Home Cleaning Cheat Sheet: A Step-by-Step Guide for Cleaning Your Home

Follow this cleaning checklist (based on years of CNET expert advice) to get the best clean for your home.

Macy Meyer is a North Carolina native who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BA in English and a second BA in Journalism. Macy is a Writer on the CNET How-To team, covering a variety of topics, including home security, fitness and nutrition, smart home tech and more. In each article, Macy helps readers get the most out of their home, tech and wellness. When Macy isn't writing, she's volunteering, traveling, walking her dog, Holden, or watching sports.

• Macy has been working for CNET for coming on 2 years. Prior to CNET, Macy received a North Carolina College Media Association award in sports writing.

A new season is quickly approaching, which means it's a good time to prioritize renewing and organizing. and your house is begging for a good cleaning. Pull out your cleaning supplies and your trusty vacuum (or finally invest in a great cordless vacuum), and get to work.

Well, OK. but it can be hard to know where to start when there's an entire home that needs a deep clean. Lucky for you, CNET has spent years consulting experts and writing up neat hacks and guides for how best to clean and organize every area of your home, from the bathroom and kitchen to your appliances and car. To make things even easier, we've compiled the stories into an ultimate cleaning checklist. Scroll on to check it out.

What are the best cleaning items?

Our CNET staff has tried out a legion of cleaning products over the years, putting each device to the test. Here are our favorites:

• Best vacuums overall
• Best cordless vacuums
  
• Best robot vacuums
• Best washing machines
• Best dishwashers
• Best shower heads

Food residue is gross, so let's start in the kitchen

You probably spend a lot of time in your kitchen. It's where you do your food prep and likely gather with friends and family. That means it desperately requires a good scrub down, both for your sake and the sake of your company.

• How to get your kitchen clean in 15 minutes.
  
• Keep the annoying gap between your stove and countertop clean with this one trick.
• When cleaning in the kitchen, consider moving big appliances to clean under them.

And don't forget your kitchen and household appliances

From the gunk inside your coffee maker to the dusty filters inside your vacuum, you must give your trusty household appliances a good wipe-down at least a few times a year.

• Clean your Roomba's bin, filter and brushes.
  
• You'll also want to give your cast iron skillet a good clean.
• Make sure your washer doesn't have mold by cleaning it out now.
• You'll also want to take your Keurig apart for a deep clean of every piece.
• Try this hack to clean oven grease from those hard-to-reach places.
• Your dishwasher is gross, so you should know how to clean it.
• And clean your toaster (without electrocuting yourself, of course).
• Don't forget to clean your grill and grates.
• From handles to the ice maker, here's how to give your fridge a deep clean.
• Next, clean your blender with this one easy trick.

Looked inside that toilet? Yeah, that needs to be cleaned

Your bathroom is one of the dirtiest areas in your home. With the frequency of its use, lurking germs and bacteria can spread quickly. That means you need to clean weekly, if not daily.

• To start, here's how often you should clean your bathroom.
• Then use this guide to clean it in under 10 minutes.
• If you're dealing with a clog, here's an easy way to unclog your toilet, no plunger needed.
• Next, clean the gunk off that shower head.

Bedding can collect all kinds of grime, too

It seems simple, but you might be washing your sheets all wrong. Here's what to know:

• Check out how to wash your bedding the right way .
• Oh, and you really shouldn't forget about your pillow.
• Wear makeup? Here's how to get makeup stains out of bedding.
• After the wash, you'll need to fold your sheets. Here's the best way to fold a fitted sheet .

If you want an extra deep clean, you can even consider cleaning your mattress .

Did you like this cheat sheet? Check out CNET's other complete guides:

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• Google Maps Cheat Sheet: The Most Useful Tricks You Need to Know