Start With the Method, Not the Mop

Before you fill a bucket, decide how you will move through the house. The single most useful rule in deep cleaning is to work from top to bottom and from left to right. Dust and crumbs fall downwards, so if you clean skirting boards before shelves you will simply have to do them twice. Working left to right as you go keeps you from drifting back over ground you have already covered, and it gives each room a natural finishing line.

Gather your kit first so you are not trotting to the cupboard every ten minutes. You will want microfibre cloths in two colours, a soft brush, a vacuum with a crevice tool, a spray bottle of diluted washing-up liquid, a limescale remover for the bathroom, and a couple of old toothbrushes for grout and hinges. Give yourself one room at a time and resist the urge to start three jobs at once.

The Kitchen: Grease First, Shine Later

Kitchens reward a systematic approach because grease spreads quietly upwards. Begin with the extractor hood and the tops of wall units, then work down to worktops, then to cupboard fronts, then to the floor. Spray your cleaner and leave it for a minute or two to soften the grease rather than scrubbing dry.

• Extractor filters: soak metal mesh filters in hot water with a scoop of soda crystals for twenty minutes, then rinse.
• Hob and splashback: a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water lifts burnt-on marks without scratching.
• Cupboard doors: pay attention to the top edge, where hands never reach but steam settles.
• Fridge: pull it out if you can, vacuum the coils at the back, and wipe the door seals with warm soapy water.
• Oven: if you use a caustic cleaner, ventilate the room, wear gloves, and keep children and pets well away.

Finish with the sink, draining board and taps, then the floor. A dishwasher tablet dropped into a cup of hot water makes a decent free-standing drain freshener if you are out of specialist cleaner.

The Bathroom: Tackle Limescale and Mould Properly

Bathrooms are damp, so ventilation is half the battle. Open a window before you start and leave it open for an hour afterwards. Work top to bottom again, which in practice means extractor fan and ceiling first, then tiles and shower screen, then basin, bath and toilet, then floor.

Limescale responds to acid, so a dedicated limescale remover or a cloth soaked in white vinegar left against the tap for fifteen minutes will do more than any amount of scrubbing. Never mix bleach with acidic cleaners, as the fumes are genuinely dangerous.

For mould on silicone sealant, a bleach-based mould spray left overnight often clears it. If the sealant is black through its depth, it needs replacing rather than cleaning. Grout responds well to a paste of bicarbonate of soda and a stiff brush worked in small circles. Finish by descaling the shower head in a bag of vinegar tied over it, and remember the often-missed spots: the top of the cistern, the radiator, and the extractor fan cover.

Bedrooms and Living Rooms: Dust Before You Vacuum

These rooms are about dust, not grease, so a slightly damp microfibre cloth is your best friend. Dry dusting just moves the problem into the air, where it settles back within the hour.

• Start high: ceiling corners, light fittings, curtain rails and the tops of wardrobes.
• Work down: pictures, shelves, ornaments, then furniture surfaces, then skirting boards.
• Don't forget: lamp shades, door tops, the backs of bedside tables and the vents on electronics.
• Upholstery: vacuum sofas and mattresses with a brush attachment, then sprinkle bicarbonate of soda, leave for half an hour, and vacuum again.
• Bedding: wash duvets, mattress protectors and pillowcases at 60°C where the care label allows, to deal with dust mites.

Once the dust is gone, vacuum the floor, moving in overlapping strips and finishing with the crevice tool around the edges. If you have carpets, this is the moment to think about a professional deep clean, particularly in high-traffic rooms and hallways.

Hallways, Stairs and the Spots Everyone Misses

Hallways collect everything the rest of the house sheds, so they are worth doing last, when you are not walking back and forth through them. Wipe the front door inside and out, clean the letterbox, and give the banister a proper going-over, including the balusters and the underside of the handrail.

Stairs are best cleaned from the top down, treating each tread and riser in turn, then hoovering the whole flight once you reach the bottom. A vacuum with a stair tool saves a great deal of bending, and a rubber squeegee pulled across carpet lifts pet hair surprisingly well.

Make It Repeatable

A deep clean is only worth the effort if it lasts. Once each room is done, put a note in your phone with the date and what you tackled, so you rotate between kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and communal areas rather than trying to do everything at once. A deep clean every three to four months, with a quick top-up in between, keeps a home genuinely fresh without eating entire weekends.

Write down anything that needs a trade rather than a cloth. Cracked sealant, a dripping tap, a blocked gutter or a boiler that has started making odd noises are all jobs to hand to a qualified professional early, before a small annoyance turns into water damage. Cleaning you can do yourself; everything else is worth paying someone competent to get right.