# House Cleaning Checklist: What a Professional Clean Includes

> A professional standard clean covers kitchen counters and appliance fronts, bathrooms, dusting, floors and trash. A deep clean adds baseboards, grout, doors, vents, fan blades, sills and cabinet fronts. A move-out clean adds the insides of cabinets, closets, the oven and the refrigerator. The table below shows every task by room.

Source: https://sweeptide.com/guides/house-cleaning-checklist/  
Publisher: Sweeptide, Lawrenceville, GA (serving Gwinnett County, Georgia)  
Last updated: 2026-09-13  
Last reviewed: 2026-09-19

**Last reviewed:** September 19, 2026. This is the checklist our teams actually work from.

## The checklist, room by room

Each row is one task. A check means it is included in that type of clean. Deep cleans include everything in a standard clean; move-out cleans include everything in a deep clean, plus the insides of cabinets, closets and appliances, because the home is empty.

**Tasks by type of clean**

| Task | Standard | Deep | Move-out |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Kitchen** |  |  |  |
| Countertops, backsplash and sink scrubbed and dried | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Outside of appliances wiped, stainless polished with the grain | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stovetop degreased, drip pans and grates washed | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microwave cleaned inside and out | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cabinet fronts and handles wiped | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inside cabinets and drawers | –— | –— | ✓ |
| Inside the oven and refrigerator | –— | –— | ✓ |
| Floors vacuumed and mopped, including under the kick plate edge | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Bathrooms** |  |  |  |
| Toilet cleaned and disinfected, base and hinges included | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tub, shower walls and glass descaled | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sink, faucet and mirror cleaned, streak-free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Grout lines scrubbed by hand | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inside vanity drawers and medicine cabinet | –— | –— | ✓ |
| Exhaust fan cover dusted | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Floors hand-washed at the edges | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Bedrooms and living areas** |  |  |  |
| Reachable surfaces dusted, decor lifted not dusted around | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Beds made; linens changed if fresh ones are left out | ✓ | ✓ | –— |
| Carpets and rugs vacuumed, edges included | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hard floors vacuumed and damp-mopped | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Baseboards hand-wiped | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Doors, frames and light switches wiped | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Window sills and tracks cleaned | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ceiling fan blades and vent covers dusted | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inside closets and shelving | –— | –— | ✓ |
| **Whole home** |  |  |  |
| Trash emptied, liners replaced | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Entry and stair railings wiped | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stairs vacuumed | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Laundry room machines wiped outside | –— | ✓ | ✓ |
| Walk-through against the checklist before we leave | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |

## Which clean do you need?

| Situation | Clean | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Home cleaned professionally in the last month | Standard | Maintenance only; nothing has built up |
| Two months or more since a professional clean | Deep | Baseboards, grout and vents need resetting before a standard visit can keep up |
| Starting recurring service | Deep, then standard | The first visit resets the home; later visits maintain it |
| End of pollen season (late May) | Deep | Sills, tracks and vents hold a season of pine pollen |
| Moving out or in, home empty | Move-out | Insides of cabinets, closets and appliances are only reachable when empty |
| Brand-new construction | Post-construction (quoted) | Drywall dust inside everything, plus sticker and adhesive residue |

## The order professionals clean in

If you clean yourself between visits, the order matters more than the products:

1. **Top to bottom.** Dust fans, shelves and sills before counters, and counters before floors, so nothing you clean first gets dusted on later.
2. **Dry before wet.** Dust and vacuum before you mop or wipe with liquid, or you turn dust into mud.
3. **Apply, then wait.** Spray bathroom surfaces first and clean something else while the product works. Disinfectants only disinfect after their labeled contact time, often several minutes.
4. **Clean to dirty.** Kitchen before bathrooms, and a separate cloth for each. We color-code ours so a bathroom cloth never reaches a counter.
5. **Entry floors first in pollen season.** Otherwise the vacuum spreads what came in on shoes through the rest of the house.

## What professional cleaners do not do

- Clean up biohazards such as blood, vomit in quantity or bodily fluids — that needs a remediation company
- Treat mold growth beyond surface mildew on grout and caulk
- Clean exterior windows above the first floor or anything needing a tall ladder
- Move furniture over 50 pounds, or unplug electronics with cables attached
- Deal with significant pest droppings, which need pest control first
- Organize or decide where belongings go

## How long each clean takes

| Home | Standard (2 people) | Deep (2 people) | Move-out (2 people) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 bedroom, 1 bath | About 1 hour | 2 to 2.5 hours | 2.5 to 3 hours |
| 2 bedrooms, 2 baths | About 1.5 hours | 3 to 4 hours | 4 to 5 hours |
| 3 bedrooms, 2 baths | About 2 hours | 4 to 5 hours | 5 to 6 hours |
| 4 bedrooms, 3 baths | 2 to 2.5 hours | 5 to 6 hours | 6 to 7 hours |

A finished basement adds about a third to each. See our prices [1] for what each clean costs.

## Frequently asked questions

### What do professional house cleaners not clean?

Most do not clean biohazards such as blood or bodily fluids, mold growth beyond surface mildew, the outside of windows above the first floor, or anything that requires lifting over 50 pounds. We also do not wash dishes beyond what is left in the sink on a standard visit or clean inside appliances unless booked.

### Should I tidy up before the cleaners arrive?

Pick up clothes, toys and paperwork from floors and counters. Cleaners clean surfaces; they are not the right people to decide where your mail goes. Ten minutes of pickup gets you a noticeably better clean in the same time.

### How long does a professional clean take?

For a two-person team: about an hour and a half for a standard clean of a two-bedroom home, three to four hours for a deep clean and four to five hours for a move-out clean. Larger homes scale roughly with the number of bathrooms.

## Contact

- Sweeptide — House, office and Airbnb cleaning across Gwinnett County, GA
- Quote: https://sweeptide.com/contact/
- Phone: (678) 453-4590
- Email: info@sweeptide.com
- Hours: Mon–Sat 8am–6pm; Sun 9am–4pm
- Prices: https://sweeptide.com/pricing/

## References

[1]: https://sweeptide.com/pricing/