9 Things Professional Cleaners Notice as Soon as They Walk Into Your Home
Professionals size up a home in about two minutes—and most of what they're reading isn't dirt.
Expert consulted: Noah PinsonnaultHome Care & Cleaning Reviews Analyst
A professional cleaner knows roughly how long your house will take before they've even put down their caddy. They're not judging you—they're just doing a fast read of the surfaces, smells, and systems you've built (or haven't), to determine what to reach for and where to start. I asked three cleaning pros what they clock in the first two minutes of being in a home. Most of it isn't what you'd expect, but nearly all of it is fixable before your next appointment.
What's happening with the shoes by the door
The first thing Karen Larkin, founder of Connecticut cleaning company Belle Home, looks for in a home is somewhere to put her shoes. Without it, everything on those soles—dust, mud, sand, road salt—gets tracked across every floor, turning a small entryway job into a whole-home mop.
Grit scratches finished wood, too. "Stopping debris at the door is always better than spending the time and effort to remove the debris once it's been tracked throughout the home," she says.
The smell you've stopped noticing
"The most immediate thing I register is the smell," says Mona Murahwa, founder of Salt Lake City's Cleaning Mama. A clear odor means "homeowners may have become nose blind to something that has very slowly acquired a stench." Common sources include pets, the trash can, the refrigerator, and air vents.
Her rule is to find it, not cover it. "Do not just try to mask odors with candles or fragrance sprays."
What your clutter is made of
Cleaners notice the types of clutter that creep into your home. Repeat offenders include laundry, dishes, and toys.
The fix? Attach remedying each to something you already do: 10 minutes of toy pickup before bed, dishes right after eating, laundry put away after every load. "You just need a realistic plan that you can stick to," says Murahwa.
Corners, edges, and high-touch areas
"One of the first things we tend to notice when entering a home is all the high-touch areas and edges," says Alicia Sokolowski, president and co-CEO of AspenClean.
That includes light switches, cabinet handles, door frames, and window tracks. They're not in your natural line of sight, and most people don't think of them as surfaces that need cleaning. "It's the areas that are least noticed that tell us the most."
Whether that's dirt or hard water
What reads as grime on a faucet or shower door is often mineral residue, and an all-purpose spray won't do the trick. "We will often tailor our cleaning approach and reach for different cleaning products," Sokolowski says. Match the product to the buildup: all-purpose for dust and fingerprints, kitchen cleaner plus scouring powder for grease, bathroom cleaner for soap scum and hard-water marks.
How your towels feel
"If towels feel waxy, less absorbent, or stiff, that tells us there is some laundry detergent or fabric softener residue that has coated the towels' fibers," Sokolowski says.
It's usually a sign of too much care, not too little. Skip the softener, then wash white towels in hot water to strip residue that contributes to odor and poor absorbency, says Noah Pinsonnault of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Home Care & Cleaning Lab. Wash colored towels in warm water—repeated hot cycles fade them over time.
The state of your washing machine
If bedding smells musty, cleaners look past the sheets. Sokolowski checks the rubber seal and detergent drawer for moisture and residue, both of which pass odor to everything washed in the machine. Clean them regularly, move wet loads to the dryer promptly and leave the door open so the drum dries between washes.
The ceiling and baseboards
Cleaners look up and down. "Ceiling fans, baseboards, vents, and other areas alike harbor dust, dirt, and pet hair," Murahwa says. Dirty ones tell her that residents don't think to clean those areas. “That's more common than you might expect," she says. Fold them into a routine you already have: baseboards when you vacuum, fans and vents seasonally.
What’s inside your fridge
The refrigerator is a top source of odor you may have stopped registering—usually a hardened spill or something forgotten in the back. "If the source of the odor isn't obvious, clean out your whole fridge, because small bits of food can fall into the nooks and crannies," Murahwa says.
Lots of people try to remedy this with an open box of baking soda, and while the science behind it is sound, a small carton doesn't offer the surface area or airflow that full-fridge deodorizing takes. Pinsonnault recommends a fridge-specific absorber like Arm & Hammer's Fridge-n-Freezer Odor Absorber, replaced every 30 days or sooner if odors return.
Noah Cortez is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor writing about
travel, culture, food, and lifestyle. Prior to this, he was a social media
editor at GQ Magazine, Complex, and Conde Nast Traveler, and his writing
has been featured in Tripadvisor, Hotels Above Par, Conde Nast Traveler,
and more. Find out more at noahcortez.com.
Noah works as a product reviews analyst in the Home Care & Cleaning Lab where he helps design and perform tests on various product categories. He draws on scientific expertise garnered during his time as an environmental researcher, where he managed environmental monitoring equipment, analyzed water samples in a lab and developed protocols for restoration projects. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in environmental science from the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
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