Spring cleaning checklist: every room, plus the seasonal extras

The spring cleaning checklist, room by room

A spring clean is a deep clean of every room, plus the seasonal jobs that only come up once or twice a year. The list below has two parts: the 67 tasks of a deep clean in the order a crew walks the home, then 22 spring extras that a regular deep clean leaves out.

The first part is the same list BroomBook’s crew app loads for a deep clean, and the same one the free checklist maker prints, so it works for a cleaning business quoting spring cleans. It works just as well as a spring cleaning list for a homeowner, a tenant or a host. Repeat the bathroom and bedroom sections for each room in the home. To print it, build it in the checklist maker linked below the list, or use your browser’s print button for a printable copy of this page.

Then the seasonal extras. These are the jobs that make it a spring clean rather than a deep clean on any other week:

Not every extra is a cleaner’s job. Smoke alarm checks, the dryer vent duct, moving heavy mattresses and taking chemicals to a drop-off are usually for the household or a specialist. Clearing gutters, washing upstairs windows from outside and anything on a ladder outdoors are jobs for a window or gutter company, not a house cleaner. If you run a cleaning business, mark which extras you offer, quote them as add-ons, and take the rest off the client’s copy.

What is spring cleaning, and how is it different from a deep clean?

Spring cleaning is a once-a-year reset of the whole home: a deep clean, plus the seasonal jobs and decluttering that a deep clean does not cover. A deep clean can happen any time of year; spring cleaning is tied to the change of season.

A deep clean gets rid of build-up on surfaces you clean anyway: baseboards by hand, blinds, vents, inside the oven and fridge, grout, shower glass and behind appliances. The full breakdown is in our deep cleaning checklist. Spring cleaning takes that and adds three kinds of work:

• Fabric and bedding. Curtains, mattresses, pillows, duvets and the bed skirt. These collect dust all winter and are rarely touched on a regular clean.
• Stuff, not just surfaces. Closets, drawers, the pantry and storage. You sort, donate and put away winter things, then clean the space that frees up.
• The season’s jobs. Washing windows after winter, getting the porch and patio furniture ready, and the safety checks it makes sense to do once a year.

For a cleaning business, the difference matters when you quote. A client who asks for “a spring clean” may mean only a deep clean, or may expect the windows, curtains and closets too. Ask which extras they want, write them on the estimate, and price them on top of the deep clean.

What order should you spring clean in? A weekend plan

Declutter first, then clean top to bottom and dry to wet, with floors last. Start the products that need time to soak, and clean other rooms while they work. Split across a weekend, the whole home is manageable for most households.

The order inside every room

1. Pick up, sort and bag anything leaving the room.
2. Take down curtains and strip beds, and start the laundry.
3. Ceiling fans, light fixtures, vents and the tops of door frames and cabinets.
4. Windows, blinds, sills and tracks.
5. Shelves, furniture, mirrors and glass.
6. Switches, handles, doors and walls.
7. Baseboards by hand.
8. Vacuum, then mop. Floors are always last.

A weekend plan

One way to split it, if you are doing it yourself:

• Before the weekend: declutter closets and drawers, stock up on supplies, and wash pillows and duvets if your machine can take them.
• Saturday morning: start oven cleaner and shower descaler, following the labels. Clean the bedrooms while they work: curtains down, mattress vacuumed and turned, then dust, windows, baseboards and floors.
• Saturday afternoon: finish the kitchen and bathrooms: oven, fridge, range hood filter, cabinet fronts, grout, glass and drains.
• Sunday: living areas, entry, laundry room and the porch or patio. Test the smoke alarms, hang the curtains back up, and do a last walk through every room.

If a whole weekend is not realistic, do one room a week through the spring instead. The free cleaning schedule maker has a seasonal list you can spread across the weeks and put on the fridge.

Which safety checks belong on a spring clean?

Two checks fit naturally into spring cleaning: testing every smoke alarm, and cleaning the dryer vent ductwork. Both are quick to forget and easy to tie to a date you already remember.

Smoke alarms

The U.S. Fire Administration’s smoke alarm guidance says to test alarms monthly, to replace the batteries in 9-volt alarms (and the backup battery in hardwired alarms) at least once a year, and to replace the whole alarm 10 years from its manufacture date. It also says to put alarms inside and outside each bedroom and sleeping area, and on every level of the home. Spring cleaning is a good time to check the date printed on each one, and to add any that are missing.

The dryer vent

The lint trap is on every checklist, but the duct behind the dryer is not. The U.S. Fire Administration’s basement and garage fire safety page says to clean lint filters every time you use the dryer and to clean the dryer vent ductwork every year. Some homeowners do this with a vent brush kit; others book a dryer vent cleaning company.

