A kitchen deep clean means going past the counters you wipe every day — inside appliances, behind them, and everywhere grease and grime actually accumulate. Here's the complete process.
Daily kitchen cleaning covers counters and dishes, but grease, crumbs, and grime build up in places that routine doesn't reach — inside appliances, behind the stove, on top of cabinets. A deep clean addresses all of it, in an order that avoids redoing work.
Everything off the counters — you can't deep clean around small appliances and clutter.
If you're deep cleaning the oven, start it first since it needs time to work (a self-clean cycle, or a baking-soda paste left to sit for several hours or overnight) while you handle everything else.
Remove stovetop grates/burner caps and soak them while you degrease the surface underneath. Clean the range hood and filter — this is one of the most commonly skipped spots and one of the greasiest.
A bowl of water with lemon or vinegar, microwaved for a few minutes, loosens baked-on splatters so they wipe away instead of needing to be scrubbed.
Wipe out whatever the self-clean cycle or baking-soda paste loosened, including the door glass (inside and out) and the racks, cleaned separately.
Wipe down cabinet fronts, paying attention to handles and the areas near the stove where grease travels further than you'd expect. Periodically (not necessarily every deep clean) empty and wipe cabinet interiors too.
Scrub the sink basin, clean the faucet base, and run a drain cleaner or baking soda/vinegar combination through the drain if odor is an issue.
Wipe down the coffee maker, toaster, and anything else that lives on the counter — crumbs and residue accumulate here more than people expect.
Sweep thoroughly (kitchens accumulate more debris than most rooms), then mop. If appliances were pulled out at all, this is the point to clean underneath them before pushing them back.
A full kitchen deep clean typically runs 1.5 to 3 hours, depending heavily on how much oven/appliance buildup there is and how long it's been since the last one.
The oven, range hood degreasing, and behind-appliance work are the parts people most often outsource, even if they handle the rest themselves. See our full cost guide for what a professional deep clean typically runs.
A kitchen deep clean is one of the more time-consuming home tasks, but tackling it in the right order — oven started early, grease before floors, floors last — keeps it from taking longer than it needs to. Get a free price estimate if you'd rather hand this one off.
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