrating and embarrassing as the sight of flies, roaches, bed bugs, dust mites, or any other nasty critters in your home.

These pests often hide in those dark and easily-forgotten spots in your house that you often give ignore while doing normal chores.

When you clean your house thoroughly, you’ll eliminate those pests that you maybe haven’t noticed before. So here’s an example for you – my daughter has a million stuffies in her bedroom…….on the floor. She is supposed to vacuum her bedroom floors every Saturday, but I don’t know if this actually happens, because I’m cleaning elsewhere! So every quarter, I help her to get everything off her floors and do a thorough vacuum of the area, we also use this time to wash as many stuffies as we can.

It makes me feel better because I know she is sleeping in a clean room.

#4 You Eliminate Long-standing Clutter

When you take the time to deep clean your house, I would also recommend going through some of the clutter you have. Take some time to go through your closet and get rid of clothes and shoes you haven’t worn in years. Get rid of old books that have been sitting on your bookshelf for ages, and toys that the kids no longer use, or that are broken. All these items that have just been making your home look too crowded and need to be disposed of.

#5 Your Overall Mood Improves

Nothing beats the feeling of having a thoroughly-cleaned home. This deep sense of satisfaction and accomplishment will make you feel happier and relaxed. It’s nice to be able to relax at the end of the day in a nice clean environment. I don’t do well with clutter, so my mood definitely changes when I have a clean home.

What Makes “Deep Cleaning” Different from “Regular Cleaning”?

Most of us have a basic routine that revolves around the obvious chores — a bit of tidying up here and there, wiping visible dust on floors and surfaces, garbage disposal, doing laundry and dishes………….you know, just the surface-level clean-ups.

You simply focus on the visible dirt and mess because the goal is to achieve a clean and tidy home at the surface level, and that’s all you have time for most of the time.

Thorough cleaning, on the other hand, goes beyond mere surface-level clean-ups.

Here’s what I mean

On normal days, chances are you never bother to remove dust from all your light fixtures and air events, sanitize kitchen countertops, clean the filters in your washer adn dryer, or wipe your cabinets inside out,

But when you clean your entire home thoroughly, you’re not just kissing a dirty home goodbye. You’re basically giving your house a good spring cleaning.

What Are Deep Cleaning Tasks?

Just as the name suggests, these are simply tasks that make up your deep cleaning checklist.

They are often specific to each area of your house.

It’s also worth mentioning that as much as these tasks are generally time-consuming and labor-intensive (note, “generally”), there are those that are much easier to tackle and less time-demanding than others.

Typical cleaning products and supplies for these tasks include:

Microfiber cloths
Rubber gloves
Dish soap
A good sponge
Glass cleaner
Dust mop (long-handled)
Scrub brush
Vacuum cleaner
Steam cleaner (optional)
Essential oil (to add to natural homemade cleaners)
Spray bottles (if you’re making a homemade cleaner)
Cleaning solution (store-bought or homemade)
Disinfecting spray or wipes

I like to put together a cleaning caddy with all of the above so I can grab it and take it with me when I need it.

Cleaning Frequency

As I mentioned earlier, you can get away with cleaning your house thoroughly at least twice a year (which is better than failing to do so for a whole year).

But to maintain optimal cleanliness, it’s best to get into the habit of regular, thorough cleaning.

You don’t have to dedicate a whole day to complete all these tasks. In fact doing this will completely overwhelm you and you will end up doing a not so great job.

When you’re getting ready to clean your house thoroughly, it’s important that you figure out a schedule that works for you. Taking on too much with kids at your feet will prove to be a disavantage!

Carry out the tasks at your own pace, this may mean it will take you longer to deep clean your house, and that’s okay.

I have older kids that can help me to deep clean my house, if you have younger kids that have wants and needs, you won’t get done as fast as I will. You may not even get everything done that you want to, and that’s okay.

Life is busy, and you are doing your best!

And if you never seem to find time to carry out these tasks, remember — contacting a cleaning service is always an option. Take the kids out for a fun day, and let them do their work! No mom guilt allowed!

Daily Deep Cleaning Tasks

There are certain deep cleaning tasks that can be done on a daily basis, if you have the time. These type of tasks will apply to the high-traffic areas in your house that should be deep cleaned regularly.

Deep Cleaning Your Kitchen

For example, your kitchen is one of the most frequented spaces in your house and where you prepare food from. There are tasks you can complete here daily to prevent germs, grime, and dirt build-up.

Examples of daily kitchen cleaning tasks include the following:

Wipe down the kitchen sink. Wash the sink with a damp cloth and a few drops of dish soap, then use vinegar, baking soda, and hot water to remove the grease and food debris along the drain. Simply pour about a cup of baking soda in the drain, then add a cup of vinegar, and let the mixture sit for a few minutes before flushing it down using hot water.
Wipe down kitchen counters with a damp microfiber cloth (dampened with soapy water), then sanitize these surfaces. Water-vinegar mixture is an effective natural sanitizer.

Deep Cleaning Your Bathroom

There are certain cleaning tasks you should be doing in your bathroom on a daily basis, these aren’t waht I consider deep cleaning tasks, but if you do these on a daily basis, you will ensure a clean bathroom.

