Deep cleaning checklist
A deep clean is not a standard clean done slowly. It is a different list: the surfaces a weekly visit never touches, most of which need a chemical left to work rather than more scrubbing. This sheet is only the additional work — run it alongside the standard house cleaning checklist, not instead of it.
Before the visit
- Confirm the oven is cold and empty
- Ask whether the fridge can be emptied today
- Check for surfaces the client does not want treated
- Budget the dwell times into the arrival hour
After the visit
- Show the client the oven and the fridge before you leave
- Say plainly what did not come off, and why
- Book the recurring visit while the home looks its best
Kitchen
- Oven interior, racks and door glass35 min
- Extractor hood, filter degreased or soaked20 min
- Fridge interior, shelves out and washed25 min
- Inside cupboards and drawers, fronts and runners30 min
- Behind and under the appliances that move15 min
- Splashback grout and sealant line10 min
Bathrooms
- Grout scrubbed, mould treated with dwell time25 min
- Limescale on screen, taps and head, descaler left to work20 min
- Extractor fan cover washed8 min
- Behind and under the pan and pedestal10 min
Whole home
- Skirting, door frames and door tops washed25 min
- Light fittings and shades15 min
- Interior window glass, frames and tracks30 min
- Radiators, front and between the fins12 min
- Upholstery vacuumed, cushions out15 min
- Carpet edges and under moveable furniture20 min
Dwell time is the job
Oven cleaner, limescale remover and mould treatment all work on contact time, not pressure. The sequence that saves an hour is: walk in, apply everything that needs to soak, then go and do the dry work while it acts.
Never mix an acid descaler with a bleach-based mould product, and never apply either to a hot surface. Follow the label's dwell time and ventilate — the label is the legal instruction, not a suggestion.
The minutes on this sheet assume you sequenced the dwell times properly. Applied one at a time, the same list runs about ninety minutes longer.
What a deep clean does not include
It does not include moving heavy furniture on your own, cleaning inside a loft or garage, exterior windows above the ground floor, or anything that needs a licence. Write that on the quote.
It also does not include making an old surface look new. Etched glass, worn enamel and stained grout are damage, not dirt. Photograph them before you start.
Turning the list into a price
The whole sheet on a three-bed home is a long day for one person. Quote a deep clean as a fixed price with a stated scope, never as an open-ended hourly job, and pin the scope to a printed copy of this sheet.
If the client only wants part of it, price the parts: the oven and the extractor are one line, the bathrooms are another, the windows are a third.