How do I clean things I never normally clean?

Routine cleaning covers surfaces people see. This is the other list — the things that get missed for years, some purely cosmetic and several that are quietly making an appliance work badly.

Safety

Step by step

1. Start with the appliances that clean things.Washing machine drawer and filter, dishwasher filter and spray arms, vacuum filter and brush bar. All three work substantially better afterwards, which makes this the highest-value part of the list.
2. Clean the extractor fans.Bathroom fan grille and impeller, kitchen hood filters. Both lose most of their airflow to dust and grease, and both are addressing damp and smells you may be treating some other way.
3. Do the fridge seals and coils.The rubber door seal collects mould and stops sealing, and the coils or vent at the back collect dust that makes the fridge work harder. Both affect running cost as well as hygiene.
4. Wash the bin, inside and lid.Including under the rim and the lid mechanism. Most persistent kitchen smells that survive a fresh bag are here rather than in the bin bag.
5. Clean light fittings and bulbs.Dust on a shade and bulb genuinely reduces light output, which is noticeable in winter. Let bulbs cool completely and isolate at the switch.
6. Do the tops of things.Doors, door frames, wardrobes, kitchen cupboards, the extractor hood, picture frames. Invisible from standing height and immediately obvious once done.
7. Wash skirting boards and radiators.Skirting collects a surprising amount, and dust behind and inside radiators reduces their output. A radiator brush or a hairdryer on cold blows it out onto a cloth.
8. Clean the things you touch constantly.Light switches, door handles, remote controls, phone, keyboard, banister, fridge handle. These are the highest-contact surfaces in the house and are almost never cleaned.
9. Do the soft furnishings.Under sofa cushions, curtains, mattress, pillows, cushion covers, dog bed. Most pillows are machine washable and most people never have.
10. Clean the windows, frames and sills.Including the runners and drainage holes on UPVC frames, which block and cause water to sit inside the frame.
11. Deal with the outside of things.The front door and its furniture, the doorbell, the bin store, the outside light, the meter cupboard. Small jobs with a disproportionate effect on how a house looks.
12. Do the kitchen's hidden surfaces.Under and behind the fridge and cooker, the kickboards, the top of the cupboards, the oven door glass between the panes, the kettle's inside.
13. Wash the washing basket and the cloths.Cleaning cloths, sponges, mop heads and the laundry basket itself. Cleaning with a dirty cloth is a common and self-defeating habit.
14. Split it across several sessions.This is not a one-day list. Two or three items per session, working down from appliances to cosmetic, is far more likely to get finished.

Tips

• Do the appliance filters first. They are the only items on this list that change how something works rather than how it looks.
• Photograph anything you dismantle. Dishwasher spray arms and vacuum brush bars go back together wrongly with surprising ease.
• A pillowcase over an extendable duster does the tops of wardrobes and doors without showering the room in dust.

Common mistakes

• Cleaning with a dirty cloth or mop head — It moves dirt around rather than removing it, and a mop head that has not been washed makes floors worse. Wash the tools first.
• Doing the floors before the tops — Everything you dislodge from high up lands on them. Top to bottom is the order, and it applies to this list as much as to routine cleaning.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask