Two key terms often come up when keeping your home tidy and comfortable: regular and deep cleaning. Both types of cleaning have unique benefits, and understanding their distinctions can empower you to choose the right service for your needs.
We’ll explore both options in detail, covering their contents, benefits, and when each fits your needs.
Regular Cleaning: The Basics
A regular cleaning is typically designed to maintain cleanliness in your home. It’s perfect for tidying your living space between more thorough cleaning sessions. Regular cleanings usually happen weekly, although some may opt for bi-weekly or monthly services depending on their needs.
Common tasks included in a regular cleaning are:
- Tidying up spaces: This involves organizing clutter, folding clothes, and putting things back in their designated spots.
- Floor cleaning: Sweeping, vacuuming, or mopping floors to keep them free of dust and debris.
- Surface wiping: This includes wiping down kitchen and bathroom counters, tables, and other commonly used surfaces.
- Taking out the trash: Removing trash and recycling to keep the space fresh.
- Dusting: General dusting of furniture, shelves, and other flat surfaces.
Regular cleaning is less time-consuming than deep cleaning and, therefore, tends to cost less. It’s typically quick and straightforward and intended to keep a clean living environment with little effort.
Deep Cleaning: What You’re Getting
Deep cleaning is a much more thorough service compared to regular cleaning. While regular cleaning helps maintain cleanliness, deep cleaning aims to tackle the dirt, grime, and buildup that can occur over time in areas that don’t typically get attention during a standard cleaning. This service is generally required less frequently, typically once every few months, depending on how much dirt accumulates in your home.
Deep cleaning involves cleaning areas that might be neglected during regular cleanings. These tasks often include:
- Sanitizing high-touch surfaces: This helps reduce the spread of germs and keeps your home healthier.
- Detail work: Deep cleaning includes scrubbing grout, cleaning inside cabinets, and removing soap scum and lime scale buildup in bathrooms and kitchens.
- Cleaning hard-to-reach areas: Places like behind appliances, inside refrigerator coils, and under furniture are all targeted during a deep clean.
- Disinfecting areas harbouring germs: Deep cleaning services often disinfect wastebaskets, doorknobs, light switches, and other frequently touched spots.
The result of deep cleaning is a fresh, sanitized home with an extra layer of cleanliness that extends beyond the basics. It’s a more detailed and labour-intensive process, which makes it take longer and costs more than regular cleaning.
The Bathroom: A Key Difference
The bathroom is one area where the difference between regular and deep cleaning is especially noticeable. During a regular cleaning, your cleaner will dust, wipe surfaces, and clean the sink, mirror, and toilet. However, deep cleaning addresses more stubborn areas, including:
- Scrubbing grout: Grout lines can accumulate dirt and mildew over time, and deep cleaning ensures they’re thoroughly scrubbed.
- Removing soap scum and limescale: These can build up on faucets, showerheads, and tiles. Deep cleaning ensures all of this buildup is removed.
- Sanitizing wastebaskets and cleaning inside cabinets: Areas that tend to hide dirt and bacteria are given attention.
- Cleaning toilet bases and shower doors: Deep cleaning includes more intricate work, such as cleaning around the toilet’s base and scrubbing shower doors and curtains.
Bathrooms are notorious breeding grounds for germs, making deep cleaning crucial in maintaining a sanitary environment. This thorough process effectively removes harmful bacteria such as E. coli, staph, and the fungus that causes athlete’s foot, ensuring your bathroom is a safe and healthy space.
The Kitchen: Where Deep Cleaning Shines
The kitchen is another area that benefits greatly from deep cleaning. Regular cleaning focuses on wiping visible surfaces, cleaning countertops, and tidying up. A deep clean, however, goes far beyond the surface:
- Behind and under appliances: Grease and food remnants can accumulate in hard-to-reach places, so deep cleaning will clean behind and beneath your refrigerator, oven, and dishwasher.
- Inside appliances: Deep cleaning involves cleaning the oven, refrigerator, microwave, and range hood, tackling accumulated grease and food particles.
- Cabinet and drawer cleaning: Deep cleaning includes wiping down cabinets and inside drawers and cleaning grease from your stove and countertops.
- Grout cleaning and sanitizing knobs: Regular cleaning may miss grout lines or the buildup on appliance knobs, but deep cleaning ensures all areas are sanitized.
Deep cleaning can remove grime and buildup and ensure your kitchen stays as hygienic as possible, making cooking and food storage safer.
General Spaces: Not Just Tidying Up
While regular cleaning involves tidying up common areas, deep cleaning focuses on details that often go unnoticed. This includes:
- Dusting ceiling fans and light fixtures: Regular cleaning may miss these areas, but deep cleaning ensures that even these high-up places are dust-free.
- Cleaning upholstery and furniture: Upholstered furniture and fabric can collect dust, pet dander, and allergens. Deep cleaning involves vacuuming and cleaning the upholstery, as well as thoroughly dusting furniture.
- Sanitizing trash cans and wiping down vent covers: Trash cans are disinfected, and vents are cleaned to prevent dust buildup and odours.
- Cleaning baseboards, windows, and walls: Baseboards, window sills, and the edges of walls often gather dust and dirt, which are cleaned thoroughly during deep cleaning.
These tasks go beyond routine tidying, making your home feel refreshed and sanitized.
When Should You Book a Deep Cleaning?
While regular cleaning is sufficient for maintaining a tidy home, deep cleaning is a periodic necessity. Some situations where you should consider booking a deep clean include:
- Moving in or out: A deep cleaning before moving into a new home or before moving out is a great way to ensure a fresh start.
- Before hosting a special event or party: A thorough deep cleaning guarantees your home is spotless and welcoming for guests, free from dirt or grime.
- Seasonal cleaning: Many people book deep cleaning services during spring cleaning to refresh their homes and tackle areas that have been neglected over the winter.
- Starting with a cleaning service: If you’re new to hiring professional cleaning services, starting with a deep cleaning allows the service to bring your home to an optimal level of cleanliness before switching to regular maintenance.
Benefits of Hiring a Professional Cleaning Service
Hiring a professional service for deep cleaning comes with several advantages. Professional cleaners bring the necessary expertise and tools to handle your home’s cleaning needs with care and precision. They know how to handle delicate surfaces, such as hardwood floors or stone countertops, and they have specialized equipment for removing stubborn dirt and grime.
A cleaning service can help you conserve time and effort while ensuring cleanliness. Deep cleaning is often a time-consuming process that requires meticulous attention to detail. Outsourcing jobs to professionals can free up your time for other important tasks.
Final Thoughts
When deciding between regular and deep cleaning, it’s important to understand the level of cleanliness you require. Regular cleaning is perfect for maintaining a tidy home. In contrast, deep cleaning is essential for tackling those harder-to-reach areas and ensuring your home is as clean and healthy as possible.
Both services can complement each other, with deep cleaning providing the foundational cleaning that regular maintenance can sustain. By booking deep cleanings periodically, you ensure your home stays fresh, hygienic, and welcoming for family and guests.
