We move furniture and clean behind it

Every deep clean starts at the ceiling

A deep clean follows gravity. We start with the ceiling corners, light fixtures, fan blades and the tops of door frames. Then we work down through window sills and cabinet fronts to the baseboards, and the floors come last. Dust knocked loose up high falls onto everything below it, so working in any other order means cleaning the lower surfaces twice. In Reno the high surfaces usually carry the most dust, because dry wind pushes it through every gap around the windows and doors.

The step that gets skipped most often is whatever sits behind things. We pull the couch and the bed away from the wall so we can reach the baseboard and the carpet edge behind them. Items on shelves come off so the shelf gets wiped underneath. A customer named Sandra put it this way: "They don’t dust around things, they actually move them!" That is the difference between a deep clean and a fast one.

The way to check a deep clean is to look where nobody usually looks. Run a finger along the top of a door frame and it comes away clean. The track of the sliding glass door is free of grit, and the baseboard behind the sofa matches the one in the hall. When the furniture never moves, a gray line of dust stays behind it. The first time someone shifts the couch, it looks like nobody cleaned at all.

• Ceiling corners and tops of door frames
• Baseboards and woodwork in every room
• Furniture moved to clean behind it
• Sliding glass door tracks cleared of grit
• High ledges and plantation shutters dusted

Desert wind leaves dust on every ledge

Reno sits in the high desert, and the air stays dry most of the year. On many afternoons the wind comes over the Sierra and picks up fine dust from open lots and hillsides on its way into town. That dust gets in around window frames and under doors. Once inside, it rides the air from the furnace or the swamp cooler until it lands on the highest flat surface it can find.

Many of the two-story tract homes around Reno and Sparks have plant ledges over the entry. Vaulted ceilings and tall window sills often need a ladder to reach. Those ledges are where the dust piles up, often thick enough to see from the floor. We take down whatever sits up there, wipe the ledge, clean each piece and put it back where it was. Skip the ledges and some of that dust drifts back down every time the furnace kicks on.

Dry air also makes dust cling. Static builds up on screens and plastic, so a dry cloth only pushes the dust around and leaves streaks behind. We use damp cloths on hard surfaces so the dust lifts off instead of floating back into the air. A dry wipe looks fine for an afternoon, and then the film is back on the television by the next morning. In winter, a house with a wood stove or a fireplace adds a layer of soot to those same surfaces.

Kitchens and baths take the longest

In the kitchen we work from the top of the cabinets down. The tops of the upper cabinets collect a sticky mix of cooking grease and dust that a quick wipe never reaches. Cabinet fronts get cleaned around the handles, where hands leave the most grime. Then we do the backsplash and the stovetop, then the front of every appliance. The floor comes last, along with the toe kick under the cabinets where crumbs and dust pack in.

Bathrooms around Reno fight mineral spots. Water in much of the valley leaves a white film on shower glass and faucets, and it builds up a little more with every shower. We work that film off the glass and fixtures. Then we clean the grout lines, the base of the toilet and the floor behind it. Leave the mineral film in place and soap scum grabs onto it, so the glass clouds over faster the next time.

Woodwork gets the same attention in every room. Door frames, window trim, stair rails and plantation shutters all hold dust along their edges. Shutters are slow work, because each louver needs a wipe on both sides or the dust just moves to the next slat. We do them one at a time and check the last one as closely as the first. A customer named Lorie listed what her deep clean covered: "Corners, woodwork, kitchen, baths, plantation shutters, and dusting of curios on high ledge. All done!"

Older homes hide dirt in the trim

Older houses in the neighborhoods around downtown Reno are often brick, with hardwood floors and painted wood trim. They have deep window sills, built-in cabinets and door casings with grooves that fill with dust. Old trim usually carries many layers of paint, some of it chipped. We wipe it gently instead of scrubbing hard enough to lift a loose flake. Hardwood floors get a damp mop, never a soaking, because standing water works into the seams between the boards.

Sun Valley and Lemmon Valley have a lot of manufactured homes, and those need a lighter touch. The wall panels are thin, and too much water or a hard scrub can leave marks or loosen a seam. We clean them with cloths that are damp instead of wet, and we dry as we go. The floor vents collect a lot of dust and pet hair, so we lift the covers and clean down inside the opening.

Newer homes in Spanish Springs and the south end of Reno bring their own work. Open floor plans let kitchen grease and dust drift into the living room, and big windows show every streak in the afternoon sun. Textured drywall catches dust in its bumps, most of all in the strip just above the baseboard. We wipe that strip in every room. Skip it and a freshly cleaned floor still sits next to a wall that looks dirty.

We can organize while we clean

A deep clean goes faster when the surfaces are clear, and it stays clean longer too. Decluttering and closet organization are services we offer. If you ask, we can sort a crowded counter or a packed closet on the same visit. We go through the piles with you first. That way nothing you want ends up somewhere you cannot find it, and nothing gets thrown out without your say.

Garages around Reno take a beating. Wind blows dust under the big door every time it opens, and in winter the car tracks in road grime and melted snow. Shelves fill up with boxes nobody has opened in a long time. We clear the floor and sort what is on the shelves into groups you choose. Then we sweep out the dust that has built up along the walls and in the corners.

Cleaning and organizing work better together. When we do both, each shelf gets wiped before anything goes back on it, and the closet floor gets vacuumed before the shoes return. Nothing clean gets set down on a dirty surface. You end up with rooms that are easier to keep clean, because less is sitting out on the flat surfaces for dust to settle on.