The Aussie Spring Deep-Clean Guide

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

By the I Do It Yourself team — Priya (lead), Cal and Mick.

Spring in Australia is the cleaning window. The mould that took hold over a damp Melbourne winter, the dust that settled through a dry Brisbane June, the salt haze that’s been crusting the windows on the northern beaches since March — September and October are when you reset the house. This guide is for the homeowner who wants to do it properly, top-to-bottom, with the right products and the right order, without paying $800 to a commercial cleaning crew who’ll do it faster but no better than you can.

Realistic supplies budget is $80 to $200, almost all of which you’ll have left over for the next six months. Timeline is one full Saturday-Sunday weekend if you’re attacking it, or four weekends across September if you’d rather pace it. The team breaks down the spring clean by zone — wet areas, living spaces, outdoor, and maintenance — because the order matters and because each zone needs different products and different patience.

What you’re getting into

A “spring clean” is not your weekly Saturday-morning vacuum-and-wipe. It’s the deep clean — moving the fridge, washing the windows inside and out, pulling apart the rangehood, descaling the kettle and the iron, taking the cushion covers off and washing them, getting up the ladder to do the cornices, and checking the fire alarms while you’re up there. You’re aiming for the state of the house at the start of summer to be the cleanest it’ll be all year, because from December onwards it’s heat, holidays and BBQs.

The DIY-vs-licensed line is generous on a clean. You can do basically all of it. The two exceptions: do not get into the roof cavity to clean ducted aircon vents (call HVAC), and do not dismantle hardwired smoke alarms or 240V exhaust fans for cleaning — wipe the covers in place and call a sparky if anything’s not working. Everything else is yours.

One realistic constraint: a proper spring clean is physical. You’ll be on your feet for two days, up and down a ladder, kneeling on bathroom floors, stretching to reach the top of the wardrobe. Wear knee-pads if you’ve got them, take breaks, and don’t try to do it after a 50-hour work week. Spread it across two weekends if you need to. The clean lasts longer than the soreness.

Tools and budget

  • Microfibre cloths (pack of 12 from Costco or Bunnings) — $25
  • Mop with washable head (Sabco or O-Cedar) — $35
  • Bucket, scrub brush, grout brush, old toothbrush — $20
  • Step ladder (1.8m) — $80–$150 if you don’t own one
  • Squeegee for windows (Unger or Karcher) — $20
  • White vinegar (5L from supermarket) — $8
  • Bicarb soda (1kg) — $5
  • Sugar Soap concentrate (2L) — $15
  • Koh Universal Cleaner (4L starter kit) — $40
  • Gumption (the pink tub) — $6
  • Bar Keepers Friend (for stainless and ceramic) — $8
  • Exit Mould or Selleys Rapid Mould Killer — $12
  • Long-handled cobweb brush — $15
  • Rubber gloves, P2 mask if you’re cleaning anything mouldy — $20
  • Total: $80–$200 depending on what you already own

Phase 1: Plan and supplies

Priya: Spring clean planning takes 20 minutes on a Friday night and saves you four hours of running to Bunnings on Saturday morning. Walk every room with a notepad. Write down what’s filthy, what’s broken, what’s running out (the kettle scale, the half-empty Sugar Soap, the dishwasher that’s started smelling). Then write a shopping list. Then sort the list into one Bunnings stop, one supermarket stop, and “things I already own”. You’ll save yourself three trips.

The single most useful planning trick is to zone the house. I split it into five: kitchen + laundry, bathrooms, living areas, bedrooms, outside. Each zone gets its own caddy with the right products. You’re not running back to the garage for the bicarb every time you cross a hallway. A $5 plastic tote per zone, pre-loaded, saves more time than any product you buy.

Priya: One thing first-time deep-cleaners always overbuy is product. You don’t need eight different sprays. You need vinegar, bicarb, Sugar Soap, Koh, Gumption, an oven cleaner, and a mould killer. Seven products will clean every surface in the house. The fancy lemon-scented “kitchen sprays” at Coles are mostly water and fragrance.

Phase 2: Wet areas — kitchen, bathrooms, laundry

Priya: Wet areas first because they’re the worst, the smelliest, and the most rewarding to finish. Start with the kitchen. Empty the rangehood filter into a sink full of boiling water and a scoop of bicarb — let it soak while you do everything else, you’ll come back to it in three hours and the grease wipes off. Pull the oven racks, soak them in the bath (lined with a towel) with hot water and dishwashing liquid. Run an empty dishwasher cycle on the hottest setting with white vinegar in the top rack and bicarb on the floor. Pull the fridge out, vacuum the coils on the back, mop behind it, push it back.

Bathrooms are about three problems: mould in the grout, scale on the glass, and hair in the drain. Mould — Exit Mould, leave it 15 minutes, scrub with a grout brush, rinse. Scale — white vinegar on a microfibre, leave 10 minutes, scrub with Gumption, rinse, polish dry with a clean microfibre. Drain — a kettle of boiling water, then a cup of bicarb, then a cup of vinegar, leave 15 minutes, kettle of boiling water again. If the drain is properly blocked you’ll need to pull the strainer and physically clear the hair, which is a five-minute job nobody enjoys but everybody needs to do.

Priya: Laundry is quick. Front-loader washing machine: empty the lint filter (it’s the small panel at the bottom front, full of gross water — have a tray ready), run a 90°C empty cycle with a cup of vinegar in the drum. Dryer: clean the lint filter properly with a soft brush, vacuum out the housing. Sink and tap: vinegar and Gumption. Done in 30 minutes.

