Living room cleaning checklist: standard and deep clean, step by step

Living room cleaning checklist for a standard clean

A standard living room clean has eight tasks: dust reachable surfaces, tidy and straighten, straighten the cushions and throws, wipe light switches and handles, wipe mirrors and glass, empty the trash, vacuum carpets and rugs, and vacuum and mop hard floors. It is the list for a regular weekly or every-other-week visit.

The same list works for a family room, den or TV room, and for any open-plan living area. These are the same tasks the free checklist maker prints and the BroomBook crew app loads, in the order a crew works through the room:

A few notes that turn the list into a job a cleaner can do the same way every time:

• Dust reachable surfaces means the coffee table, side tables, shelves, the TV stand, picture frames, lamps and window ledges you can reach without a ladder. Lift small objects, dust under them and put them back where they were.
• Tidy and straighten is putting things in order, not putting them away. Stack magazines, fold throws and line up the remotes. Do not move a client’s papers or open drawers to put things in them unless they ask.
• Cushions and throws get fluffed, turned if the client likes them turned, and set back the way the client keeps them. Take a photo on the first visit so every cleaner gets it right.
• Light switches and handles are the touch points: switch plates, door handles, the remote buttons if the client wants them done, and the lamp switches.
• Mirrors and glass covers wall mirrors, glass tabletops, display cabinet doors and the glass in a sliding door. Screens are a separate job, covered below.
• The floors are always last: carpets and rugs first, then the hard floors, working toward the door.

For an Airbnb turnover, the list swaps the deep work for a guest check: remotes, chargers and the house guide in place. The Airbnb cleaning checklist has that version.

How do you deep clean a living room?

To deep clean a living room, do the standard list, then add the build-up work: vacuum under the cushions and furniture, wipe baseboards and door frames by hand, dust blinds and vents, wipe window sills and tracks, dust the ceiling fan and light fixtures, and spot-clean walls and doors. That makes 13 tasks.

A living room deep cleaning checklist is what you sell for a first visit, before a recurring service starts, or for a home that has gone months without a cleaner. After that, a standard clean keeps the room there. The full-home version, with the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms, is in our deep cleaning checklist.

What the deep tasks really mean

• Under the cushions and furniture: take the seat cushions off, vacuum the deck of the couch and the crevices with a crevice tool, and vacuum under the couch and chairs where they lift or slide easily. Hand any coins, toys or jewelry you find to the client.
• Baseboards by hand: a damp microfiber cloth along every baseboard and door frame, not a pass with the vacuum brush.
• Blinds and vents: close the blinds one way and dust, then the other way. Vacuum or wipe the vent covers.
• Ceiling fan and light fixtures: turn the fan off first, and use an extension duster or a stable step stool. A pillowcase slid over each fan blade catches the dust instead of dropping it on the couch.
• Walls and doors: spot-clean marks and fingerprints with a damp cloth. Test on a hidden spot first, because some paints rub off or go shiny.

What a deep clean still leaves out

Washing walls top to bottom, cleaning inside cabinets, shampooing carpets and cleaning upholstery are not on the list. Quote them as add-ons, or refer them to a specialist, so the client knows before the visit what “deep” includes.

What order should you clean a living room in?

Clean a living room top to bottom and dry to wet, with the floors last. Dust falls, so anything low you clean first gets dirty again when you dust the fan or the shelves above it.

These are the living room cleaning steps most crews follow:

1. Clear and tidy. Empty the trash, pick up anything on the floor, and straighten what the client leaves out, so you have clear surfaces to work on.
2. High dusting. On a deep clean, the ceiling fan, light fixtures, the tops of tall shelves and the corners where cobwebs collect.
3. Windows. Blinds and vents, then the sills and tracks on a deep clean.
4. Surfaces, top down. Shelves, frames, lamps, the TV stand and the tables. Dust electronics with a dry cloth.
5. Glass and touch points. Mirrors, glass tables and doors, then light switches and handles.
6. Walls and baseboards on a deep clean, after the dust from above has settled.
7. The couch and chairs. Vacuum under the cushions on a deep clean, then straighten the cushions and throws.
8. Floors. Vacuum carpets and rugs, then vacuum and mop the hard floors from the far corner toward the door.
9. Check and finish. Walk the room once from the door, put back anything you moved, and take a photo of the finished room.

