The Pre-Christmas Deep Clean Checklist: Getting Your Leighton Buzzard Home Ready for Guests

Your guests won't run a finger along the skirting boards. They will, however, open your fridge for the milk, use the downstairs loo, sleep in the spare room and sit on the sofa for three hours. A Christmas deep clean works best when it starts with those four places, not with the bits nobody looks at.

This checklist is the order we work through when Leighton Buzzard and Linslade customers ask us to get a house ready for family visits. You can do all of it yourself over a few weekends or hand some of it to us. Either way, start now. A deep clean squeezed into the last weekend before Christmas usually ends with the oven half done and the spare bed still covered in wrapping paper.

Plan it over three weekends, not one

Spread the work out and each session stays manageable:

• Late November: the jobs that make a mess or take time to dry. Oven, extractor filter, carpets, curtains, the guest mattress.
• Early December: bathrooms, the guest room and a full declutter, so you know where the decorations and presents will actually go.
• The week before guests arrive: a quicker top-to-bottom clean, fresh towels, the fridge clear-out and the hallway.

If you're hosting at the start of December, squash the first two stages together and leave the final week as it is.

Kitchen: start with the fridge

The kitchen does the most work at Christmas, and the fridge is where cleaning and food safety overlap. Empty it shelf by shelf, wash the shelves and drawers in warm soapy water, dry them and wipe the door seals, where crumbs and spills collect in the folds.

While it's empty, check the temperature. The Food Standards Agency advises keeping your fridge at 5°C or below and checking it with a fridge thermometer, because the dial doesn't always tell you the real temperature. A packed Christmas fridge warms up quickly, so this is worth doing before the food shop, not after it.

Clearing space early matters even more if you're cooking a turkey. The FSA says a large bird of 6 to 7kg can take up to four days to defrost in the fridge, which means the shelves need to be empty and clean several days before Christmas, not on Christmas Eve.

After the fridge:

• Do the oven and hob in late November. Burnt-on grease from a year of Sunday roasts starts smoking once the oven runs hot for hours on Christmas Day.
• Soak or replace the extractor hood's grease filter. A clogged one leaves the kitchen smelling of every meal you cook over the holidays.
• Wipe cupboard fronts and handles near the cooker. That greasy film shows up in photos.
• Wash out the kitchen bin and let it dry. It'll be emptied twice a day for a week.

Bathrooms and the downstairs loo

Every guest uses the bathroom, usually on their own and with time to look around. Descale taps, shower heads and glass screens, clean behind and around the base of the toilet, and wipe the extractor fan cover, which collects a grey layer of dust you won't notice until you look up.

Check the silicone around the bath and shower. If the black marks are on the surface, a mould spray and a scrubbing brush will usually shift them. If they've spread into the silicone itself, no amount of scrubbing will fix it and the joint needs resealing. Open a window or run the fan after showers, too. Winter condensation is what feeds that mould in the first place.

Put out fresh hand towels, a spare loo roll where guests can see it, and an empty bin.

The guest room

Spare rooms tend to become storage over the year. Clear the floor and the bed first. You can't clean around boxes.

• Vacuum the mattress on both sides and turn it if the manufacturer recommends it.
• Wash the duvet, pillows and mattress protector, not just the covers, if they have been in a cupboard for months.
• Vacuum under the bed and behind the radiator. Dust on a radiator gives off a burnt smell when the heating goes on for visitors.
• Wipe wardrobe shelves and clear a few hangers and a drawer for your guests.
• Open the window for an hour. Rooms that have been shut since spring smell of it.

Living room and dining area

This is where everyone sits for hours, so focus on what is at eye level and what gets touched.

• Take the sofa cushions off, vacuum the crevices and the frame underneath, and spot-clean the arms.
• Wipe light switches, door handles, remote controls and door edges.
• Dust behind the TV and along the tops of picture frames. Fairy lights and candles show it up badly.
• Clean the inside of the windows and wipe the frames and sills, where condensation leaves marks and black spots.
• Check the dining chair legs and the underside of the table edge. That's where the food ends up.

Put the tree up after this clean, not before. Vacuuming around a tree and a pile of presents takes twice as long.

Hallway and front door

The hallway is the first thing guests see and the place that gets the most wear over Christmas, with coats, wet shoes and bags piling up. Clean the front door inside and out, including the letterbox and handle, shake or replace the doormat and clear space on the coat hooks. Mop the floor last, as close to arrival as you can.

What is worth handing to a professional

Most of this list is straightforward if you have the time. The jobs people usually pass to us are the slow, messy ones, like a heavily used oven or the carpets, or a full clean of the house before relatives arrive. December is busy for every cleaning company, so if you want help, book in November.

You can see what our domestic and specialist cleaning services cover, including oven, carpet and upholstery cleaning. If you're moving out rather than hosting this winter, our end of tenancy cleaning checklist covers what letting agents check before returning a deposit.

Whichever parts you do yourself, the order is what saves the time. Get the slow jobs done in November, the rooms guests use in early December, and leave the final tidy as late as you can.