HOMLI HOW-TO SERIES
How to clean your house,
room by room.
The real checklist our own cleaners run on every visit, broken down room by room so you can run it yourself. Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living area, and the whole-home details that are easy to skip until you actually stop and look.
WHY A CHECKLIST BEATS WINGING IT
Same order,
every time.
The baseboards get their turn
A fixed room-by-room list beats "I'll get to the baseboards eventually" — the kind of task that's easy to keep putting off without something written down to check against.
Top to bottom, floors last
Dust and drips fall down. Clean high surfaces before low ones, so you're not mopping the same floor twice by the time you're done.
It's the real Homli system
This is the same checklist our own cleaners run on every routine visit — checked off live, room by room, on our crew app. If we're asking you to trust it, we hold ourselves to it too.
THE GUIDE
Room by room,
start to finish.
Work through each room in this order — high to low, then the floor last — and you'll cover everything on our own routine-clean checklist. Every step is specific, because “tidy up a bit” has never cleaned a room. Want the full version, including what a deep clean adds? See the full checklist.
1. Kitchen
- Clear the counters, then wipe every surface and the backsplash — grease and splatter lift easier before they've dried a second time. Yesterday's splatter has had all night to bond with the tile.
- Wipe down the stovetop and the front of the range hood.
- Wipe the outside of every appliance: fridge, dishwasher, microwave. Yes, even the one with the magnets holding up a permission slip from three school years ago.
- Wipe cabinet and drawer fronts, working top to bottom so nothing you already cleaned catches drips.
- Sanitize the sink and polish the faucet.
- Empty the trash and replace the liner.
- Sweep, then mop — always last, so nothing lands back on a clean floor.
2. Bathroom
- Polish the mirror first — it's the fastest way to see the rest of the room clearly, and the fastest way to see the toothpaste spatter you've been ignoring since Tuesday.
- Wipe the vanity counters and sanitize the sink.
- Wipe cabinet fronts and fixtures.
- Scrub and disinfect the toilet, inside and out. This is the one task on the whole list nobody's ever mad you did.
- Clean the shower or tub and the glass.
- Empty the trash and replace the liner.
- Sweep, then mop last.
3. Bedroom
- Make the bed — change the linens if they're already off. A made bed makes the whole room look finished before you've dusted a single thing, so do it first and enjoy the head start.
- Dust nightstands, dressers and other surfaces.
- Wipe doorknobs and switch plates.
- Vacuum the carpet, or sweep and mop hard floors.
- Empty the trash.
4. Living Area
- Tidy cushions and blankets before you clean around them — there's no point dusting a table you can't currently see.
- Vacuum upholstery.
- Dust surfaces, shelves and decor.
- Wipe the coffee table and side tables.
- Spot-clean doorknobs and light switches.
- Vacuum carpet or mop hard floors last.
5. Whole Home
These details don't belong to any single room, which is exactly why they're the easiest to forget. Give them a pass too:
- Dust baseboards and ledges throughout.
- Spot-clean doors and light switches.
- Sweep cobwebs from ceiling and wall corners.
- Empty every wastebasket in the house, not just the kitchen and bathroom — the bedroom one fills up in ways nobody wants to think too hard about.
WHEN DIY HITS ITS LIMIT
Some jobs
want a deep clean.
Hand-washed baseboards & grout
The routine list keeps these dusted; a deep clean hand-washes and scrubs them properly. It's the kind of detail our team's medical-cleaning background makes us picky about.
Light fixtures & vents
Easy to forget entirely without a checklist that says so — and honestly, awkward to reach safely without the right ladder and a second pair of hands.
Or just no time
We run this exact list — and the deeper version — on a schedule that works for you. Someone else can own the baseboards from now on, if you'd rather they did.
★★★★★
5.0 verified on Google · 112 five-star reviews
This is the real checklist behind those reviews — the exact one our cleaners run in Canton, Plymouth, Northville, Livonia, Ann Arbor and West Bloomfield, MI. The whole trick is the list, followed carefully, every visit.
FAQ
Questions,
answered.
Top to bottom, then floors last, room by room. Dust and drips fall down, so cleaning a high shelf after you've mopped just means you'll be mopping again.
A multi-surface cleaner, a bathroom disinfectant, and a glass cleaner cover nearly everything on this list. Specialty sprays for specific surfaces are nice to have, not required.
This routine list keeps a home maintained. A deep clean goes further on the same rooms — hand-washed baseboards, scrubbed grout, light fixtures and vents — and it’s worth it if it’s been 4+ weeks since your home was really, thoroughly cleaned.
Yes — this is our real routine-clean checklist, not a generic guide written just to fill a blog post. Our cleaners check off every task live, room by room, on our crew app during the visit.
When the baseboard-and-grout level of detail matters more than the time it takes, or when you'd rather hand the whole list to someone else and get your Saturday back. We run this same checklist — and the deep-clean version — for homes in Canton, Plymouth, Northville, Livonia, Ann Arbor and West Bloomfield, MI.
Rather hand off
the checklist?
We run this exact system, on a schedule, with the same team every visit. You keep your Saturday. Get your price in about a minute.