House Cleaning Tips From Professional London Cleaners

By the Monster Cleaning team·Last updated 29 May 2026·13 min read

We have cleaned over 40,000 homes across London since 2014. These are the house cleaning tips our cleaners actually use on the job, not things we read on Pinterest. Keep on top of a place between professional visits, or clean the whole house yourself, this is the system that works.

The rules we clean by

Four habits do most of the heavy lifting. Get these right and everything else is faster.

Top to bottom, left to right. Dust falls downward. Clean the floor first and then wipe the shelves above it, and you have just dirtied your own floor. So start high, with light fittings, the tops of wardrobes and shelves, and work down to skirting boards and floors last. Going left to right around the room stops you missing a patch or doubling back over what you have already done.

Declutter before you clean. Cleaning around clutter takes three times as long. Before you pick up a cloth, do a quick lap of the room and put away anything that is out of place. If an item has no home to go back to, it is clutter, and it will slow you down every single week until you deal with it.

Load a caddy first. Nothing kills momentum like stopping mid-job to hunt for a cloth or finding the spray bottle is empty. Get it all in one caddy before you start: all-purpose spray, glass cleaner, a cream cleaner, a limescale spray, disinfectant, a stack of microfibre cloths, a scrubbing brush, bin bags and gloves. Our cleaners carry one loaded caddy room to room. It is the single biggest time saver there is.

Spray, then walk away. Let the product do the work. Hit the hob, the oven top and the bathroom tiles, then go and do something else for five minutes. When you come back the grease or limescale has already broken down and wipes away with almost no effort. Scrubbing a dry surface just wastes your energy.

If you remember one thing from this whole guide, make it spray then walk away. Half of cleaning is patience, not elbow grease.

Room-by-room house cleaning tips

Work one room to completion before you move on. Hopping between tasks across the whole house means you spend half your time walking about. Here is the order we follow in each room.

Kitchen

The kitchen works harder than any other room and gets dirty fastest. This is the order our cleaners use:

1. Clear and wipe the surfaces. Move everything off the worktops, spray, wipe. Only put things back once the surface is dry.
2. Hob and splashback. Spray, leave five minutes, then lift the grease with a non-scratch sponge. For burnt-on bits, a paste of bicarbonate of soda and a little water, left 15 minutes, beats most branded sprays.
3. Appliance fronts. Oven door, microwave, fridge, dishwasher. All-purpose spray and a microfibre cloth. On stainless steel, always wipe along the grain or you will streak it.
4. Sink. Cream cleaner, rinse, then dry it off. A dry sink looks far cleaner than a wet one. We dry every sink we clean for exactly that reason.
5. Inside the microwave. Put a bowl of water with a couple of tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda inside, run it three minutes, then leave the door shut another three. The steam loosens everything and it wipes clean in seconds.
6. Bins. Empty, spray the inside with disinfectant, wipe, reline.
7. Floor. Sweep or vacuum, then mop. Always last.

Want it done for you? Our kitchen deep cleaning service covers all of the above plus inside the oven, the extractor and behind the appliances. The oven cleaning on its own is one of our most-booked jobs, because nobody enjoys doing it.

Bathroom and limescale

Bathrooms grow limescale, soap scum and mould faster than anywhere else in the house, especially across hard-water London. We do them in this order:

1. Spray everything first. Toilet, shower screen, tiles, taps, sink. Limescale remover on the taps and shower head, bathroom cleaner on the rest. Leave it all to work while you start the next step.
2. Shower and bath. Scrub tiles and grout with a stiff brush. For mouldy grout, a bicarbonate-of-soda paste left 30 minutes then scrubbed does a surprising amount. For stubborn black mould you need a dedicated spray. HG Mould Spray and Astonish Mould & Mildew Remover both kill it without scrubbing if you leave them five minutes, but open a window first because the fumes are strong.
3. Toilet. Cleaner round the bowl and under the rim, scrub, then wipe the seat, lid, base and the floor around it with disinfectant. This is the most important hygiene step in the house.
4. Sink and taps. Cream cleaner, rinse, dry. Buff the taps with a dry cloth for that just-cleaned shine.
5. Mirror. Glass cleaner and a lint-free cloth. A sheet of newspaper works too if you have run out of cloths.
6. Floor. Mop last, as ever.

