Apartment Cleaning Checklist [Apartment Cleaning Guide]

Imagine you’ve just found the apartment of your dreams. You’ve been settled in for three or so weeks now, and life’s good. That is until you start noticing a thick layer of dust appearing on the tabletop surfaces in your space.

Looks like the apartment is in need of some serious cleaning. But wait, this is your first time living alone, and you don’t actually know how to go about cleaning the apartment. You might actually be comfortable living in a bit of clutter, but your mind won’t fully be at ease. 

Lucky for you, your cleaning dilemma has brought you here, where we’ll provide you with an entire apartment cleaning checklist along with separate step-by-step guides designed to teach you how to clean every space in your apartment. So without any further ado, let’s get straight into it. 

How Often Should You Clean Your Apartment?

In an ideal world, small cleaning chores and tasks should be performed daily, with the apartment being thoroughly cleaned once a week. Even in practice, weekly cleaning takes less time than once-a-month or once-a-year cleaning. 

Think about it, rather than cleaning every area of your home in one fell swoop, you get the luxury of dividing your cleaning tasks up for specific days of the week. What’s even better is that you’re going to come across less dust or grime while cleaning the apartment every week. 

Of course, if you find the entire endeavor unnecessarily time-consuming, you can always contact Happy Home Helpers for their detailed apartment cleaning services on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. 

Apartment Cleaning Essentials

Before we get into the specifics of how you’re going to go about cleaning your apartment, it's important for you to first learn the essentials of the entire drill. Which includes the tools and materials you’ll need and a rough outline of the game plan you’re going to be using. 

Tools and Materials

Tools

• 4 to 6 clean, microfiber cloths
• 1 mop
• 1 nylon scrub brush
• 1 vacuum or broom
• 1 spray bottle
• 1 toilet brush

Materials

• 1 bottle of an all-purpose cleaner
• 1 bottle of laundry detergent
• 1 container of dishwashing liquid
• 1 box baking soda
• 1 bottle of white vinegar
• 1 box of trash bags
• 1 container disinfecting wipes

Dividing the Apartment into Separate Zones

To ensure that you do the best job possible, we’re going to ask you to divide your apartment into 4 separate zones and tackle each individually. 

• Bathroom
• Bedroom
• Kitchen
• Living Room

Now, you do have the choice of either tackling each zone on a separate day or completing them all in one day. That’ll have to be something you decide based on your schedule that week.

Apartment Cleaning: A Complete Guide

Having divided your apartment into 4 zones earlier, it's finally time to get into the specifics of how you’re going to clean every room in your home. Here, we’ll once again urge you to think about the prospect of hiring a professional apartment cleaning service to do the job for you.

However, if you’re all about that DIY life, we’d recommend starting the cleaning cycle from your bathroom. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Cleaning Your Bathroom

The only way to make cleaning enjoyable is to get the most difficult task out of the way first and there’s nothing more difficult and icky than cleaning your bathroom. But still, that’s what makes cleaning it even more rewarding in the end.

Step 1: Add Toilet Cleaner

Toilet cleaners require ten or so minutes to mix in and break apart the grime molecules in your toilet bowl completely before you can start cleaning. Thus, adding toilet cleaner to the toilet bowl should be the first thing you do when you enter the bathroom. 

Step 2: Spray All Surfaces with the All-Purpose Cleaner

While waiting for the toilet cleaner to set, spray your sink, countertops, shower stall, or bathtub surfaces with an all-purpose cleaner. Now, wait a few minutes before wiping all surfaces with a clean, lint-free cloth. 

Step 3: Clean the Shower and Toilet

Next, unscrew the shower head and drain it with a mixture of baking soda and white vinegar. Move towards the cleaning fixtures, bathtub, and shower area now. Scrub the shower head with a soft-bristled brush before reattaching it. 

Finally, scrub the toilet bowl thoroughly (under the rim, too). Use disinfecting wipes to clean the seat, handle, and outside for a perfect finish. 

Step 4: Clean the Mirror 

Spray distilled white vinegar on the mirror’s surface and clean it with another lint-free microfiber cloth. 

Step 5: Clean the Floor

Gather all towels and bathmats and place them inside a designated laundry bag. You could toss them directly in the washer as well, that’s your call. Once that’s done, mop the floor thoroughly.

