Ugh, what is that smell?

Like all good DIYers we initally “moved” into our house without our stuff. We brought a blow up mattress, a couple buckets of tools (which also doubled as stools), a frying pan, and a dog bed (puppy gotta sleep too).

The once white carpet needed replacing through out the whole house, and the peeling linoleum in the bathrooms had also seen better days. There was no point in moving our stuff in, only to have to move it out to finish the floors.

So we camped out in our own house. No fridge, two working lights, and moldy crap in the toilets met us when we arrived. Que the frantic cleaning.

Having moved a lot, we have boiled our cleaning supplies down to the bare essentials. For day to day cleaning I make cleaning solutions out of vinegar, water, essential oils, castile soap, and vodka (depending on the use). But for a move-in clean, especially when the house has been neglected, you need industrial cleaners.

Whether preparing for baby or just moving, you really want that house clean. Cleaning a house with a baby is a thousand times harder then cleaning before they get there, but if you don’t finish before baby comes, don’t worry. They won’t be crawling around the dirty floor for a while.

What You Need to Deep Clean a House

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Lysol is my go-to for deep cleaning a house. I buy a gallon or so, dilute it, and use it to clean everything from blinds and walls to floors, kitchens and bathrooms. Lysol will do most of the tough jobs, but sometimes you need something for grease. That is when I turn to…

Simple green will pull grease off of nearly anything. We grab a gallon when we move and use it (or a diluted solution) to soak and clean filters, stoves, microwaves, and anything with unidentified gunk on it. You can also use it on car parts you need perfectly clean. Works wonders. Then if there is something really tough, we use

Goo gone will remove years of caked on grease in minutes, along with stickers and old adhesive. We just get a small spray bottle of this stuff. Baring any really big messes, one bottle will last years. And finally,

Windex. It is rare that an all purpose cleaner will function as a glass cleaner. If anyone knows of any, I’m all ears.

You will also need implements to clean with. Like microfiber cloths, mops (my favorite), and a vacuum cleaner. It really doesn’t take much to clean a house.

So that is it, 4 cleaners, 3 bought in bulk and put in cheap spray bottles. I have never run out with this setup, and the amounts last for years so you save money in the long run.

Time to get cleaning…

And man did we walk into a filthy house this time. The carpets were brown with unmentionable stains and cigarette holes in them, the deep brown walls had unknowable substances on them, the toilets were full of waste, the stove was so dirty it did not turn on, and the kitchen cabinets had ten years of caked on grease.

I started cleaning… and cleaning… and almost two years and a baby later, I’m still not quite done. What? You really think we managed to get the house sparkling clean? HA! This is unprepared mom, not prepared and good at cleaning mom.

We even hired a cleaning crew to come in and help us with the initial deep clean. The kitchen cabinets are still stubbornly sticky and will need a good soak in goo gone before a fresh coat of paint. Honestly they almost aren’t salvageable, so we are saving up to replace them. Kitchens are really expensive.

Soon I will do a deep cleaning challenge. Crawling babies find every speck of dust, so having a clean house is fantastically helpful when it comes to toddlers (promise, I did manage to get the floors clean before she was crawling, but everything else?). We can all work on getting our house ship shape together.

Personally, I like to start at one corner of the house and move through room by room for a deep clean. What are your cleaning pitfalls and best cleaning tips? Put them in the comments below and I’ll use them in my deep cleaning challenge.