On limescale specifically, the trick is to stop fighting it after the event. Wipe taps and the shower screen dry after use and it barely forms. When it has built up, a spray such as Viakal clears taps and glass, and for really crusted shower heads we unscrew them and soak them in a bowl of limescale remover or warm white vinegar for an hour. The deposits wipe straight off after that.

Pro tip: keep a squeegee in the shower and wipe the glass after every use. Ten seconds a day means you almost never scrub the screen again. Over a year that one habit saves hours.

Living room

1. Dust high to low. Light fittings, shelves, picture frames, the TV screen with a dry microfibre cloth only, window sills, skirting boards.
2. Soft furnishings. Plump the cushions, shake out the throws, then vacuum the sofa with the upholstery tool. You will be amazed what comes out of the gaps down the sides.
3. Hard surfaces. Wipe the coffee table, side tables and anything else.
4. Glass. Even doing just the inside of the windows and the sills lifts how bright the whole room feels.
5. Vacuum, then mop. Move the furniture if you can. The dust under the sofa is not harmless. It is a breeding ground for dust mites.

For a proper sofa deep clean or carpet cleaning you need kit a vacuum cannot match. Our machines use hot-water extraction to pull out what is ground down into the pile, then suck most of the moisture back out so it dries quickly.

Bedrooms

1. Strip the bed. Wash sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers at 60°C. The NHS is clear that 60 degrees or hotter is the temperature that actually kills dust mites, while a cooler wash only rinses the allergen away for a while. Do this weekly.
2. Dust every surface. Bedside tables, dressers, and the tops of wardrobes, which everyone forgets.
3. Vacuum the mattress. Once a month with the upholstery tool. Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over it first, leave 15 minutes, then vacuum it off to lift odours and moisture. If anyone in the house has a dust allergy, an anti-allergen barrier cover does more than vacuuming ever will.
4. Get under the bed. Vacuum or mop. Dust gathers there fastest and it is right next to the air you breathe all night.
5. Vacuum the floor. Corners and along the skirting boards too, where the dust collects.

Floors, dust and glass done properly

A few task-level habits that cut across every room.

• Floors: always vacuum or sweep before you mop, or you just push grit around in dirty water. Wring the mop out well. A soaking mop leaves streaks on tile and can swell the joints on laminate.
• Dust: use a dry microfibre cloth, not a feather duster, which mostly flings dust into the air to land again. The NHS recommends damp dusting at least once a week in bedrooms, because a slightly damp cloth traps the dust instead of scattering it.
• Glass and mirrors: spray the cloth, not the glass, to avoid drips running down the frame, then buff dry with a second clean cloth. Do windows on a cloudy day. In direct sun the cleaner dries before you can wipe it and leaves streaks.

A cleaning routine that actually sticks

The biggest mistake people make is trying to do the whole house in one go. It is exhausting, it eats a whole day, and you end up dreading it so much you put it off. Spread it across the week instead.

That is roughly 15 minutes a day in the week and half an hour at the weekend. The house stays on top of itself and you never lose a Saturday to catching up.

Some jobs do not need doing weekly. Here is the rhythm we suggest for the rest:

Quick wins our cleaners wish everyone knew

• Deal with stains the moment they happen. Every minute you wait makes them harder to shift. Blot, never rub, with cold water and a clean cloth. For carpet, our carpet cleaning guide has advice by stain type.
• The cling-film hob trick. On a really greasy hob, pour over white vinegar then bicarbonate of soda, wrap the whole hob in cling film and seal the edges. Leave it an hour. The fizzing reaction loosens the grease so it wipes off with no scrubbing.
• Shower curtains go in the washing machine. At 40°C with a couple of towels in for scrubbing action. Kills the mould and freshens them up.
• Your appliances need cleaning too. Once a month for the dishwasher with a dual-action cleaner such as Finish, monthly for the washing machine on a hot empty cycle, and twice a year for the oven.
• Microfibre beats everything. It picks up more dust and bacteria than cotton, needs no chemicals for light cleaning, and lasts years if you wash it right, which means 40°C and no fabric softener, because softener clogs the fibres.
• Open the windows when you clean. Fresh air dries surfaces faster and clears fumes. The NHS also suggests keeping indoor humidity between 30 and 50 per cent to keep mould and dust mites down, and a quick airing helps with that.

