How to clean a house: the right order, room by room (plus fast plans)

The short answer: to clean a house, pick up clutter first, dust from top to bottom, wipe surfaces, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, and finish with floors, working from the back of the house toward the front door.

• Dry before wet: dust and vacuum before you wipe and mop
• Spray and soak tubs, toilets and stovetops, then do other tasks
• Fast plans: 15 minutes, 1 hour and a half day
• Room-by-room tips and how to keep it clean are below
• Next step: Plan it with the Cleaning Schedule ($4.49).

How do you clean a house? Clean a house in this order: pick up clutter first, then dust from top to bottom, wipe surfaces, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, and finish with floors, working from the back of the house toward the front door. Dry tasks (dusting, sweeping) go before wet ones (mopping), so you never push dust onto a damp surface. Below you'll find the exact order, a supply list, three time-boxed plans (15 minutes, 1 hour and a half day), and how to keep it clean afterward.

To make it repeatable, print the Cleaning Schedule ($4.49). It has daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal lists plus room-by-room checklists, so the next clean starts with a plan instead of a pile.

I'm Malaysia, a Detroit-raised oldest of three, and I love cooking and just about any cooking show. My favorite part of those shows is the clean station at the end. This guide is about getting that feeling across the whole place, with a method you can follow on a busy weekday or a free Saturday.

What order to clean a house

The order matters more than the products. Follow these rules and every room goes faster.

That last rule comes straight from the CDC. Its guide to cleaning and disinfecting your home says cleaning with soap or detergent removes most germs on its own, and that disinfecting is mainly needed when someone in the house is sick.

Supplies you need to clean a house

You don't need a cabinet full of products. This short kit handles almost every room.

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If you want products with safer ingredients, look for the EPA Safer Choice label, which marks cleaners that meet the EPA's standard for safer chemical ingredients.

How to clean a house, step by step

1. Open windows or turn on a fan. Fresh air helps while you use sprays.
2. Do a 10-minute pickup. Carry a laundry basket and a trash bag through every room. Toss trash, gather dishes, and drop things in the right room.
3. Start laundry and the dishwasher. They run while you clean everything else.
4. Spray and soak. Spray the tub, shower, toilets and stovetop so the cleaner can work.
5. Dust top to bottom in every room. Ceiling fans, light fixtures, shelves, picture frames, then furniture.
6. Wipe surfaces. Counters, tables, appliance fronts, light switches, doorknobs and remotes.
7. Clean the kitchen. Sink, stovetop, microwave, counters, then take out the trash.
8. Clean the bathrooms. Mirror, sink, counter, tub or shower, toilet last, then fresh towels.
9. Vacuum, then mop. Start in the farthest room and work toward the front door.

When you're done, put the supplies back in one caddy, such as the JOEY'Z divided cleaning caddy, so next time starts faster.

Room-by-room: how to clean each part of the house

Kitchen

Clear the counters, wipe them from back to front, and scrub the sink last so you can rinse your cloth. Wipe cabinet fronts, the microwave and the fridge handle. The CDC suggests cleaning counters with hot, soapy water and sanitizing surfaces that touched raw meat or poultry. For the full list, use our kitchen cleaning checklist, and for the details see how to clean a microwave and how to clean an oven.

Bathrooms

Spray first, then clean mirrors, sinks and counters while the tub soaks. Scrub the tub or shower, then the toilet from the tank down to the base. Swap towels and the bath mat. Our bathroom cleaning checklist has a printable step list.

Bedrooms

Make the bed or change sheets, put clothes away, dust nightstands and dressers, then vacuum, including under the bed when you can. For a single room, use how to clean your room.

Living areas

Pick up, fluff and vacuum the couch, dust electronics with a dry cloth, wipe remotes and switches, and vacuum rugs. The CDC recommends cleaning high-touch surfaces like light switches, doorknobs and counters regularly and after you have visitors.

Entry and laundry area

Shake out the doormat, wipe the door handle, clear shoes and sweep. In the laundry area, wipe the washer and dryer tops and clean the lint screen. See how to clean a washing machine for the deeper version.

How to clean your house fast

Pick the plan that matches the time you have.

Speed tips: set a timer for each room, carry all your supplies in one caddy, play a playlist that ends when you should be done, and don't start a deep-clean project in the middle of a quick clean.

