Many homeowners have heard of “deep cleans” and “maintenance cleans,” but it’s not always clear what the difference really is, or when each is needed. While both make your home sparkle, they serve very different purposes. At Chicka Chicka Broom, we like to think of them as the foundation and the upkeep: one resets your home from top to bottom, while the other keeps that freshness lasting week after week.
Think of your regular maintenance cleans as brushing your teeth: something routine that keeps your mouth fresh and healthy, free of the bigger and more obvious things that can their way in. However, brushing your teeth is never meant to be the only thing that protects your teeth and gums, but rather it is meant to upkeep the level of cleanliness achieved from going to the dentist for a deeper, detailed appointment. Dentists are fully trained professionals who know how to get detailed cleans and know the best ways to extend that healthiness beyond the appointment.
In the same way, Chicka Chicka Broom knows when we might need a deeper and more detailed clean, and why we also need the general upkeep to keep our homes free of the little things that might otherwise be missed.
Maintenance Versus Deep Cleans: What’s the Difference?
It might not be immediately obvious what the difference is between a maintenance clean and a deep clean, or when we might need one over the other. It might seem good to use one over the other, but in reality we need both to keep our home happy, healthy, and homely.
Maintenance cleans are useful for maintaining cleanliness, especially around high traffic areas, like kitchens, bathrooms, and hallways. It is something we do on a regular basis, being monthly, every other week, weekly or even daily. Maintenance cleans are where we find all the trappings most associated with a scrub down: vacuuming, mopping, dusting, wiping off surfaces, and doing some sanitization of handles and doorknobs.
Deep cleans are where we get into the nitty-gritty of our homes. It’s where we target the dirt and build-up that the less intensive maintenance cleans can miss. We scrub inside of appliances, get the hard buildup in the ovens, get into fridge for all the food splatters, get under and behind furniture, and scrub down baseboards and the like. Deep cleans like that are usually not as frequent as maintenance cleans, perhaps being only once or twice a year, after big family events or get-togethers.
Maintenance is simply the weekly or even daily tasks that we might not think about too much, but are just as important as doing the big and dramatic cleans.
Purposes of Maintenance Clean Versus Deep Cleans
Maintenance cleans, despite their innocuousness, go the distance when it comes to protecting our homes from preventing buildup, reducing allergens, and preserving a tidy and healthy home. They keep the home consistently neat, tidy and fresh, ready for any guests.
They prevent the things that facilitate deep cleans, like general grime and wear and tear, which can damage appliances and finish. Maintenance cleans, through these preventative measures, prevent the need for increased frequency for deep cleans. With the increased neatness and tidiness, it’s so much easier to keep a clear head and focused work ethic for the things of life that need our attention the most. With all these factors, maintenance cleans go a long way in actually saving money, preventing the need for frequent and expensive deep cleans.
Deep cleans are deeper (no kidding), and can help with “resetting” our spaces, tackling spaces that have been neglected, getting the seasonal grime wiped up, and getting at the hidden germs hiding from us. Maintenance cleans extend the results achieved from deep cleans. Deep cleans set the foundation, from which recurring maintenance cleans build off of.
However, maintenance cleans might not be able to handle the big events of life. Christmas parties, Thanksgiving get-togethers, or birthday parties can really bring the grime, and it can be a hassle trying to keep a lid on the dirt when these kind of events roll around.
This is when we need the deep cleans—when we’re moving out and need to spruce the place up, when the season changes (especially around fall and spring), or after renovation and/or construction.
At Chicka Chicka Broom, we do the big initial deep clean to set the baseline from where the recurring cleans build from, doing so helps us start from a clean slate so the regular cleans are more effective.
When Do You Need Either Kind of Cleaning?
Deep cleans take longer, require more specialized tools and products, and are priced higher than recurring cleans due to intensity and length. Maintenance cleans are shorter and simpler than their more intensive counterparts, requiring less time and tools. They are more predictable, in both time and cost as we start from the same state achieved from the deep clean each service.
This table represents what the frequency difference between a maintenence and deep clean may look like:
| Feature | Maintenance Clean | Deep Clean |
| Frequency | Weekly–Monthly | Once or Twice a Year |
| Focus | Visible & high-touch areas | Every nook and cranny |
| Duration | 1–2 hours | 3–6+ hours |
| Cost | Lower, recurring | Higher, one-time |
| Purpose | Preserve cleanliness | Reset cleanliness baseline |
Why We Need Both
Deep cleans and maintenance cleans work together, and only doing one while neglecting the other will have adverse effects on the overall cleanliness of a home. One sets the stage, the other maintains it.
Deep cleans remove dust, mold, and bacteria in neglected or otherwise low-traffic areas, while maintenance cleans keep surfaces sanitized for your family’s health, as well as preventing buildup in between deep cleans.
Without maintenance, deep cleans won’t last, while maintenance falls behind without deep cleans. It’s akin to washing and waxing a car; the wax job will last longer when you keep the car clean in between treatments, while neglecting to do so means more sessions to make up for the grime accumulated, which means more time and money in the long run.
The Chicka Chicka Broom Promise
At Chicka Chicka Broom, we offer both maintenance and deep cleans. We start with an initial deep clean, just so we have a base to build off of in subsequent maintenance cleans. Our system is designed to work with both types of cleaning.
After having a base to build off of in your home, we can customize our cleanings to suit your home’s needs. Clients mainly start off with a deep clean, then move on to maintenance cleans on a recurring schedule that fits their lifestyle and preferences, be it weekly, biweekly, or even monthly.
Our technicians are professionally trained and fully background checked with experience with various tools and products. We’re ready to tackle a variety of tasks and problems in your home, from hard water around your faucets to dirt and grime in your window sills. Our reliability and attention to detail means your home can be happy and healthy for you and your family (furry or otherwise!).
From a full scrub down to a simple wipe off, you can trust Chicka Chicka Broom to know how to handle any level of dirt in your house. Our goal is to make your home shine, happy and healthy for you and your family, so that you can focus on the things that matter.
Contact Chicka Chicka Broom today through our website, email, or phone to get a free quote!