Deep Clean vs. Routine Clean
The booking form asks you to pick a service. For a lived-in home, the choice is usually between House Cleaning, our routine visit, and Deep Cleaning, with Move In/Out Cleaning as a third option when the home is empty. All three work from the same room-by-room checklist. Deep Cleaning keeps the whole routine list and adds to it, and Move In/Out Cleaning adds more again for an empty home, so the real question is which added tasks your home needs now.
The Routine List Everything Starts From
A routine visit covers the surfaces a household uses every day. In the kitchen that means the countertops and backsplash, the sink, the stovetop and burners, the microwave inside and out, the outsides of the fridge, oven and dishwasher, the table and chairs, and the floors. Cabinets are spot-cleaned and their handles wiped.
Bathrooms get the shower or tub, the toilet inside and out, the mirrors, sinks and counters, and the cabinets wiped and disinfected. In bedrooms and living areas the cleaner dusts ceiling fans, light fixtures, furniture, lamps, windowsills and window frames, wipes switches and doorknobs, and does the floors. If fresh sheets are left on the edge of a bed, the cleaner changes the sheets and makes the bed.
What the Deep Clean Adds
A deep clean goes after the places that build up slowly and that a routine visit only dusts or leaves alone. Baseboards are wiped in every room. Doors and door frames are wiped down. Windowsills and window frames are wiped instead of only dusted. In the kitchen, every cabinet and drawer front is wiped rather than spot-cleaned, and the oven hood vent is cleaned. In the bathroom, the tile grout in the shower is scrubbed.
What Move-In/Out Adds on Top
The move-in/out plan carries every task the deep clean adds and then opens everything up. The insides of kitchen cabinets and drawers are wiped, the pantry floor is swept or vacuumed and mopped, and the pantry shelves are wiped down. Bathroom cabinets and drawers are wiped inside, along with the linen closet and its shelves. Bedroom closets are cleaned inside, and cabinets and drawers in the living areas are wiped out too.
That only works in an empty home, which is why this plan is for the days around a move. A few routine tasks drop off it for the same reason: there is no table to wipe, no decor to tidy and no bed to make.
When to Start With a Deep Clean
Baseboards, door frames and shower grout are not on the routine list at all. If they have gone months without attention, a routine visit will leave them as they are. In that case a deep clean is the better first visit, and the routine visits after it keep up a clean home instead of catching up on one.
If the home had a thorough clean recently, or you mostly want regular help with the kitchen, bathrooms and floors, a routine clean is a reasonable start. If you are moving, book the move-in/out clean instead of either one.
Keeping It Up With Recurring Cleaning
After the first visit, Recurring Cleaning repeats the routine list on a schedule you choose.
The side-by-side list is on our cleaning checklist page. The Deep Cleaning page covers the detail work, and the Recurring Cleaning page explains spacing, billing and what happens when two visits fall more than 30 days apart.