How to Deep Clean After the Holidays

That Cleaning Girl · Deep Cleaning

The holidays are wonderful, and they're also hard on a house. Weeks of cooking, guests, gifts, kids home from school and muddy winter boots leave their mark. By the first week of January, most homes need more than a quick tidy. If you read Deep Cleaning Before Selling a House: What Buyers Notice, a lot of the same detail work applies here, just with more glitter.

Start with the big pickup

Before you clean anything, put things away. A deep clean goes much faster with clear surfaces.

• Take down decorations and pack them in labeled bins.
• Recycle boxes and wrapping paper, and break down shipping boxes.
• Return borrowed serving dishes and chairs.
• Find a home for new gifts, or set a box aside to deal with later.
• Strip guest beds and gather every towel guests used.

Once the house is picked up, you can actually see what needs cleaning, and it's usually less overwhelming than it looked with everything still out.

The kitchen took the hardest hit

Holiday cooking means more grease, more spills and more crumbs than a normal month.

• Degrease the stovetop, range hood and its filter.
• Wipe cabinet fronts, especially near the stove and the trash can.
• Clean the inside of the oven; roasting and baking leave drips that smoke later.
• Clean out the fridge and toss leftovers that have been there a while.
• Wipe the microwave, small appliances and the handles of everything.
• Clean the sink and run the disposal with ice and dish soap.

Guest rooms and bathrooms

Guest spaces get a lot of use over a short time. Wash all the bedding and towels guests used, including blankets and decorative throws that were pulled out. Vacuum the mattress and under the bed, wipe nightstands and dust the ceiling fan.

In guest bathrooms, give everything a full deep clean: toilet, tub and shower, glass, grout, sink and floor. Restock toilet paper and soap so the room is ready next time. If guests are staying through New Year's, a quick wipe of the guest bathroom midway through their visit keeps it from piling up for the end.

Living areas: needles, glitter and crumbs

The living room usually hides the most holiday debris. Pine needles, glitter, tinsel and crumbs from snacks in front of the game all work their way into rugs and couch cushions.

• Vacuum couches with the cushions off and check underneath.
• Vacuum carpets slowly in several directions to lift pine needles.
• Use a lint roller or tape on upholstery to catch glitter.
• Dust shelves, decor and the TV stand.
• Wipe fingerprints off glass doors and windows.
• Clean the spot where the tree stood, including any water spills.

For glitter on hard floors, a slightly damp microfiber mop picks it up better than a broom, which tends to scatter it. Check the tree stand area carefully, too. Pine needles hide in carpet fibers for weeks, and real trees can leave sap or water spots on the floor underneath the skirt.

Floors and entries

Winter weather here can swing from dry and dusty to cold and rainy in a week, and holiday traffic tracks in everything. Wash or shake out every doormat. Vacuum and mop all hard floors, giving extra attention to entries and the kitchen. Spot clean carpet stains from spilled drinks or dropped food as soon as you find them. Blot, don't rub, and work from the outside of the stain toward the middle so it doesn't spread. The longer a cranberry or gravy spot sits, the harder it is to lift.

Air and dust

Heaters run hard in winter, and that moves a lot of dust. Change the HVAC filter if it's been more than a month or two. Dust ceiling fans, vents and the tops of door frames. If you lit a lot of candles or used the fireplace, you might find a light film of soot on walls near them, which usually comes off with a damp cloth and a little dish soap.

Spread it over a week

You don't need to do all of this in one day, especially if you're back to work. Try a room a day:

• Day one: big pickup and decorations away.
• Day two: kitchen and fridge.
• Day three: guest room and laundry.
• Day four: bathrooms.
• Day five: living areas and floors.

Or book a deep clean for the first week of January and get the whole house back at once. Plenty of families across the south DFW area do exactly that, and many use it to start a regular cleaning schedule for the new year.

Before you pack the decorations, give them a quick wipe or shake outside. Dusty ornaments and garlands go into the bin clean, and next year's decorating day starts without a sneeze.

A fresh start for the new year

There's something about a clean house in January that makes the whole year feel more manageable. Whether you do it yourself or have us take care of it, the reset is worth it. If you're here in Ellis County or nearby and want the help, see our deep cleaning services.