What does a deep clean mean to you?

[Rainsdropskeepfalling]

I read so many threads where posters discuss their weekly 'deep clean'. This puzzles me but maybe I have the wrong idea.

For me a deep clean is take the curtains/blinds down and wash them, dry, iron, dust and then wipe down the walls with a damp cloth, skirting boards, coving etc, clean lampshades, lightbulbs, dust everything, vacuum everything including the crack between the walls and the carpet, move all furniture, wash cushion covers etc, clean windows inside and out. Kitchen would include cleaning the oven, caustic soda down the drains, washing machine and tumble drier and the equivalent in the bathroom.

This isn't something I'd do every week. So I've got the wrong idea.

Can someone educate me?

You’re clearly a slattern. I do a full insect fogger weekly, and I have an industrial autoclave which I put all the sheets in, every night, after a full boil wash.

I don’t know how you live with yourself.

That’s the cleaning hack! Let them get so dusty they no longer illuminate the dirt! Cleaning just begets more cleaning, imo.

I probably do most of that twice a year. I damp dust weekly as I’m in an old cottage with air bricks on a singletrack and never cease to be amazed at the amount of dust that comes in. I have a monthly window cleaner for outside and do indoors probably quarterly. Monthly jobs are oven and fridge. I struggle with Christmas as I don’t have any close family so I always do a major declutter between Christmas and NY and start the January off feeling all organised and positive.

I don’t do much of that. I have a cleaner but that is more of a surface clean.

I always wonder tho - how many men are involved in all this cleaning?

When men are this level of clean, they take it to a whole new level.

I wonder how many people will be on their death bed looking back and wishing they had spent more time washing walls and dusting light bulbs. Life is short, make the most of it. And if you can't find something better to do than cleaning your skirting boards every month there may be a problem.

You're all boggin. I insist on a full underfloor board Hoover weekly. Some times you'll find me in the summer polishing the dandelions in the garden, but that's only after the full house extermination has been carried out, completed and results documented.

@LoveBluey Too busy climbing out the death bed to Zoflora the pillows and fumigate the duvet twice hourly for such contemplation.

I'm with you! My deep clean happens twice a year. Off the top of my head the jobs include properly scrubbing tiled floors with scrubbing brush, cleaning on top of and inside kitchen cupboards, laundering all curtains and sofa seat cushions, jetwashing patio and drive, cleaning under beds and down the back of radiators, washing duvets and pillows, pulling out heavy furniture to clean behind, shampooing carpets and rugs.

God, this is so grim. I pull down my walls and rebuild, replaster and repaint them bi-weekly. Anything less is just 🤢

Well that sounds nice and all, especially having a clean house for Christmas but how do you fit that in around work? I work FT and I can barely keep up with basic day to day cleaning never mind doing all the stuff on that list. I mean, I get that it needs doing but I am just not finding enough time to do stuff like that. I do quite like a lie in one day of the weekend and to be able to have some kind of social life apart from just cleaning up at weekends.

Surely it depends what spare time you have, though? I work in education and dduring COVID school lockdowns my working day actually at school finished early at 3.15. I was home by 4 so I used to do an hour's clean every day. My house was PRISTINE. The weekend cleaning meant I could do bits off the "deep clean" list. I loved it being like that. I'm convinced the whole family was more contented and less stressed.

At some point between Christmas and New Year, I'll pull out the moveable furniture and clean the skirting boards and hoover. I do the same in the summer.
I'm usually a 'little and often cleaner' (yes, Team TOMM!) Tomorrow I'm cleaning out the fridge because we have guests over Christmas and I don't really want them seeing the current wine + chocolate to veg ratio!

A friend’s DH vacuums the attic 😆

How on earth have I managed to live to nearly 70 without doing this? My house is clean and tidy by the way!

Not a chance. I live alone, I try not to touch the walls, so they're clean. Even if they weren't, I'm not planning on licking them so...

I have no idea how anyone can 'deep' clean a hard surface. Certainly a thorough clean is possible though. I do stuff like that maybe once every year. It's really unnecessary so often.

Wow, literally!

😂

In our house DH deep cleans the oven, cleans all the glass and cleans the fans and lights (along with all the usual cleaning that we split). We have pretty similar standards.

Spring and Christmas and summer I'm deep cleaning something. Often more than once depending on weather and other commitments. Never just a deep clean per se which to me is everything all at once.

Cobwebs? Yes I wash walls- not weekly though.

I’ve never done any of this. My house is extremely clean and tidy.

Towels are washed on 60, that cleans the washing machine.

if I thought my upholstery needed cleaning I’d get someone in. Same goes for oven and windows, someone comes in.

My cleaner is very thorough - skirting, under furniture with legs and crevices vacuumed twice a month.

I clean a few kitchen cupboards at a time now and then if they need it.

I’ve never washed a wall in my life.

A 'deep clean' is when I go out with friends for lunch and a cleaning company comes in and blitzes the place. 🙂

I think I need a jet washer, though it's possible a flame thrower would solve my problems.