The Cleaning Method That Makes Tackling Deep Cleans A Breeze

While there are things to do every week for a cleaner, more organized home, deep cleaning doesn't need to be done quite as often. The average recommendation is to deep clean your home at least once a year, at the bare minimum. You should deep clean more often than this, though, especially if you have pets and/or children in your household. It's easy to feel daunted by the sheer amount of work involved. To help ease some stress and make the process go more smoothly, consider using a zoning strategy to break up the work.

As the name indicates, deep cleaning involves thoroughly tackling every surface in your home beyond your regular cleanings. This includes areas such as walls, ceilings, baseboards, fans, windows, behind heavy furniture, and any other areas you may not get to on a weekly basis. The purpose is to remove dust, dirt, and other debris from these infrequently touched surfaces so they can stay clean for several weeks or months at a time. When considering deep vs. regular cleaning, the former requires going beyond regular vacuuming, dusting, mopping, and tackling commonly touched surfaces, such as counters, sinks, and toilets.

Depending on your schedule and the overall size of your home, deep cleaning can seem like an impossible task. You don't want to skip out on deep cleans, though. Not only can accumulated debris become a health hazard, but it can make your home look less inviting, too. Breaking up the tasks by area, even over a longer period of time, can help you get the job done regardless of your scheduling constraints.

There are a couple of ways you can approach deep cleaning by zone. First, you can dedicate an entire weekend or two and get all your deep cleaning done on a zone-by-zone basis. While you might be tempted to move on to another room before you finish deep cleaning the one at hand, resist the urge to do so. This will only create more work in the future. Instead, if you're running out of time or energy, give yourself permission to take a break and get back to it the next day.

You can also try extended-time zone cleaning. When going this route, you end up deep cleaning in smaller sessions more frequently, but with the tasks spread out over a longer period of time. For example, you might make a list of daily tasks to complete in one zone per week over a six-week timeframe. Some people might also choose to spend up to a couple of weeks deep cleaning one part of their home at a time. Just be sure to make a list of small tasks to get done each day until the zone is complete. Then, you can move on to the next zone with some confidence. Yet another option is to rotate zones continuously, so you don't have to deep clean your home all at once.

No matter how you plan to tackle deep cleaning, maintaining these types of zone-by-zone strategies can help keep you on track. As a bonus, consider this deep cleaning checklist to help every room in your home sparkle.