I have three kids. This past year was the first time since having our first baby that I felt like I wasn’t nursing a baby or chasing a toddler around 24/7. While there are mixed emotions with that, I realized in many ways that it felt like I was finely able to come up for air. Things that my husband and I had been putting off around the house could finally be taken care of. And, oh, has there been a lot of stuff we’ve been putting off!
This past fall, I had the idea that I wanted to deep clean my house—really, truly deep clean it. But it sounded overwhelming, which made it feel impossible to do. I came up with a plan to deep clean one room each weekend. With only three more rooms to go, I can confidently say this was a great decision! If you’re interested in trying it out, here are my biggest takeaways:
Commit to the deep clean
The first room we picked to deep clean was our master bathroom. Deep cleaning means thorough, every-inch-of-the-room cleaning, so we committed to it. This means I wiped out every single drawer, washed the plastic organizers in drawers, washed the glass coverings of our light fixtures, and wiped off the fan covering—you get the idea. Halfway through I thought, “Do I really need to wash this decorative glass jug or can I just wipe it off?” But you’re deep cleaning for a reason, so commit to it and really get the job done. Remind yourself it’s just that room you’re working on that day. And then remind yourself over and over again if you’re cleaning a room with mini-blinds because cleaning those things are truly the worst.
If you’re busy, take a weekend off, but don’t lose momentum
When you’re just starting out, it can feel like it’s going to take forever to get to your last room. But that’s okay. I always look at this deep cleaning plan as bonus cleaning. I’m doing my regular cleaning during the week, so anything extra I’m doing with deep cleaning is great! It’s okay that it will take a while, and eventually, it will get done. Weekends get busy sometimes with holidays, sports, or birthday parties, and if you need to skip a weekend, do it. But commit to getting back into the cleaning routine the following weekend. We purposefully started during a season when we weren’t super busy so we wouldn’t lose too much momentum.
Break up open areas into smaller “rooms.”
Our downstairs is pretty open, so we created our own smaller rooms to help things feel less overwhelming. Our entryway was one room. We considered our dining area its own room even though it feels very much like part of the kitchen. We are treating the walk-in closet in our room as a separate room. It helps us keep moving without taking on too much in a single weekend. While our kitchen was definitely our most time-consuming room, most rooms take a few hours and are done. Devoting a few hours over the course of the weekend feels manageable to me.
Great for stress-free purging
An unexpected benefit of this plan was how easy it’s been for us to slowly purge our house of things we no longer need. Taking things one room at a time and truly considering each item as we either clean it or organize it has helped us get rid of and donate so much! When we set out to deep clean, I wasn’t thinking about getting rid of things necessarily, so this was an unexpected but hugely satisfying part of our deep clean plan.
Unexpectedly easy way to organize each room
With each room we tackle, we consider what we could do to organize it in a better way. We’ve gotten under-the-sink organizers for the bathroom, small trays for the bathroom drawers, and storage bins of every size you can think of. The end result is an organized room with a system that’s easy to maintain. Just like with purging, organizing the room wasn’t my goal when we set out. I really just wanted to clean it well! Setting up a system one room at a time has been great for us, and it’s helped me feel accomplished each week.
Fun way to reimagine, decorate, and update
As we clean, purge, and organize each room, we’ve also been able to reimagine how we’re using the space. We’ve noticed empty walls that we’ve never gotten around to decorating. We’ve updated some décor that we no longer really loved. We’ve also updated some rooms that needed bigger changes, like our kids’ rooms. When it was time to deep clean our toddler’s room, we updated him to a big boy bed and rearranged his furniture to accommodate the bigger bed. Our girls really wanted desks in their room, so our deep cleaning of their rooms involved rearranging and updating, too.
With three rooms to go and the finish line in sight, I could not be happier with this deep clean plan we made. It’s manageable, great for purging, and way less overwhelming than tackling everything at once. I hope you give it a try!