Keep the order the same on every visit and for every cleaner. A crew that works the same way each time misses fewer spots, and a client sees the same room every time. The kitchen cleaning checklist uses the same top-to-bottom rule for the busiest room in the house.

How do you clean a couch? Read the cleaning code first

Vacuum the couch first, then check the cleaning code tag before any cleaner touches the fabric. The code, usually a letter such as W, S, WS or X, tells you whether the fabric can take water, needs a solvent, or should only be vacuumed.

Ashley Furniture, a large US furniture maker, explains that its upholstered products carry a tag under one of the seat cushions or beneath the piece, and publishes what each upholstery cleaning code means:

• W: clean only with a water-based shampoo or foam upholstery cleaner, and do not over-wet.
• S: clean only with a dry cleaning solvent. Do not use water, and do not saturate the fabric.
• WS or SW: spot clean with upholstery shampoo, the foam from a mild detergent, or a mild dry cleaning solvent, without soaking the fabric.
• X: no water-based or solvent cleaners at all. Vacuum or brush lightly only.

The same page says cushion covers on W, S and WS pieces should not be taken off to be laundered or dry cleaned, even when they have a zipper. Other makers use their own codes for leather and washable covers, so read the tag and the care guide that came with the piece.

What a cleaner should do on a regular visit

• Vacuum the couch with the upholstery tool, and the seams and crevices with the crevice tool. This is safe for every code.
• Straighten the cushions and throws on a standard clean, and vacuum under the cushions on a deep clean.
• If you see a stain, tell the client instead of treating it. If they want it treated, read the code, test the cleaner on a hidden spot first, and blot rather than rub.
• If there is no tag, or the tag says X, leave the fabric alone and suggest a professional upholstery cleaner.

Upholstery cleaning, with a machine and a full couch to do, is its own service. Keep it off your house cleaning list unless you are trained and equipped for it, and price it as an add-on if you are.

How do you clean a TV screen safely?

Follow the TV maker’s cleaning instructions, which are in the manual or on its support site. As a general rule, turn the screen off, wipe it gently with a dry, soft microfiber cloth, and never spray any liquid straight onto the screen.

Screens are easy to scratch and some coatings wear off, so a few habits keep a cleaner safe:

• Turn the TV, monitor or tablet off first. A dark screen shows the dust and smudges, and a cool one is safer to touch.
• Use a clean, dry microfiber cloth with light pressure. Paper towels, rough cloths and scrubbing can leave fine scratches.
• Avoid household glass cleaners and other sprays unless the maker’s instructions allow them. If they do, put a little on the cloth, never on the screen, so liquid cannot run into the edges.
• Dust the back, the stand and the vents with a dry cloth or a soft brush, and leave cables plugged in where they are.
• Wipe the game controllers, speakers and the sound bar with the same dry cloth.

If you are not sure what a screen can take, ask the client, and put the answer in the job notes so the next cleaner knows. A dry dusting is always the safe default.

How should you clean living room rugs and carpets?

Vacuum carpets and rugs on every visit, slowly and in overlapping passes, and vacuum the hard floor before you mop it. Shampooing and hot water extraction are a carpet cleaner’s job, not part of a regular house clean.

• Wall-to-wall carpet: start at the far side of the room and work toward the door, so you do not walk on what you just vacuumed. Use the crevice tool along the edges and under the couch where it reaches.
• Area rugs: vacuum the rug, then lift a corner or fold it back and vacuum the floor underneath on a deep clean. Keep the beater bar off the fringe, and use suction only on delicate, hand-knotted or very shaggy rugs.
• Hard floors under rugs: mop around the rug, or let the floor dry fully before you put the rug back, so moisture does not get trapped underneath.
• Spots and stains: tell the client. Blot fresh spills with a white cloth, but leave set stains and odor problems to a carpet cleaner.

