DEEP CLEANING CHECKLIST
Free deep cleaning checklist — the places a weekly clean doesn't reach
Inside the oven and the fridge, behind the appliances, the baseboards, the grout, under the bed — every line of a deep clean with a check box, room by room. Free in Word and PDF, for the crew and for the client.
Word and PDF · Free · No email, no sign-up
The short answer
A deep clean is a standard clean plus everything it skips: inside the oven, fridge and freezer; behind and under the appliances; baseboards, door frames, walls and switch plates; inside windows and tracks; blinds; grout and caulk; vents and fan blades; under the furniture and under the bed. It takes two to three times the hours, and it's usually the first visit a new client books.
The checklist below is that list, room by room, with the add-ons marked “(if agreed)” so the crew knows what's in the quote and what isn't. Hand it over with the price and there's no argument about the oven.
Then make it a service: a deep cleaning page on your website with this list on it is what a new customer searches for first.
FREE CHECKLIST · WORD AND PDF
The deep cleaning checklist, ready to print
Whole home first, then the kitchen, the bathrooms, the bedrooms, the living areas and the floors. The lines marked (if agreed) are extras to confirm on the quote. Letter size, portrait, two pages. Free, no email, no sign-up.
Checklist · check off every line
| [Your business name] | |
| Deep Cleaning Checklist | |
| Everything in a standard clean, plus the places a weekly clean doesn't reach | |
| Client: ______________________________ Address: ______________________________ | |
| Date: ____________ Cleaner(s): __________________ In: ______ Out: ______ | |
| Whole home | |
| ☐ | Wash baseboards, door frames and both sides of every door |
| ☐ | Spot-wash walls and remove scuffs |
| ☐ | Cobwebs, ceiling corners and crown molding |
| ☐ | Wash ceiling fan blades and light fixtures |
| ☐ | Vacuum vents and return grilles |
| ☐ | Clean inside windows, sills and tracks |
| ☐ | Dust blinds slat by slat; wipe switch plates and outlet covers |
| ☐ | Move light furniture and clean behind and under it |
| Kitchen | |
| ☐ | Inside the oven, including the racks and the drawer underneath |
| ☐ | Inside the fridge and freezer — shelves, drawers, door seals |
| ☐ | Behind and under the fridge and stove, if they can be moved |
| ☐ | Range hood and filter degreased |
| ☐ | Backsplash grout and the tile behind the stove |
| ☐ | Dishwasher filter, door edges and seals |
| ☐ | Descale the faucet; clean the sink drain and disposal |
| ☐ | Inside cabinets and drawers that are empty (if agreed) |
| ☐ | Small appliances — toaster, kettle, coffee maker |
| ☐ | Trash and recycling cans washed inside and out |
| Bathrooms | |
| ☐ | Scrub tile grout and the caulk lines for mildew |
| ☐ | Descale showerheads, faucets and the shower door tracks |
| ☐ | Behind the toilet, the base and the floor bolts |
| ☐ | Exhaust fan cover washed |
| ☐ | Inside the vanity and medicine cabinet (if agreed) |
| ☐ | Wash bath mats and the shower curtain (if agreed) |
| Bedrooms | |
| ☐ | Vacuum under the whole bed and move what's stored there |
| ☐ | Vacuum the mattress; flip or rotate it (if agreed) |
| ☐ | Closet floors, shelves and rods |
| ☐ | Dust lamp shades, picture frames and headboards |
| Living areas | |
| ☐ | Vacuum under the cushions and under the sofa |
| ☐ | Clean upholstery by its care label (if agreed) |
| ☐ | Dust books, shelves and decor one piece at a time |
| ☐ | Wipe electronics, cords and remote controls |
| ☐ | Polish wood furniture |
| Floors and finishing | |
| ☐ | Edge-vacuum along every baseboard |
| ☐ | Mop with the product the floor needs — wood, tile, laminate |
| ☐ | Scrub tile grout on the floor |
| ☐ | Spot-treat carpet stains (if agreed) |
| ☐ | Walk the client through the home before you leave |
| Allow two to three times the hours of a standard clean. Lines marked (if agreed) are extras — confirm them when you quote, not on the day. | |
| [Your business name] · [Your phone] · [Your website] | |
Edit the Word file so the lines match what your deep clean includes and what you charge extra for, then save it as your master. The PDF prints as-is.