Phase 3: Living spaces and bedrooms

Priya: Living spaces are about dust and fabric. Top down, every time. Cobwebs in the cornices and corners with the long-handled brush, ceiling fans (key spring job — turn them off, take a pillowcase, slip it over each blade and pull it back, all the dust comes off into the pillowcase instead of falling on you), light fittings (wipe the covers, check for dead insects, replace any blown bulbs), then walls if they need it (Sugar Soap on a microfibre, hallways near light switches always do).

Then soft furnishings. Cushion covers off, washed on a 30°C delicates cycle. Throw rugs to the dry-cleaner or the laundromat’s commercial machine. Curtains — most modern Aussie curtains are washable on a gentle cycle, take them down, wash, hang back damp and they’ll dry in place. Vacuum the couch with the upholstery attachment, including under the cushions. Steam-clean if you’ve got a Bissell or hire one from a service station for $40 a day.

Mick: Bedrooms — flip and rotate the mattress (most modern mattresses are one-sided so just rotate, but check the label), vacuum the mattress with the upholstery attachment, sprinkle bicarb across it, leave 30 minutes, vacuum again. That kills the smell of a long winter. Wash the mattress protector and the doona on the hottest cycle the care label allows. Wardrobes — pull everything out, wipe the shelves, vacuum the floor of the wardrobe, donate or bin anything you haven’t worn this winter.

Phase 4: Outdoor — windows, fences, deck, paths

Cal: Outdoor is the spring clean people skip and it’s the one that changes how the house looks the most. Start with the windows. Inside-out is fine but I’d do outside first because it’s wetter and messier — squeegee with hot water and a splash of dishwashing liquid, top to bottom, wipe the squeegee blade between strokes. A 1.8m step ladder gets you to most second-storey windows from the ground floor side; for upstairs windows from outside, an extension squeegee on a pole is $30 and saves the ladder dance.

Pressure-washing season starts now. Driveway, paths, deck, fence panels, Colorbond fences, the back of the air-con unit. A Karcher K3 or K4 is $200–$350 from Bunnings and pays itself off the first time. Don’t blast soft mortar or old timber on the highest setting — drop to the 25° fan tip, stand 600mm back, work in steady passes. The deck especially: high pressure on the wrong nozzle will gouge the timber and you’ll be sanding it back for a weekend. If your deck’s looking grey and tired, this is the prelude to a re-stain — pressure wash now, let it dry for two weeks, then strip and re-oil.

Cal: Gutters — check them, even if you don’t clean them yourself. Spring storms are a month away. If they’re full of leaves, hire a gutter cleaner ($150–$300 for a single-storey house) or do it yourself with a ladder, gloves, and a bucket. Don’t lean off the ladder — move it. Mick: Yeah, ladder safety is real. Three points of contact, always.

Phase 5: Maintenance — filters, drains, alarms, hot water

Priya: Maintenance is what separates a deep clean from a real spring reset. The bits everyone forgets. Smoke alarm batteries — September is a good fixed date to replace them every year, set a calendar reminder. CO alarms if you have gas, same date. Fire extinguisher pressure gauge — check it’s in the green. Aircon filters — pull them, hose them off, dry them, slide them back. If they’re more than five years old and the unit’s been running daily through summer, get HVAC in for a proper service.

Cal: Outdoor maintenance — service the lawn mower (oil, plug, blade), check the BBQ burner ports, drain the rainwater tank’s first-flush diverter, check the irrigation timer batteries. Five small jobs, all 15 minutes each, all save you a day of pain in summer.

Mick: Hot water service — you should flush it once a year. If yours is electric storage and over five years old, drop the temperature and pressure relief valve once (you’ll see a steady stream of water for 10 seconds, that’s good — if it’s a trickle, the valve’s seized and a plumber needs to replace it). Gas instantaneous units — get a plumber in every two years for a service. Tomo (Brisbane): A gas service is about $180 and it’ll catch issues before they become a $2,000 unit replacement.

The team’s verdict

If we were running a spring clean tomorrow, we’d do it in two big weekends or one massive one. Saturday morning: kitchen and laundry wet areas. Saturday afternoon: bathrooms. Sunday morning: living spaces and bedrooms top-down. Sunday afternoon: outdoor — windows, pressure wash, gutters. Monday off-the-clock evening: filters, alarms, hot water valve. That’s the sequence. Top-down within each zone, wet areas before dry, outdoor when the inside is done.

The mistake we see is people scattering — half a kitchen here, a window there, get distracted by the wardrobe, never finish the bathroom. Finish a zone before you move to the next one. A finished kitchen at lunchtime is worth more than four half-finished rooms at dinner. And don’t aim for show-home perfect. Aim for “I could have a friend over tonight without apologising for anything.” That’s the spring-clean standard.

FAQs

Do I have to spring clean? Can’t I just clean weekly? Weekly cleaning maintains; spring cleaning resets. Some things only need doing twice a year — rangehood filters, fridge coils, mattress flip, gutter clear, smoke alarm batteries. Spring is the natural fixed date.

Are eco-cleaners as good as the strong stuff? For 80% of jobs yes — vinegar, bicarb, Sugar Soap and Koh will do almost everything. The 20% where you need stronger product is mould (Exit Mould), oven (a proper oven cleaner if it’s bad), and toilet bowl scale (a proper bowl cleaner). Don’t moralise about it, just use the right thing.

How long does a proper spring clean take? 12–16 hours of solid work for an average 3-bedroom Aussie home. One weekend if you’re attacking, four weekends if you’re pacing.

What’s the one product that punches above its weight? Koh Universal Cleaner. It’s the all-purpose that actually is all-purpose. Closest thing to a magic bullet on grease and soap scum.

Should I get the carpets professionally cleaned? If they’re more than two years past the last clean, yes — $200–$350 for a 3-bedroom done right. Hot water extraction (truck-mount) is significantly better than the supermarket Rug Doctor hire. Worth the money once a year.

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