Deep Cleaning a New Home

Our little family recently bought a new home and have moved to a new state. After closing, but before unloading all the boxes of our household goods, one important thing needed to be done. Deep cleaning. The family that moved out of this home obviously didn’t do any cleaning before they left — although, I was shocked at how clean the microwave was when we moved in.

Travis and I have always rented due to the frequent moves that come with military life. That means we have never had to clean before moving in. This was different. We took on the task ourselves and spent one weekend cleaning the place from top to bottom. It made for one very long day splitting tasks between the two of us. Then, Travis finished out the rest of the jobs the next day.

I’m a list maker, so I made a huge list of everything that needed to get done. Then we just worked our way down the list. Rather than just work from room to room, I found it easier on myself to include even small jobs on my list. Instead of needing to do several jobs within one room to mark off the room on the list, I was able to mark off a bunch of jobs — this gave me satisfaction and motivation to keep going.

I know of several friends and family members who have recently bought a home or are in the process of buying and will soon be moving. To help them out, I thought I’d share my list of deep cleaning jobs for a new home.

This list is in order of how I did things — for example, you don’t want to sweep the floors and then dust. Dusting must come before sweeping or your first job would be pointless! Feel free to copy and paste this list, print it out, or screenshot it so you don’t forget anything when deep cleaning! I recommend grabbing some friends or family members and giving everyone a couple jobs. That will make this seem much less overwhelming.

Deep Cleaning Jobs For a New Home

• Clean outside of toilets
• Clean inside of toilets
• Clean bathroom counters, sinks, and faucets
• Clean bathroom mirrors
• Clean the bathtubs and showers
• Clean the inside of the bathroom cabinets and drawers
• Wipe down the outside of bathroom cabinets
• Sweep bathroom floors
• Mop bathroom floors
• Clean out the refrigerator
• Clean out the freezer
• Clean the inside of the oven
• Clean the stovetop
• Clean the microwave
• Clean the inside of the kitchen cabinets and drawers
• Wipe down the outside of the kitchen cabinets and drawers
• Clean the kitchen counter tops, sink, and faucet
• Wipe down baseboards in every room
• Sanitize all doorknobs, light switches, and handles in every room
• Dust throughout the house
• Dust ceiling fans and other light fixtures
• Wipe down walls/Use Magic Eraser to take off any markings
• Sweep all floors
• Mop all floors
• Vacuum all carpets
• Change out locks on all doors

If you plan to paint any rooms or refinish flooring, I suggest doing it before you move in if possible. That will just make things easier. Of course, that’s not always possible. We painted Raylee’s room before moving in because it was the most important to us. We wanted her room done to help her transition easier. We didn’t want to have to move all her furniture later.

Be sure to get all your cleaning supplies before hand! We ran out of cleaning supplies or didn’t even realize all that we needed, so we had to stop in the middle of the day and make a trip to the store. That was valuable time that could have been spent cleaning! Here are the products I recommend. Be sure to get enough paper towels. I couldn’t believe how many we went through! Get trash bags too because you will have lots of trash at the end of the day.

Once deep cleaning was finished, we were ready to move in. But once we started unpacking, we found lots of small and big things that needed to be done around the house, as well as things we want to do to make the house more to our liking. We made a big long list of everything we wanted to do from getting new blinds to fixing a door to painting rooms — the easiest little tasks to the big, probably-not-going-to-happen-but-would-be-nice tasks. Then together, we prioritized the list. What things could be done now? What would be least expensive? What are things that we’d like to do but aren’t necessary? We put all of them in order.

Now, we are just working our way down that list little-by-little. Several of those items have already been accomplished and marked off. Others won’t start for a few months while we save up money, and other items may never even happen. But it gives us goals and helps us see what needs to be done versus what would be fun to do. It makes my list-making mind super happy!

I hope this list of deep cleaning tasks helps you prepare for your new home!

Did I miss anything? Is there something else that needs deep cleaned? Let me know in the comments!

Check out these deep cleaning products that we love to use!