How often should you deep clean your house?

The short answer

A full deep clean of the whole house is worth doing once or twice a year. Everything else is a matter of individual tasks on different cycles, which is a far more useful way to think about it than one giant annual event.

The reason the "clean everything every week" schedules fail is that they ignore how different surfaces actually behave. Bathroom limescale builds continuously. Oven carbon builds only when you cook at high heat. Mattress dust mites build on a months-long cycle. Window tracks fill up over a year. Treating all of those the same guarantees you will either waste time or fall behind.

So below is a schedule organised by how fast things genuinely deteriorate, not by how satisfying it feels to write a list.

Weekly

The maintenance layer. If this is happening, nothing ever becomes a crisis.

• Kitchen worktops, sink, taps and hob
• Bathroom suite, basin, bath or shower tray
• Toilet, including under the rim
• Mirrors and the glass people touch
• All floors vacuumed; hard floors mopped
• Bins emptied and relined
• Bed linen changed (fortnightly at the outside)
• Door handles and light switches

This is roughly what a regular domestic clean covers in two to three hours for an average house. If you are doing it yourself, an hour spread over the week beats three hours on a Saturday, because nothing gets a chance to set.

Monthly

• Microwave inside, including the roof
• Fridge shelves and door seals
• Shower screen descaled properly
• Shower head soaked and descaled
• Skirting boards in the main rooms
• Internal doors and frames
• Dishwasher filter cleaned
• Washing machine seal wiped and a hot maintenance wash run
• Vacuum filter cleaned or replaced
• Mattress protector washed

The washing machine seal and the dishwasher filter are the two most neglected items in this list, and both cause smells that people then blame on the room rather than the appliance.

Every three months

• Oven racks, trays and grill pan
• Extractor hood filter degreased
• Inside kitchen cupboards and drawers
• Behind and under the fridge, cooker and washing machine
• Grout in kitchen and bathrooms scrubbed
• Window glass internally, frames and sills
• Radiators, including behind and between the fins
• Light fittings and shades dusted
• Under beds and behind sofas
• Curtains and blinds vacuumed
• Mattresses vacuumed and turned where appropriate

Twice a year

• Full deep clean or spring clean of the whole house
• Professional oven clean if you cook at high heat regularly
• Wardrobes and drawers emptied and wiped out
• Window tracks and runners cleared of grit
• Cobwebs and high corners throughout
• Tops of wardrobes, doors and kitchen units
• Upholstery vacuumed thoroughly, cushions rotated
• Washing machine and dishwasher deep-cleaned with a descaler

The sensible timing in the UK is March or April and then September or October. Once as the heating goes off and the windows can be opened, once before the house is shut up for winter.

Once a year

• Professional carpet cleaning, especially hallways and stairs
• Sofa and mattress cleaning
• Professional oven clean if you cook moderately
• Curtains cleaned or laundered
• Loft hatch, meter cupboard and storage areas
• Behind fitted furniture where accessible
• Garage, shed or outbuilding cleared and swept
• Gutters and exterior checked (not a cleaning job, but worth the same reminder)

Annual carpet cleaning is the one item on this list that pays for itself. Grit ground into carpet fibre is abrasive, so it wears the pile every time someone walks on it. Extraction removes it, and a carpet that is cleaned annually lasts substantially longer than one that is only vacuumed.

What should make you clean more often

Five factors shift the schedule, and the rest is noise:

• Pets. Hair works into fibre instead of sitting on it. Move carpet and upholstery cleaning to every six to nine months rather than annually.
• Allergies or asthma in the household. Prioritise mattresses, soft furnishings and vacuum filters, and use a HEPA-filtered machine. Mattress cleaning twice a year does more than anything else.
• Hard water. Plymouth water is relatively soft, but electric showers still build scale fast. If you can see it, you are already behind: descale monthly.
• Coastal position. Salt film on glass and frames builds far faster near the water, so internal windows move onto a quarterly cycle rather than twice-yearly.
• Woodburners. Fine ash settles on everything and works into upholstery. Vacuum the room with a HEPA machine weekly through the burning season.

And one factor that should make you clean less: a house where nobody is home during the day, with no pets and no smokers, does not need a weekly clean. Fortnightly is fine, and there is no prize for over-cleaning.