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Cleaning best practice
The short answer
Clean high surfaces first and floors last, so dust that falls during the work is collected once rather than three times.
Gravity decides the running order. Dust dislodged from a light fitting, a curtain rail or the top of a wardrobe lands on everything beneath it, so anything cleaned before that point has to be cleaned again.
How it is done
- Start at ceiling level: vents, cornices, fans, light fittings, the tops of tall furniture.
- Work down through walls, switch plates, door frames and skirting.
- Horizontal surfaces and soft furnishings next, then sanitary ware.
- Floors are always last, vacuumed before they are mopped.
Why it matters
A crew that works out of order will spend roughly a third of its time repeating itself, and the client sees settled dust the following morning. The order is the single biggest difference between a fast clean and a slow one.
questions
Asked about this
Only in that the whole sequence runs twice. Fine construction dust hangs in the air for hours, so the first pass removes the bulk, the room is left to settle, and the second pass repeats the same top-down order.
Glass is cleaned after walls and before floors. Cleaning glass last risks drips on a finished floor; cleaning it first means overspray from wall work lands on clean panes.