How to Deep-Clean Your Apartment

There comes a time when a good, deep clean is what your apartment needs to bring back some long-lasting freshness. It can be an overwhelming process at first, though, especially if you don’t know where to begin. 

Follow these tips and take it room by room at your own pace and on your own time. Listen to an audiobook, catch up on a podcast or vibe to some music while you’re at it, and it will be much more enjoyable! Don’t stress about the mess or chaos it may cause, as it’s all part of the process and will be a hundred times better when it’s done.

How to deep-clean your apartment

Tidy and declutter

Tidying up is the very first step in deep-cleaning your apartment. Not only will it make it easier to reach all the surfaces, but your apartment will look and stay cleaner long after you’re done cleaning.

To prepare for cleaning shelves and surfaces, gather any loose items and place them in a box or on one surface so that all other surfaces are as empty as possible. One simple way to approach this is to have a “stuff spot” in each room you’re cleaning, such as a table, a bed, a sofa or a counter. This will make it much easier to really scrub, dust and deep-clean every corner of your furniture.

Dust all surfaces

The amount of dust that accumulates on our furniture, appliances and décor is, honestly, quite astounding, and removing all that dust is a crucial step in getting a truly deep clean.

The trick when dusting is to start at the top. Literally. Grab a long-handled duster and get every ceiling corner in your home, as well as the walls and corners. Get the tops of your cabinets and cupboards, the sides of your fridge, the inside of the air vents, every shelf you can reach and every inch of counter space. Just get everything, if you can. 

Dust tends to redistribute when you're dusting, so start from the top of your apartment and work your way down. 

Wipe surfaces 

You can use some eco-friendly cleaning supplies to give your apartment a good clean without introducing any toxins into the air, plus you have the added bonus of making your own from some simple household items! You can also cut up some old T-shirts or use some old towel scraps as rags for a more sustainable choice in cleaning tools.

Wipe down your surfaces with a damp cloth and a cleaner to get rid of the dirt and grime that can’t be removed with a light dusting. Rinse the rags often so that you don’t end up spreading dirt everywhere, especially if you’re washing walls or cabinets.  Keep two buckets of water handy as you’re cleaning; one for wringing out dirty water, another with clean water and cleaner. 

Here’s a good list of surfaces to wipe down to get you started:

• Walls
• Cabinet doors
• Cupboard doors
• Doorknobs
• Doors
• Baseboard trim
• Door frames
• Shelves
• Furniture

Clean windows, blinds and curtains

Blinds are some of the most frustrating things to wash, but don’t get blindsided (ha!) by the accumulation of dust and dirt over the years. 

You can clean your blinds by dusting and wiping them with a damp cloth, but for a really deep clean you can soak them in the bathtub for an hour or so with some dish soap and baking soda.

Freshening up windows can make the world of difference, so use an eco-friendly window cleaner like these to wipe those smudges and dust right off. If you have curtains, pop them in the laundry to freshen them up.

Polish appliances 

Most appliances and faucets are stainless steel nowadays, which means that our grubby little fingers leave oily marks all over them whenever we touch them. Fridge doors, kitchen faucets, microwave handles, coffee pots, you name it! We use these appliances multiple times each day, and there’s no doubt they could use a touch-up. Giving that steel a good polish will leave them remarkably shiny and seemingly brand new.

Use an eco-friendly stainless steel cleaner to clean your apartment appliances and fixtures, including but not limited to:

• Dishwasher 
• Oven 
• Showerheads
• Faucets
• Microwave
• Fridge
• Tea kettle
• Coffee pot
• Espresso machine
• Anything stainless steel

Clean out cabinets and drawers

This is where it can get kind of overwhelming, as these spots are where we tend to stuff all our odds and ends out of sight and out of mind. But no matter how full they are and how cluttered they may be, it’s always good to give them a full clean every once in a while.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to sort out everything inside the cupboards and drawers, necessarily. If you don’t want to commit to organizing that chaotic cupboard, just take everything out, give it a clean and put the items back in to deal with another time. Even just removing and replacing the contents will make them seem a little more organized!

All you need to do is dust them and wipe them down, which can take no time at all but make a huge difference.

Clean inside appliances and fixtures

The things we use most often are going to get really grimey, really quickly. Showerheads clog with hard water, microwaves start smelling like a million leftover meals, fridges get sticky and freezers have those weird clumps of freezer-burned ice blobs in the corners that, honestly, we don’t want to touch with a ten foot pole. Even our trash cans can get grimey (go figure).

Here’s how to clean the inside of your:

• Refrigerator and freezer
• Oven and stovetop
• Microwave
• Dishwasher
• Showerhead
• Faucets

Finish by cleaning carpets, floors and tiles 

Finally, finish everything by vacuuming, sweeping, mopping and polishing your floors. Leave this until last because you’ll have all sorts of dust and debris flying around during your cleaning process, and you certainly don’t want to have to redo your floors again. 

Plus, there’s really nothing better than the look, smell and feel of a freshly cleaned floor! 

Once you’re all done cleaning, take a minute to sit back and enjoy your shining apartment. Deep cleaning an apartment is hard work that can sometimes take days to really complete, so be proud of what you’ve done!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/Khaligo