Regular maintenance cleaning is what you do for your home each day or what your cleaning service does for you on a weekly or biweekly basis. Think of words like wiping, dusting, polishing, and vacuuming. Deep cleaning involves things like scrubbing, cleaning inside and out, and climbing on a step stool to reach higher areas. Not to mention bending down to reach lower areas.

Your daily clean routine should include things like doing dishes, washing laundry, and tidying things away so your flat surfaces are clear. Scrubbing the crevices around your faucets would be a distraction from your daily routine, and would probably keep you from getting all the way around your house.

Where?

Some parts of your home will get cleaned during deep cleaning and not during your regular maintenance clean For example, your kitchen cabinets and walls don’t usually require scrubbing on a daily basis. However, when you cook, droplets of oil float around in the steam the heat releases. They settle on walls and cabinet faces. As ordinary household dust travels in the same direction, the oil and the dust combine to create a sticky, greasy film that is hard to remove.

Deep cleaning takes care of that.

Ceiling fans are another item that doesn’t get cleaned every day or even every week. Dust can build up on the fan blades. Then when you turn on the fan, the dust gets thrown out into the air. Since you don’t spend much time examining your fan blades, you may not realize that you’re permeating your air with household dust. A deep cleaning session will usually include cleaning fan blades with an extension cleaner.

Baseboards are another area where dirt and grime can build up. Vacuuming doesn’t catch that dust. You may not notice it till it’s gone. When your baseboards are sparkling, though, it improves the look of your home.

When?

Deep cleaning does not need to be part of your routine cleaning every day or week. Some homemakers like to deep clean one area each week with the idea of getting through the entire house in the course of a year.

Others like to deep clean in spring or fall. The custom of spring cleaning made a lot of sense in the days when winter meant shutting up the house with fires every day and tracking in mud from the barn. Throwing open the whole house and taking the carpets out to be beaten could prepare the house for spring.

Fall cleaning makes a lot of sense when kids have been at home all summer and the family has been spending extra time on fun activities and maybe even being a little bit lazy. When school starts up again and you are reminded that life is real and life is earnest, a clean house can be an important part of getting back into the regular routine.

You may also deep clean before the holidays, before a special occasion, or before having guests. It’s also sensible to deep clean before hiring a professional cleaner. Then your cleaning service can keep your home up to that standard.

Who?

Having a professional cleaning service do your deep cleaning is a wise choice. Where most of us do deep cleaning only rarely, professional cleaners do this regularly. Cleaning technicians have training in the most effective and efficient methods of completing deep cleaning. They’re experts, so they will get the best possible results.