Look after your vacuum and it will look after you

A vacuum with a full bin or a clogged filter can lose up to half its suction, and most people never clean the filter at all. A few minutes of upkeep keeps it pulling like new.

• Empty the bin after every use, not when it is overflowing.
• Wash the filters under lukewarm water with no detergent, then let them dry fully, ideally 24 hours, before they go back in. A damp filter going back into the machine is how they end up smelling.
• How often depends on the brand. Dyson recommend washing the filter monthly. Shark say every three to six months. Check your model.
• Cut tangled hair off the brush roll with scissors. It is the most common reason a vacuum stops picking up.

If you are shopping for a new one, our pick of the best cordless vacuums goes through the models we rate for everyday home use and which hold their suction.

When to call in a professional

DIY cleaning handles maybe 90 per cent of what a home needs. A handful of jobs genuinely want professional kit or training:

• Carpet deep cleaning. Supermarket rental machines do not have the extraction power to pull the water back out, so carpets stay damp and can grow mould. Ours run hot-water extraction with industrial suction.
• Oven cleaning. Commercial degreasers and a full strip-down get a result no spray-and-wipe can. We do this every day.
• End of tenancy. Letting agents check things you would never think of. We work with hundreds of London agents and know exactly what they look for.
• Deep cleaning. When a place has got away from you over months, a professional deep clean resets it to baseline so the weekly routine can keep it there.

Frequently asked questions

How often should you deep clean your house? A proper deep clean, behind appliances, inside cupboards, windows and skirting boards, should happen two to four times a year. If you keep up the weekly routine, quarterly is plenty. If the place tends to get away from you, aim for every couple of months or hire a regular cleaner to take it off your plate.

What is the fastest way to clean a whole house? Work room by room, not task by task, so you are not walking back and forth all day. Finish each room before you start the next, and spray surfaces first so they soak while you do other jobs in the same room. A three-bedroom house takes two to three hours for a thorough clean done this way.

What cleaning products do professional cleaners use? Fewer than you would think. Our standard kit is an all-purpose spray, a bathroom cleaner with limescale remover, a cream cleaner for sinks and baths, glass cleaner, disinfectant and microfibre cloths. That covers about 95 per cent of home cleaning. For ovens, carpets and hard floors we switch to commercial-grade products.

What kills limescale in the bathroom? Acid does. A bathroom limescale spray such as Viakal clears taps and shower screens, and for a crusted shower head, unscrew it and soak it in limescale remover or warm white vinegar for an hour, then wipe. The lasting fix is to wipe taps and the screen dry after use so it never builds up.

How do I get rid of dust mites? Wash bedding weekly at 60°C, which is the temperature the NHS says actually kills mites, vacuum and damp dust at least once a week, and keep indoor humidity between 30 and 50 per cent. Anti-allergen barrier covers on the mattress and pillows do more than anything else if someone in the house reacts to dust.

How often should I clean my vacuum filter? Empty the bin after every use, and wash the filter on the maker’s schedule, monthly for Dyson and every three to six months for Shark. Rinse it under lukewarm water with no detergent and let it dry fully for 24 hours before refitting, or it loses suction and starts to smell.

Is it worth hiring a cleaner? If you value your time, yes. A regular cleaner in London runs roughly £20 to £26 an hour through a reputable company in 2026, and most clients book two to three hours weekly or fortnightly. That buys back an evening or a weekend morning every week, and the clean tends to be more thorough because our cleaners do this all day. Call 0333 555 2076 for a quote.

Keeping on top of it yourself is half the battle, and the tips above are exactly how we do it. When you want a hand with the big jobs, our domestic cleaning team covers the whole of London. Get in touch or call 0333 555 2076 and we will sort you a quote.