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I don’t know about spring cleaning. Maybe it’s because spring where I live is basically just mud season and nobody wants to open their windows anyway. But summer? Summer I will deep clean all day long.
There’s something about the long light and the warm air that makes me want the house to match how I feel — bright, open, clear. Like everything got a fresh start.
This summer, after a pretty full and emotionally heavy past couple of years, I needed the reset more than usual. And I decided to actually do it right instead of just wiping down the counters and calling it a day.
Why a Summer Reset Is Different from Regular Cleaning
A deep clean isn’t about what you do every week. It’s about getting into the spots that accumulate quietly over months — the corners, the inside of the refrigerator, the bathroom grout, the baseboards, the cabinet doors that somehow get sticky even when you’re sure you’re not touching them.
It’s also about clearing the things that aren’t quite clutter but aren’t quite useful anymore. The stuff that just… sits. Summer is a great time to move through the house with fresh eyes and ask: does this serve us?
Room by Room: How I Approach It
I do one room per day over the course of a week or two. Trying to do the whole house in a day is how you end up exhausted, surrounded by piles, and abandoning the whole project by noon.
Kitchen first — always. The refrigerator, the pantry, the inside of cabinets. Wipe down every surface. Clean the stove properly. This is the heart of the house and when it feels good, everything else feels more manageable.
Bathrooms second — grout, fixtures, behind the toilet, all of it. Our bathroom still needs a good scrub a couple times a year no matter how nice it looks on a normal day.
Living spaces — baseboards, light fixtures, the inside of windows, the furniture. In our house, with dark floors and light walls, dust shows up fast. I do a thorough wipe-down of all the trim work and the built-ins.
Bedrooms last — under the bed, inside closets (I’ll talk more about this in the next post), the windows.
What I’m Actually Using
Here’s the thing about cleaning products: I spent years using whatever was on sale and wondering why I still felt vaguely suspicious of my surfaces. Switching to cleaner, less chemical-heavy options has made our whole house smell better and made me less concerned about what’s actually going on the counters where I prep food.
Branch Basics’ Premium Starter Kit — one concentrated solution, multiple uses throughout the house. I was skeptical and then I was converted.
🔗 This is the one that converted me →
For organization while I clean, I use a proper cleaning caddy so everything travels with me room to room instead of making seventeen trips back to the cabinet. This one — sounds basic, but it makes the whole process faster and you’re actually more likely to finish.
And for the aftermath — because deep cleaning always surfaces stuff that needs a home — These stackable clear bins have been a game changer for every single drawer and cabinet I’ve touched. Nothing fancy. Just clear, simple, stackable.
🔗 These are the bins in every drawer →
The Part Nobody Talks About
There’s an emotional component to a deep clean that I don’t think gets enough airtime.
When your environment is clear, your head is clearer. It’s not just aesthetics. There’s something about walking through a clean, organized house that makes you feel like you have some control over your life — especially in seasons when a lot of things feel out of your control.
I cleaned out our guest room this year — really cleaned it — and it felt like letting go of some weight I didn’t realize I was carrying. That room had been a landing zone for things we weren’t sure what to do with. Getting it clear made it feel like the house could breathe.
Do the deep clean. Not for anyone who’s coming over. For yourself.
Next in the series: Closet Edit Season: How I Finally Cleared Out What No Longer Fits My Life →
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