Chemicals during a big clean

A spring clean uses more products than a normal week, often in the same small bathroom. The Washington State Department of Health warns that bleach mixed with ammonia makes toxic chloramine gases, and bleach mixed with acids, including vinegar and toilet bowl cleaners, gives off chlorine gas. Use one product at a time, read the label, and rinse before switching.

For cleaning businesses: testing a client’s smoke alarms or cleaning their dryer duct is not part of a cleaning job, and your insurance may not expect it. Leave it off your crew’s list. A friendly reminder in your spring email is a nice touch, though.

How to declutter before spring cleaning

Declutter before you clean, one space at a time, with four bags or boxes: keep, donate, sell and throw away. Cleaning goes faster when there is less to lift, dust and put back.

• Start small. A single drawer or a bathroom cabinet takes minutes and gets you going. Leave the garage and the storage room for last.
• Use the season. As winter coats, boots and bedding come out of use, anything nobody wore this winter is a good candidate to donate. Wash or dry-clean what you keep before you store it.
• Check what donation centers take. Most want clean, working items. Call or check their website before you load the car, especially for furniture, mattresses and electronics.
• Get the donate bags out the same day. Put them in the car or by the door so they do not move back into a closet.

Old paint and cleaning products

Spring cleaning turns up half-empty cans and bottles under every sink. The EPA’s household hazardous waste page says products such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries and pesticides can contain hazardous ingredients. It says to keep them in their original containers with the labels on, never to mix leftovers, and not to pour them down the drain. Ask your local solid waste or environmental agency about collection days or a drop-off site.

Should you spring clean yourself or hire a cleaning company?

Do it yourself if you have the time and want to declutter as you go; hire a cleaning company for the heavy cleaning if you would rather spend the weekend sorting closets. Many people split it: they declutter and handle the extras, and a crew does the deep clean.

A cleaning company makes most sense when:

• The home has not had a deep clean in a long time, and the kitchen and bathrooms need hours of scrubbing.
• You are getting ready to sell, host family or start regular cleaning service.
• Bending, kneeling or ladders are hard for you.

What to expect: most companies sell spring cleaning as a deep clean, with windows, curtains, bedding and the inside of cabinets as add-ons. Outdoor windows above the ground floor, gutters, carpet shampooing and moving heavy furniture are usually separate services or another company’s job. Ask what is included before you book.

On cost: a deep clean usually takes about 1.6 to 2 times as long as a standard clean of the same home, according to our house cleaning pricing guide, and it is priced to match. For what cleaners actually charge by home size and state, see house cleaning prices for 2026.

How cleaning businesses can sell a spring cleaning package

Sell spring cleaning as a deep clean with a short, clear menu of seasonal add-ons, priced from the hours each one takes. Start marketing it at the end of winter, and offer it to your recurring clients first.

1. Define the package. The base is your deep clean. Pick three to five extras your crew can do well, such as inside windows, washing window tracks and screens, curtains taken down and vacuumed, mattresses vacuumed and turned, and the inside of kitchen cabinets. Leave out anything on a ladder outdoors.
2. Price it from hours. Time each add-on on a few jobs, then price it with your labor cost, supplies, overhead and profit. The pricing guide walks through the math, and the house cleaning price calculator gives a deep clean price by home size.
3. Put it in writing. List what the package includes and what it does not on every estimate, so nobody expects the gutters. The cleaning estimate template helps.
4. Tell people early. Email your current clients first: spring dates fill up. Then use flyers, posts and your Google profile. The cleaning flyer maker has a spring cleaning example you can start from.
5. Turn one-time cleans into regular clients. After a spring clean the home is at its best, which makes it the easiest time to offer every-other-week service to keep it there.

Spring cleaning tips for your crew: bring extra cloths and vacuum bags, start the oven and shower first, and photograph each finished room. For more ideas on filling the calendar, see how to get cleaning clients.

How BroomBook runs spring cleans for your crew

We make BroomBook, a scheduling and booking app for residential cleaning businesses. When a client books a deep clean for the spring, each cleaner gets the deep clean checklist on their phone, room by room.

• The right list for the job. The checklist matches the type of clean booked: standard, deep, move-out or Airbnb turnover. The deep clean list is the same one at the top of this page.
• A private crew link, nothing to download. Each cleaner opens their jobs from a private link and clocks in and out from the phone.
• Photos you can check. Checklists come with photos. Each photo is checked against its checklist item, and the ones that need a look are flagged to you, so you can see the inside of the oven without driving over.
• Notes in each cleaner’s language. Job notes, such as “curtains in the main bedroom come down” or “client wants the closets left alone”, are translated into Spanish, French or Portuguese for each cleaner.

Pick something else if you run commercial janitorial contracts, need QuickBooks sync, or want an app from the app store: BroomBook is built for residential cleaning and has none of those. Otherwise, see all the features or try the demo.