Complete House Cleaning Checklist

Nooks, crannies, corners and cobwebs. Oh dear!

We admit it, house cleaning is a chore. This complete house cleaning checklist will get you on the right track. It provides a detailed list of cleaning tasks to help you clean your home thoroughly and make sure you don’t overlook the places that are easy to miss.

We promise it’s possible to get it all done, but it does take a bit of determination, focus and time to make your house shine.

This is a comprehensive house cleaning checklist that we use to clean homes at our house cleaning company.

What’s Included in This Complete House Cleaning Checklist?

The checklist covers cleaning tasks throughout the home, including kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, living areas, floors, dusting, vacuuming, and those often-forgotten nooks, crannies and corners.

The list is detailed and should help to keep you or your delegates focused on cleaning your home.

Depending on the specifics of your home, not all of the items listed will apply. But if you follow this list, checking off the items that do apply, your house will be spick and span and every corner of your house will shine.

You can find the complete cleaning checklist at the bottom of this article along with an Excel copy you can download and customize for yourself.

How to Use the House Cleaning Checklist

Start at the top of your checklist and work through each room or area, checking off each task as you complete it. You don’t have to do every task every time you clean. Some cleaning jobs need to be done regularly, while others are better suited to periodic deep cleaning.

If your house is large, you can work on one floor at a time or divide the cleaning into smaller sections. The goal is to use the checklist to keep track of what needs to be cleaned without feeling overwhelmed.

Tips for Cleaning Your House Quickly and Efficiently

House cleaning is not at the top of the list of fun things to do. If you let your mind wander too much, you’ll spend even more time cleaning.

Use these tips to help you clean efficiently as you check off items from the checklist one by one.

Focus on what you’re doing, make every move count, and you’ll finish more quickly. Household organizing and cleaning can be done quicker than you think.

1. Clean Top to Bottom, Back to Front, Right to Left

Work your way around the room, cleaning as you go, just one area at a time.

Cleaning from top to bottom helps keep dust and debris from falling onto surfaces you’ve already cleaned.

2. Put Your Cleaning Supplies in One Place

Don’t waste time running around getting a broom or cleaners or whatever you need to complete the task that you’re doing.

Your bucket should contain glass cleaner, disinfectant, detergent, degreaser, soap scum remover, Comet, Soft Scrub, scrub brush, sponge, toothbrush, and a green scrubby for starters.

3. Dust First, Vacuum Last

Start dusting from the top of the highest shelves, the tops of cabinets. These tend to be less dusty than lower shelves.

Even if you dust quickly, you’ll be moving the dust down to a lower level, usually the floor, where it is easily vacuumed away.

4. Make a Schedule and Stick to It

The mess gets worse the longer you put it off.

If the house is too big, hit a floor at a time, or clean all the bathrooms, for example, on Tuesdays.

5. Identify Your Trouble Spots

Determine how you’re going to get your problem area cleaned up.

Do you need any special cleaning products? Is soap scum or mold and mildew taking over the bath? Select the tools you’ll need, and who you can assign the task to.

6. Get Help

If there are others living and breathing in the house with you, who are most certainly contributing to the mess, get them to help.

My favorite way to do this is to assign tasks to each child for a week at a time, and rotate tasks. Don’t forget to throw in deep cleaning items, like the mess under the sink, or spraying down and wiping the trash compactor.

7. Use the Right Product for the Job

Use natural cleaning products if possible. We don’t use fancy products at our cleaning company, but it’s important to use good quality, heavy-duty cleaning products that do a great job.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money either. We use a solution of vinegar and water to damp mop linoleum or vinyl floors when appropriate. Always check the flooring manufacturer’s cleaning recommendations before using a homemade cleaning solution.

8. Dump Your Junk

Get clutter free. This is a hard one. I like stuff too, and I was raised in a family of pack rats, so this doesn’t come naturally to me either. The room will feel kind of bare at first, but trust me, you’ll get used to it (you’ll actually come to prefer it), and it makes clean up a breeze.

Download the Complete House Cleaning Checklist

You can download the Complete House Cleaning Checklist in Excel format and customize it for your own home. Add, remove, or change tasks to create a cleaning checklist that fits your home and cleaning routine.

Get Mrs. Clean’s Cleaning Checklist in Excel format.

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