The kitchen is where deep cleans get won or lost. Bathrooms are about precision. Kitchens are about layering — what you do first changes what you can do later, and getting the order wrong means you’ll be cleaning the same surface twice.

Our cleaning crews have done this enough times that the process has settled into something close to a rhythm, and we get asked often enough about how we do it that I figured I’d write the actual sequence down. This is the kitchen deep clean we use on bond cleans, pre-sale cleans, and on the deeper end of regular maintenance cleans for owner-occupiers around Maroochydore, Mooloolaba and the broader Sunshine Coast.

Before you start: ventilate and clear

Open every window and door. Run the rangehood. Get the air moving before you start using any product, eco or otherwise. Then clear every surface — bench, sink, stovetop. Everything off, including the fruit bowl and the kettle. You can’t deep clean around stuff. This step alone takes 10 minutes and most people skip it.

Step 1: Top down, dry first

Always work top to bottom. Start with the rangehood (the outside of it, anyway — the filter comes later), the tops of the cupboards, light fittings, and any wall-mounted shelves. Use a microfibre on a long handle for the high stuff, dry. You’re knocking dust loose, not introducing moisture yet.

Knock out the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. There are always more than you’d think.

Step 2: Cupboards and pantry

Empty cupboards one section at a time. Wipe out interiors with a damp microfibre and a mild eco-multipurpose. Check the corners for crumbs and mouse evidence (we find it more often than we’d like). Wipe shelves dry. Put contents back, organised — there’s no point putting things back chaotically.

For the pantry, do the same but check expiry dates on anything that’s been sitting at the back. We’re not trying to throw your food out, but if a tin from 2021 has been gathering dust we’ll flag it.

Step 3: Rangehood and filter

This is the messy one. Take the rangehood filter out and put it to soak. Hot water, dishwashing liquid, and a couple of tablespoons of bicarb soda. Leave it for 30 minutes minimum while you work elsewhere. The grease will come off if the soak is long enough — if you scrub a dry filter, you’re working twice as hard for the same result.

Wipe down the rangehood underside and exterior with a degreaser. Eco degreasers based on citrus solvents are genuinely as good as the chemical ones for kitchen grease in our experience. The smell is also dramatically better.

Step 4: Oven

Ovens are their own challenge. Pull the racks out and put them in the bath or laundry tub with hot water and degreaser. Inside the oven, apply oven cleaner (we use a paste-style eco product where we can; for very neglected ovens you may need the heavier stuff) and leave it to work for at least 20 minutes.

While that’s going, do the door — the inside glass especially. Most ovens have a removable inner glass panel. Take it out if you can, clean both sides, and you’ll get a result that looks new.

After the dwell time, wipe out the oven cavity. Multiple passes with hot water and microfibre. The first pass picks up the bulk, the second cleans, the third polishes. Don’t skip the third pass.

Step 5: Stovetop

Approach depends on the stovetop. Gas stovetops: trivets and burner caps come off and go in the same soak as the rangehood filter. Ceramic and induction: a dedicated cooktop cream and a non-scratch pad. Don’t use anything abrasive on glass cooktops — you’ll see the marks for the rest of the appliance’s life.

For burnt-on residue, a paste of bicarb soda and a few drops of water, left on for 15 minutes, then a non-scratch pad, will lift more than you’d expect.

Step 6: Splashback, benches, sink

Splashback first — degrease, wipe, dry. Benches next. For stone benches, no acid-based cleaners (no vinegar). For laminate, you’ve got more flexibility. For timber, oil-based maintenance product only. Knowing what your bench is actually made of matters.

Sink last in this section. Empty it, scrub with a non-scratch pad and dish soap, attack the rim and the area around the taps with a toothbrush. Limescale on the taps comes off with a vinegar-soaked cloth wrapped around them for 10 minutes (assuming your taps aren’t unlacquered brass — if they are, just dish soap).

The drain is part of the sink clean. Bicarb down, vinegar after, hot water flush.

Step 7: Appliances

Microwave inside (a bowl of water with lemon, microwaved for two minutes, makes the wipe-down trivial). Toaster crumb tray emptied. Kettle interior descaled if needed. Coffee machine drip tray cleaned.

The dishwasher gets a maintenance run with a dishwasher cleaner tablet — empty, hot cycle.

The fridge is its own deep clean and we treat it as a separate line item. If you’ve booked us for a kitchen deep clean and the fridge isn’t included, the fridge isn’t included. People assume otherwise often enough that we always confirm in writing.

Step 8: Floors

Always last. Sweep or vacuum first, then mop. For tile floors, a steam mop is excellent. For timber, a barely-damp microfibre with timber-specific cleaner. Pay attention to the edges and the area in front of the kickboards under the cupboards — that’s where everything collects.

Step 9: Re-check everything

Walk back through. Door handles, light switches, the front of the cupboards (fingerprints), the kickboards. Things you missed look obvious on the second pass.

A proper kitchen deep clean for an average family kitchen takes us two cleaners about two and a half hours. If someone tells you they can deep clean a kitchen in 45 minutes, they’re not deep cleaning it. They’re surface wiping. There’s a difference.

For owners who’d rather not do this themselves — which is most people — booking it as part of a quarterly maintenance clean spreads the effort across the year and keeps the kitchen in genuinely better shape than the once-a-year heroic effort approach. Choice has good ongoing coverage on the eco product side if you want to do your own research on what we use and why.