Some cleaning companies add carpet and upholstery work as a second service once they have steady house cleaning clients. It takes its own equipment, training and pricing. Our guide to starting a carpet cleaning business walks through what that looks like.

How do you get pet hair and dander out of a living room?

Vacuum fabric furniture, rugs, carpets and curtains, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter or HEPA bags, and wipe hard surfaces with a damp cloth so the dander does not go back into the air. In homes with pets, plan extra time and say so in your quote.

The Indiana Department of Health’s asthma fact sheet on pets advises vacuuming carpets, area rugs, curtains, mattresses and fabric-covered furniture weekly, using HEPA filter vacuums or bags, and keeping pets off furniture and out of bedrooms. The Minnesota Department of Health notes that pet dander is very difficult to eliminate from a home even with regular cleaning and vacuuming, and that after a pet leaves, it can take up to six months of regular cleaning for dander levels to match homes without pets.

What works in practice

• Ask about pets when the client books, and note any cleaner with a pet allergy so you schedule around it.
• Loosen hair on the couch with a damp rubber glove or a rubber brush, then vacuum it up with the upholstery tool.
• Vacuum the pet’s favorite spots: the couch arms, the dog bed corner, and under the furniture where hair drifts.
• Empty the vacuum canister or change the bag often, and clean or change the filter as the maker says, or suction drops off fast.
• Dust with a damp microfiber cloth instead of a dry duster, which tends to push dander back into the air.
• Leave the pet’s bed, toys and bowls as you found them unless the client asks you to wash them.

For a home that is about to change hands after years with a pet, a single clean will not remove all the dander. Say that plainly to a buyer, a landlord or a new tenant, so the result matches what they expect.

How long does it take to clean a living room?

It depends on the size of the room, how much is in it, pets, and how long since the last clean, so time your own jobs instead of using a fixed number. As a rule of thumb, deep cleans usually take about 1.6 to 2 times as long as a standard clean of the same home, according to our house cleaning pricing guide.

In the living room, most of that extra time goes to the ceiling fan, blinds, sills, baseboards and under the couch. A room full of shelves and ornaments takes far longer to dust than a sparse one of the same size, and pet hair adds vacuuming time to every visit.

To price it well:

• Time the living areas on your next few jobs, standard and deep, and write the times down.
• Note what made a room slow: lots of ornaments, a sectional with many cushions, pets, or a big open-plan space.
• Price from hours, not from a guess. The pricing guide shows how hours, pay, supplies and overhead turn into a price.
• Check a quote in the house cleaning price calculator before you send it.

If clients ask how often each task should be done, the free cleaning schedule maker spreads living room jobs, such as vacuuming under the cushions, across the weeks of the month.

How BroomBook puts the living room checklist on every cleaner’s phone

We make BroomBook, a scheduling and booking app for residential cleaning businesses, and it puts this checklist on each cleaner’s phone for every job. The checklist matches the type of clean booked, so a standard clean shows the 8 living room tasks and a deep clean shows all 13. Move-out and Airbnb turnover cleans get their own lists.

• Each cleaner gets a private crew link, with nothing to download.
• The checklist is room by room, with photos. Each photo is checked against its checklist item, and the ones that need a look are flagged to the owner.
• Cleaners clock in and out from their phone.
• Job notes, such as “the couch is code X, vacuum only” or “dry cloth only on the TV,” are translated into Spanish, French or Portuguese for each cleaner.

Pick something else if you run commercial janitorial contracts, if you need a QuickBooks sync, or if your team wants an app from the app store. BroomBook is built for residential cleaning and has none of those. You can see every feature, or try the live demo with sample data and no signup.