Deep cleaning: the order, the tricks and the right products

A deep clean is not the weekly clean stretched out. It is a different job. The weekly round keeps the surfaces looking right. A deep clean goes after what has built up over months: limescale in the shower, the film of grease on the cupboard doors above the hob, dust sitting on frames and door trim, and the grout that has slowly gone from white to grey.

We do deep cleans all year in holiday homes and private houses, and three things decide the result: the order you work in, contact time, and matching the product to the dirt. Everything else is detail. Here is the whole method, so you can do it yourself.

The order does half the work

The classic mistake is starting with the floor because it looks worst. Then the dust from the tops of cupboards and light fittings lands on it afterwards, and you get to do the floor twice.

Work top down, and dry before wet. Vacuum ceilings, corners, light fittings and cupboard tops first. Then wipe your way down the wall: frames, door trim, switches, handles, skirting boards. After that the wet rooms, then the kitchen, and the floors dead last. Finish one room completely before moving on, rather than doing all the bathrooms, then all the windows, then all the floors. It takes less time and you can actually see how far along you are.

Contact time is the trick most people skip

The single most useful trick in a deep clean is free: leave the product on. A descaler needs 5 to 10 minutes on a damp tile before you touch it. A degreaser needs the same on the extractor hood. Oven cleaner often needs half an hour or more.

When people say a product does not work, it is usually because they sprayed and wiped straight away. The chemistry never got to do anything, so the arm had to do the entire job. Spray every surface in the room first, go and start somewhere else, and come back. That is exactly why two people are faster than one on this job: one lays the products out, the other follows behind.

The five products you actually need

There are usually fifteen bottles under the sink, and twelve of them are the same chemistry with different labels. You need five things, and they cover everything in a home:

• An acidic product (descaler). For limescale, soap scum and toilet stains. Everything in the shower, on taps, in the toilet and on glass doors. Household vinegar works too, but it is weaker and the smell is strong.
• An alkaline product (degreaser). For grease, cooking residue and soot. Extractor hood, hob, the cupboards above the cooker, grill racks. Grease needs a base, not an acid, which is why vinegar does nothing at all to an extractor hood.
• Isopropyl alcohol. For stickers, tape residue, finger grease on stainless steel, switches and screens. It dries without streaks and leaves no film.
• A neutral all-purpose cleaner. For floors, tables, doors and all the large areas that simply need washing. Use less than the bottle says. Too much soap leaves a tacky film that collects dust faster than before.
• Proper microfibre cloths. Several colours, so the bathroom cloth and the kitchen cloth never swap places. A good cloth removes more dirt than an expensive product on a bad cloth.

Beyond the five: a plastic scraper, an old toothbrush for grout, and a hairdryer. Bleach is deliberately not on the list. It whitens mould so the mark disappears, but it does not remove the cause, and it is the chemistry that is riskiest to mix.

The bathroom: limescale and soap scum are not the same thing

West Jutland water is hard, and limescale is the single thing we spend the most time on. The grey-white film on the tiles is often two layers: limescale from the water, with soap residue from shampoo and shower gel on top. That is why one pass rarely gives a clean result.

Wet the surface, apply the descaler, and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Take it off with a damp cloth, and do a second round if the tiles still feel rough. Rough means there is limescale left. Grout and corners get a brush, not a cloth. Finish by rinsing with clean water and drying off, otherwise the product dries in and leaves fresh streaks.

Two things not to do: do not use acid on natural stone such as marble and travertine, it etches dull patches into the surface within minutes. And do not use a scouring pad on shower glass or shiny plastic. The limescale comes off and the gloss goes with it.

The kitchen: grease needs different chemistry

The extractor hood filter gives you the most for the effort. Take the metal filter out, put it in the sink with the hottest water you can get and a good squeeze of washing-up liquid or a little soda crystals. Leave it half an hour. Most metal filters also survive a hot dishwasher cycle. Paper and carbon filters cannot be washed, they get replaced.

The oven takes oven cleaner and patience, not force. Apply, close the door, and let it work for as long as the manufacturer says. Soak the racks and trays meanwhile. Scrape burnt-on grease at the bottom with a plastic scraper, never steel wool on enamel. The cupboard doors above the hob carry an invisible film of grease you can feel with a fingertip: those need degreaser, not all-purpose cleaner.

The mixtures you must never make

This is the most important part of the article. Cleaning products are chemistry, and some combinations are genuinely dangerous in a small bathroom:

• Bleach and acid. Bleach together with descaler, vinegar or toilet cleaner releases chlorine gas. It happens in seconds and it is dangerous to breathe.
• Bleach and ammonia. Ammonia is in many glass cleaners. It produces chloramine vapour with the same problem.
• Two products on top of each other. Always rinse and wipe dry before switching product on the same surface.
• Acid on natural stone. Not dangerous to you, but the damage to the stone cannot be undone.

Always ventilate while you work, and wear gloves with strong products. If the bathroom has no proper extraction, leave the door open and switch on the kitchen hood.

What gets forgotten most often

When we arrive at a home where the owner has already done the big clean themselves, it is almost always the same places that were missed:

• The tops of door frames, cupboards and the fridge
• Behind and under the fridge, cooker and bed
• Window rebates and frames, not just the pane
• Door handles, light switches and remote controls
• Toilet seat hinges and behind the toilet
• Drains in the shower and the kitchen sink
• Radiators and vertical trim
• Inside cupboards, especially kitchen shelves

How we do it in practice

When we take on a deep clean, we always start by laying products out in every wet room, so the contact time is running while we vacuum high up somewhere else. Then we work room by room from the top down and finish with the floors of the whole home in one go. Two people, a fixed order, and a checklist so nothing gets skipped once the day gets long. We do this in holiday homes and private houses along the west coast, including Hvide Sande, Nymindegab, Henne Strand and Blaavand.

We will take the heavy round

We are a fixed 2-person team based in Bork, and a deep clean is exactly the kind of job where having done it before pays off. Send us the address and a short note on what needs it most, and get a fast quote at a fixed price.