Common house cleaning mistakes

• Cleaning floors first. Dust and crumbs from counters land on the clean floor. Floors always go last.
• Spraying and wiping right away. Most cleaners need a minute or two to loosen grime. Spray, move on, then come back.
• Using one cloth for everything. Keep separate cloths for the kitchen, bathrooms and glass so you don't spread bathroom grime to the counter.
• Using too much product. Extra cleaner leaves a sticky film that attracts more dirt. Follow the label amount.
• Skipping high-touch spots. Light switches, door handles, faucet handles and remotes get handled all day and are quick to wipe.
• Mopping with dirty water. Change the water when it looks gray, or the mop just moves dirt around.
• Trying to deep clean every room in one day. You run out of energy before the floors. Split deep jobs across weekends.

How long does it take to clean a house?

It depends on the size of the place, how much clutter there is and how many hands are helping. That's why this guide uses time boxes instead of promises. A pickup and quick wipe fits in 15 minutes, a solid surface clean of the main rooms fits in about an hour, and a full top-to-bottom clean of every room usually takes a good part of a day. The first full clean is always the slowest. Once you know your order, each clean after that gets faster.

How to deep clean your house

A deep clean adds the jobs a regular clean skips: baseboards, inside the oven and fridge, blinds, grout, under furniture, windows and the mattress. Spread them across a few weekends instead of trying them all in one day. Our deep cleaning checklist breaks them down by room, and how to clean baseboards and how to clean grout cover two of the slowest jobs. Getting ready for company? Use how to clean house before holiday guests. For more on this topic, see our home cleaning guides.

Clean, sanitize or disinfect?

The CDC defines three levels:

• Cleaning removes most germs, dirt and impurities with soap, water and scrubbing. This is enough for most surfaces most days.
• Sanitizing lowers germs to safe levels, for example on counters after raw meat.
• Disinfecting kills most germs and is mostly needed when someone is sick. Leave the product wet on the surface for the full contact time on the label.

Cleaning safety basics

• Never mix cleaning products. The CDC's guide to cleaning with bleach says never to mix household bleach, or any disinfectant, with other cleaners or disinfectants, because it can release vapors that may be very dangerous to breathe in.
• Ventilate. Open a window or run a fan, especially in small bathrooms.
• Read the label. Use each product only on the surfaces it lists, and wear gloves when it says to.
• Store products closed, labeled and up high, and wash your hands when you finish.

How to keep a clean house

Keeping a house clean is mostly about small resets, not big cleaning days.

• Reset the kitchen every night: dishes done, counters wiped, sink empty.
• Use the one-touch rule: put things where they belong the first time.
• Keep a basket in busy rooms for quick pickups.
• Wipe the bathroom sink daily with a cloth you keep under the sink.
• Give every chore a day, so laundry, floors and bathrooms don't all pile up on Saturday.

If you want help building the daily habit itself, see how to start a cleaning routine, and for a full calendar see our cleaning schedule template. For a printable list of every task by room, use the house cleaning checklist.

When the house feels too messy to start

Start with trash and dishes, because they make the biggest visual difference fastest. Then clear one surface, like the kitchen counter or the coffee table, and stop there if that's all you have. Clutter is often the real problem, so a session from how to declutter your home can make every future clean shorter.

Put it on paper

A written plan is what turns one good cleaning day into a clean house most days.

The Cleaning Schedule ($4.49) includes a Daily Checklist, a Weekly Cleaning Schedule, a Monthly Checklist, a Seasonal Deep Clean list, Room-by-Room Checklists, a family chore chart and a Cleaning Supplies page, so the order in this guide becomes a list you can check off.

Want the rest of the house organized too? The Home Management Bundle ($16.99, $32.94 if bought separately) adds the Household Binder, Home Maintenance Log, Home Inventory, Moving Planner and Password & Accounts Log to the Cleaning Schedule. Browse everything on our Printables and Bundles pages, or shop the Home & Organizing collection.

Your first clean, in five steps

1. Open a window and do a 10-minute pickup.
2. Spray the bathrooms and start the dishwasher.
3. Dust and wipe from top to bottom.
4. Clean the kitchen, then the bathrooms.
5. Vacuum and mop from the back of the house to the front door.

A clean house isn't about doing everything at once. It's about doing things in the right order.