7 Steps to Batch Clean Your Customers Homes

One of the best things about being a self-employed house cleaner is the freedom to experiment.

When I worked for Merry Maids decades ago, I had to follow their cleaning methods, materials and workflow.

That meant there was only one method to clean customers homes, there were only certain cleaning liquids I could use and I had to clean rooms in a certain order.

When I started my own business, I stuck with their methods for a while because that is what I was used to.

I was a speedy cleaner, but not always the most thorough.

When I settled into being self-employed and wasn’t rushing from house to house for another company, I started working at my own pace.

I became more detail oriented. I started to place more emphasis on deeper cleaning instead of faster cleaning.

I wanted my customers homes to gleam when they walked through the door on cleaning day.

That doesn’t happen without a plan and a lot of attention to detail.

Old Patterns of Cleaning

In the early days of my business, out of habit and training I either started on the top floor of the house and worked my way down or started in the basement and tackled the top one or two floors after the basement was done.

Do The Scary Cleaning First

Then I began to experiment with when and how I cleaned rooms. My first experiment was doing the scariest thing first, like vacuuming sofa and chair cushions covered in cat and dog hair (eek!)

Or huge marble-walled showers with glass doors (ugh!). Or my personal favorite, sunken Jacuzzi bathtubs with a dozen dirty water jets that had to be scrubbed individually (groan!).

I found when I did the things I found scary first, I jumped a mental hurdle.

Cleaning the rest of the house was much easier with the weight of the scariest task gone.

Moving Into Batch Cleaning

After a few years, I found myself moving toward a very different workflow in my cleaning.

I wanted to make my cleaning more efficient and thorough. I began to pay attention to what took up the most time in each room.

No more dragging things from room to room or hunting for a piece of equipment while I was in the middle of cleaning. What I needed was where I needed when I needed it.

Seven Repeatable Batch Cleaning Steps

Then I developed a clear-cut order for cleaning each house. I stopped focusing on cleaning room by room. I started cleaning task by task.

I wanted to make sure the order of tasks was easy to remember, repeatable in all my customers homes and created the best results. I came up with this seven step cleaning workflow:

1. Tidy up

2. Trash Collection and Rugs

Empty trash and recycling in each room. Take out the trash and recycling. Wash and dry kitchen and bathroom trash containers, if needed. Line trash receptacles with plastic bags.

Shake area rugs and put them aside or position them to be vacuumed later. Wash hands thoroughly when done with this step.

3. Vacuum upholstered sofas and chairs

Fluff sofa cushions and pillows. Fold and replace decorative sofa throws and blankets.

4. Glass, Mirrors and Tiles

5. Dusting

With an extendable lambswool duster, remove cobwebs from walls and ceilings. Then thoroughly dust the furniture in each room with microfiber cloths.

If I agreed to oil wood furniture, this is when I do it.

Note: In some homes, I clean kitchen appliances, countertops and cabinet doors after dusting. In other homes, I clean the entire kitchen last. In both cases, I make sure all crumbs, trash and grime are removed from kitchen surfaces before I vacuum the floors.

6. Floors

Hard floors in the living room, dining room, bedrooms and den are then mopped before I clean the bathrooms and kitchen. They are usually dry before I move into the kitchen.

Bathroom floors are mopped after each bathroom is clean. Kitchen floors are mopped last in every home.

7. Bathrooms and Kitchen

These are generally the last rooms cleaned. In the bathrooms, the toilets are sanitized first. Before I clean the first bathroom, I spray disinfectant on the toilet in the next bathroom to be cleaned so the spray has time to “dwell” and kill germs. Then I scrub bathtubs and shower floors.

The sinks are scrubbed last. I finish by mopping the bathroom floors. When they are dry, I replace rugs and close windows.

Kitchen Details

In the kitchen, I spray a liquid degreaser on the stove and inside of the microwave in Step 1 just after removing the grates or burner pans from the stove.

That allows the liquid to soften and loosen dried or burnt-on food and grease while I’m working in the rest of the home.

When I finally get to the kitchen, I clean the small appliances like the toaster, blender, coffee maker and espresso machine first.

Then I clean the large appliances like the stove, outside of the refrigerator plus inside and outside of the dishwasher door.

Related: A surprising way to make stainless steel appliances shine.

I wipe down the kitchen cabinets, especially around the handles. Then I clean the countertops with a mild detergent solution.

I dry the countertops with microfiber cloths or cloth diaper rags I buy brand new from a cloth diaper supply company.

Related: 3 Insider Secrets To Make Natural Stone Countertops Gleam.

Sinks Get Special Attention

If the sink surfaces are still dull after sanitizing and rinsing, I scrub the sinks with Barkeepers Friend®.

Then I dry and polish the sinks, faucet and handles with microfiber cloths.

The kitchen floor is mopped last. When the floor is dry, I replace all rugs.

Making Batch Cleaning Work

The key to making batch cleaning work is preparation. In addition to placing supplies and equipment in starting positions when I set up in a customers home, there is also preparation I do the night before I clean.

All of the bottles in the cleaning tote are topped off so I don’t run out of product in a customer’s home.

All cleaning cloths and mop heads are washed, dried and folded. They are packed in mesh bag for taking to customer’s homes.

From experience I know how many cleaning cloths to take to each customer’s home, plus some extra for “surprises”.

The vacuums are in good working order with the dust bags no more than half full. Even the plastic trash liners are already counted out, opened and ready to use.

I leave as little to chance as possible. I try to avoid last minute fumbling in the customer’s home.

The Benefits of Focus

For me, batch cleaning helps keep me focused on one set of cleaning tasks in my customer’s home at a time. With that focus, I clean everything deeper and with more care. The results are:

Each task is part of a batch workflow. Batched tasks are rarely forgotten or afterthoughts.

With batch cleaning, I’m able plan and prepare my work days with very little wasted time, effort or supplies.

Best of all, I scrub my customers homes till they gleam. They love the attention to detail and I love the plan.

We both win.