Step-by-Step Guide to Cleaning Your Kitchen

Ask any legit apartment deep cleaning service, and they’ll tell you that the kitchen is only second to the bathroom in difficulty when it comes to cleaning. Each kitchen appliance requires dedicated attention when cleaning, along with all the cabinets and countertops. 

Thus, this would be the perfect time to put on music or a TV show to keep your motivation levels up. 

Step 1: Start with Appliances

The microwave, oven, refrigerator, and dishwasher are some of the more common appliances found in every apartment, so let’s start with them. For weekly cleaning, you don’t need to go into too much detail; just a light wipe or scrub with a mixture of vinegar and baking soda should do.

• Turn the microwave off. Use a vinegar and baking soda mixture to clean the inside, while wiping the outside with a clean cloth. 
• Move on to your refrigerator. Remove any leftovers or expired food on the inside and place them into a trash bag. Rinse the inside with hot, soapy water, and clean the outside with a slightly damp microfiber cloth.
• Next, remove the racks from your oven. Wipe down the inside with a gentle solution of distilled white vinegar and baking soda. Finish up by gently wiping the exterior with a wet microfiber towel (if necessary).
• Clear out the debris from the dishwasher and gently scrub all filters and racks. Clean the outside with another wet towel.

Step 2: Tackle the Cabinets and Countertops

Your work in the kitchen may often leave cabinets and countertops sticky and crumby. Fortunately, you don’t need to do too much when cleaning them weekly. 

For cabinets, just use a wet cloth to wipe them down. Make sure you get all the sticky spots on the doors and handles as well. For countertops, just wipe them down to remove any crumbs and spills. Wipe again with a disinfecting wipe to sanitize the surface. 

Step 3: Clean the Dishes and Sink

While you’re at it, it might not be a bad idea to also get at the dishes in your sink. Once you’re done with that, you can gently scrub the sink with a soft-bristled brush to clean it as well. 

Step 4: Finish with the Floor

If you have a broom on hand, then you’d do well to use it to remove any dirt or debris before mopping. If you’re short on time, though, just mopping the surface should be enough to clean it. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Cleaning Your Bedroom

The bedroom is one section of your house that we’d recommend cleaning daily. It doesn’t take as much time as some of the other rooms, and a clean bedroom can do wonders for your sleep. Nevertheless, whenever you decide to clean the bedroom, this is the process you should follow. 

Step 1: Start by Decluttering

Bedrooms can be a mess at times, so it might be wise to do some organizing before cleaning. Gather any clothes or shoes that might be lying around and either return them to the closet or place them in a laundry bag if they’re dirty. 

Step 2: Clean the Light Fixtures, Ceiling fans and Door Trims

You’ll need your trusty microfiber duster for this part. Start from the top of the room and use it to clean the ceiling fans, light fixtures, door trims, and door handles. Clean the windows as well by spraying an all-purpose cleaner and wiping with a cloth. 

Step 3: Dust the Furniture

Next, just use your duster to lightly dust the surface of every piece of furniture in your room.

Step 4: Clean the Floor

Lastly, just vacuum up any rugs or carpets in your room. Remove them and mop the floor to finish up. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Cleaning Your Living Room

Any guests that arrive at your home will most probably be seated in the living room. Hence, its cleaning needs to be a bit more thorough. Fortunately, you can clean the entire space in just a few steps:

Step 1: Dust Everything

Once again, start from the top and dust off the ceiling fans, light fixtures, tabletops, shelves, window coverings, window trims, sofas, chairs, and TV. 

Step 2: Wipe Down Glass Surfaces

Furniture with glass surfaces can’t be thoroughly cleaned through dusting alone. You’ll also need to wipe them down with a distilled white vinegar solution to get them looking shiny again. 

Step 3: Vacuum and Mop the Floor

To put the finishing touches on a job well done, diligently vacuum any carpets or rugs in your living room area. Remove them after vacuuming and mop the entire living room floor to complete the cleaning cycle. 

Take a Quote From Happy Home Helpers for Professional Apartment Cleaning Service

That’s all there is to it, folks! That is how you clean your entire apartment by dividing it into four zones and tackling each separately. Now that you know the entire drill, if the task still seems daunting, please don’t hesitate to contact Happy Home Helpers for their expert and affordable apartment deep cleaning services.