Examples of daily bathroom cleaning tasks include the following:

Wipe down bathroom sinks the same way you clean the kitchen sink — using a clean cloth, baking soda, and diluted white vinegar. I clan mine when I do my teeth, so first thing in the morning, and last thing at night.
Clean the toilet bowl with a scrub brush and your preferred toilet cleaner, and disinfect the seat and handle.

Vacuum High Traffic Areas

I would highly recommend that you vacuum high traffic areas on a daily basis to keep as much dirt and dust out of your home as possible. So think of areas like your front door, hallway, kitchen, and any other area where your family hangs out. We are in and out to our back patio, so I like to vacuum that area a lot.

If I don’t have time to vacuum myself, I get my trusty iRobot (Rover) going, and he does a great job for me.

Weekly Cleaning Tasks

You can and should add some of these tasks to your weekly cleaning schedule. Some of them you may not be able to get to, and that’s okay, but try and fit in as many as you can. If you keep your home clean(ish), then when it comes time to deep cleaning your home, you won’t have as much to do!

Here are examples of tasks that you can carry out every week:

Dust, then wipe down wood furniture with your preferred wood cleaner.
Sanitize all sponges in your house
Dust and wipe down your coffee maker, microwave, and other daily use kitchen appliances using a damp cloth. Distilled white vinegar (in its diluted form) is a great homemade solution for cleaning kitchen appliances.
Vacuum, then mop down the kitchen floor, living room floor, laundry room floor, and other floors in high-traffic areas
Wash bathroom towels, kitchen towels, and bath mats.
Sanitize door knobs, light switches, and staircase rails
Wash bedsheets, pillow covers, bath towels, and shower curtains
Dust and disinfect remote controls and kids’ toys
Wash and sanitize trash cans
Scrub and sanitize the bathtub

PRO TIP: I recommend washing towels in the evening, because you can throw them into the dryer and not worry about them getting wrinkled. You can then fold them and put them away in minutes.

Monthly Cleaning Tasks

Here are examples of tasks that you can carry out every month:

Remove dust and cobwebs from ceilings, ceiling fans, light fixtures, and walls
Dust and wipe down picture frames to clear dirt and fingerprints
Clean your washing machine, vacuum, and other large appliances
Wash your baseboards
Clean the dishwasher

Quarterly Cleaning Tasks

These are tasks that you can carry out every three to four months. Typical examples of quarterly tasks include:

Clean mattresses and mattress pads with baking soda and a vacuum cleaner. You only need to sprinkle baking soda on the mattresses (it helps absorb odors), let it sit for some time, then vacuum it before spraying vodka on the mattresses (for disinfecting purposes)
Clean windows (inside out using glass cleaner), window treatments, and wash curtains
Wipe down the exterior and interior surfaces of cabinets and cupboards
Wash the oven and rangehood thoroughly
Clear expired food from the fridge and freezer before cleaning them thoroughly

Annual Cleaning Tasks

These are tasks that you can carry out once a year. Examples of annual cleaning tasks include:

Wash fireplace and chimney
Clean out bedroom closets
Deep clean gutters
Thorough carpet cleaning and upholstery cleaning (a steam cleaner is perfect for deep cleaning and sanitizing upholstered furniture)

Creating a Deep Cleaning Schedule

The thought of giving your whole house a deep clean can feel overwhelming because of how big of a chore thorough cleaning seems in your mind.

But having a schedule will make you feel that it’s all doable because you’ll get to break down the entire chore into smaller tasks.

This is why I always insist on creating a schedule that works for you (and sticking to it) — it will help take the guesswork out of what, where, and when to deep clean.

The point of a schedule isn’t to make you feel like you have a lot to do.

Nope.

On the contrary, it relieves you from constantly worrying about the unknown.

Try it out and see!

Here’s how to go about creating a schedule that fits your home’s needs and personal schedule:

Step 1: See What Needs to Be Done

Grab a pen and paper attached to a clipboard, and go from one room to another. Look around each room and take note of everything that will need a deep clean in that area.

By the end of this process, you should have a list of all the rooms in your house along with tasks you’ll need to complete for each area.

Step 2: Group All Tasks By Frequency

Once you’ve filled in all the tasks, decide on the daily tasks, the weekly ones, the ones you’ll do monthly, those you’ll complete quarterly, and the tasks you’ll perform once a year. Note this down as well.

We have included all of this in our super popular cleaning planner, you can get it here.

Finally: Put the Schedule Together

Now that your checklist is complete with all the possible tasks, print it out so you can use it as your guide the next time you’re preparing to clean your home thoroughly.

Deep Cleaning 101: Final Thoughts

Whether you’ve yet to start your deep cleaning journey or have done it a few times, I hope I have provided you with some deep cleaning tips on just how often should you deep clean your home.

Thorough cleaning is one of those things that we never truly want to do, but we must do it because of the many benefits that come with it.

A thoroughly-cleaned house has better indoor air quality, is free from harmful bacteria, viruses, and pests, and feels much more refreshing.

Once you start to put together a schedule or routine that works for you, you will find deep cleaning your home much easier, and not as big of a chore that you thought.

The most important part is creating a schedule that works for you!

The best way to go about deep cleaning your house is to tackle this daunting chore with a plan — a cleaning schedule. It’s totally worth it!

I hope I answered the question of how often should you deep clean your house!

How Often Should You Deep Clean Your House?

How Often Should You Deep Clean Your House?

How Often Should You Deep Clean Your House?

What Exactly Is Deep Cleaning?