Build the website
Start your cleaning website now
Add your business name and your town to the sentence, and Zarla builds the site, with a page for each service and town you list. You edit it in chat and publish when you're ready.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
WHAT CHANGES
Standard clean vs deep clean, task by task
The same room, two levels of clean — the right-hand column is what the deep clean price pays for.
| Task | Standard clean | Deep clean |
|---|---|---|
| Oven | Outside wiped | Inside, racks and the drawer underneath |
| Fridge and freezer | Front and handles | Inside, shelves out, door seals, behind and under |
| Baseboards and door frames | Not included | Washed, every room |
| Walls | Fingerprints spot-cleaned | Spot-washed, scuffs removed |
| Windows | Sills wiped | Inside glass, sills, tracks, blinds slat by slat |
| Bathroom tile | Wiped and disinfected | Grout scrubbed, caulk checked for mildew, fixtures descaled |
| Ceiling fans, vents, fixtures | Dusted where reachable | Washed, grilles vacuumed |
| Under furniture and beds | Edges vacuumed | Moved and cleaned behind and under |
| Time | Two to three hours for a typical home | Two to three times that, often with a second cleaner |
STEP BY STEP
How to run a deep clean from the checklist
The order matters more than on a standard clean — the deep jobs make a mess of the surface jobs.
Quote from the checklist
Walk the home or ask for photos, count the extras marked (if agreed), and quote the whole job. Attach the checklist to the quote.
Start the products working
Oven cleaner in, shower and grout products on, fridge emptied and shelves soaking — the deep jobs that need time go first.
High to low, whole home
Cobwebs, fans, vents and fixtures, then walls, frames and baseboards. Dust falls; the floors come last.
Kitchen and bathrooms
Back to the oven, the fridge, the grout and the fixtures now the products have done the work. Behind and under the appliances if they move.
Bedrooms and living areas
Under the beds and sofas, inside closets, under the cushions, then dust and polish.
Floors, then the walk-through
Edge-vacuum, mop, and walk the client through the home with the checked off checklist. Book the standard clean before you leave.
Quoting and selling a deep clean
Quote it as a whole job, not an hourly guess. A deep clean's hours depend on the state of the home, so see it or see photos before you price it, and price every (if agreed) line as an extra on the quote. The house cleaning pricing guide has the 2026 rates by square foot for standard, deep and move-out cleans.
Sell it as the first visit. Most recurring clients start with a deep clean, then a standard clean every week or two keeps it there. Put that sequence on your website and on the quote: deep clean first, then the plan.
Give the client the checked off list. A deep clean is expensive and most of it is invisible — nobody looks behind the fridge. The checklist, checked off, is how they see what they paid for.
Two cleaners beat one. On a deep clean the waiting-for-the-product time is the expensive part. One cleaner on the kitchen and one on the bathrooms halves the clock.
Put the checklist on your website as your services list
A deep clean is the service new customers search for, and the one most cleaning websites describe in a sentence. The checklist is the description: every room, every task, what's included and what's an extra — the page a customer reads and then asks for a quote.
If you build your cleaning website with Zarla, add your business name and your town to the sentence above, and Zarla builds the site, with a page for each service and town you list. Then tell the editor “add a deep cleaning page listing the rooms and tasks on my deep cleaning checklist, with the extras marked” and the list goes on the site, in a section you can edit any time.
Want to see a finished site first? Browse cleaning website templates, see how Zarla builds cleaning websites, or look at six cleaning website designs and what agencies charge for them.
The rest of the pack
The other checklists, all free: the house cleaning checklist, move-out cleaning checklist and office cleaning checklist.
Still setting up? How to start a cleaning business covers the first steps; how much to charge for house cleaning has the 2026 rates and a calculator; the cleaning invoice template bills the visit, and how to write a quote prices it first.
Deep cleaning checklists: common questions
Everything in a standard clean, plus the places a weekly clean doesn't reach: inside the oven, fridge and freezer; behind and under the appliances; baseboards, door frames, doors and walls; switch plates and vents; inside windows, tracks and blinds; tile grout and caulk; descaled fixtures; under the furniture and the beds; closets; and the floors edge to edge. The checklist on this page has every line.
Two to three times a standard clean of the same home — for a typical three-bedroom house that's most of a day for one cleaner, or half a day for two. The time goes into the kitchen and the bathrooms, and into waiting for products to work, which is why most companies send two cleaners.
Once or twice a year for a home that gets a standard clean every week or two; more often with pets, small children or a lot of cooking. Most cleaning companies do a deep clean as the first visit for a new client and then keep the home there with regular standard cleans.
A deep clean is done in a lived-in home around the furniture; a move-out clean is done in an empty one, so it also covers inside every cabinet, drawer and closet, under and behind every appliance, and it's checked against the landlord's or buyer's walk-through. Our move-out cleaning checklist covers that version.
Yes. It downloads free as a Word document and a PDF with no email and no sign-up. Edit the Word file to match your service and your extras, or print the PDF and check it off by hand.
By the whole job, after seeing the home or photos of it, with every optional line priced as an extra on the quote. Rates run by square foot and by the number of bedrooms and bathrooms — our house cleaning pricing guide has the 2026 ranges and a calculator.
Get the slow jobs started: oven cleaner in, grout and shower products on, fridge emptied. Then work high to low through the home — fans, vents and fixtures, walls and baseboards — and come back to the kitchen and bathrooms once the products have worked. Floors are always last.
Sell the deep clean from your own website
Add your business name and your town, and Zarla builds the site from that one line — with a deep cleaning page and a quote form, ready to edit in chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.