First: agree the scope, in writing-ish
A deep clean is not a regular clean done slowly. It is a different job: it reaches the surfaces that a daily clean never touches — behind, under, above, and inside.
Before anyone starts, walk the house with the professional and agree explicitly which rooms are included, whether the inside of appliances is included, and whether you or they are supplying materials. Ten minutes here prevents the single most common deep-clean dispute, which is not about effort — it is about scope.
Ask one question that separates the professionals from the rest: 'Are you moving the furniture, or cleaning around it?' A deep clean moves it.
Kitchen — where the real work is
The kitchen is the hardest room and the one that most reveals a rushed job. Grease is cumulative, invisible until it is removed, and immediately obvious once part of a surface has been degreased and the rest has not.
- Chimney and exhaust: filters removed and degreased, not wiped in place. This is the task most often skipped and the one you are most likely paying for.
- Cabinet fronts and handles — degreased. Cabinet interiors — emptied and wiped, if agreed.
- The tiled backsplash and the wall behind the hob, all the way up.
- The gap beside and behind the fridge and the hob. This is where a deep clean earns its name.
- Sink, drain and taps: descaled, not just rinsed. Hard water in most of Maharashtra leaves scale that needs an acid-based treatment.
- Countertops lifted and cleaned under, where possible.
- Appliance exteriors; interiors of the microwave and fridge only if you agreed them.
Bathrooms — the hard-water problem
If you live anywhere with hard water — which is most of Pune and PCMC — the visible enemy is scale, and the invisible one is grout. Both need chemistry, not muscle.
- Tile grout scrubbed, not just the tile faces. Discoloured grout is what makes a clean bathroom still look dirty.
- Hard-water and lime scale removed from taps, shower heads, glass and mirrors.
- Shower glass treated for water spotting — a wipe will not do it.
- WC cleaned and disinfected inside, under the rim, and behind the base.
- Drains and traps cleared and deodorised.
- Exhaust fan cover removed and cleaned.
- Sanitisation as the final pass, not the only pass.
Bedrooms and living areas
- Ceiling corners, cornices and fan blades — top-down, always, so you are not re-cleaning floors afterwards.
- Under the bed and behind the wardrobe. This is dust's actual home address.
- Skirting boards, door frames and the tops of doors.
- Switchboards and switch plates, which are touched constantly and cleaned almost never.
- Window glass on both sides where it is safe to reach, plus tracks, grilles and sills.
- Curtains and upholstery: vacuumed at minimum; sofa and mattress shampooing is usually a separate, chargeable service — agree it upfront.
- Floors, last. Then the balcony, last of all.
The order matters more than the effort
Top to bottom, dry before wet, floors last, one room fully finished before the next is opened. A cleaner who is working in three rooms at once is not being efficient — they are creating a situation where the last hour is spent re-doing the first.
If you are watching a deep clean start at the floor, you are watching it go wrong.
When to book it
- Before moving in — the only time the house is empty and every surface is reachable. Always cheaper and always better than doing it around furniture later.
- When moving out, if you want the deposit back.
- Before Diwali, or before any occasion where the house will be full. Book two to three weeks ahead: this is the single busiest window in the entire home-services calendar and good professionals are gone early.
- After any construction, painting or civil work. Fine dust settles for days and gets into everything, and a normal clean will simply move it around.
- Otherwise, once or twice a year is a sensible baseline for most homes.
Before you pay: the five-minute inspection
Do not do the final walk-through in a hurry, and do not do it in the dark. Check the five things that a rushed job always gets wrong, in this order:
- The chimney filter — is it actually degreased?
- The bathroom grout — is it lighter than it was this morning?
- Under the bed, and behind the fridge.
- The tops of the door frames. Run a finger along one.
- The fan blades, viewed from below.
A note on what you're paying for
A deep clean is physically demanding, genuinely skilled work, and it is chronically underpriced in India. On DigiKaragir the professional keeps every rupee of what you pay them — we take no commission — which means the number you agree is the number that reaches the person who spent six hours on their knees in your bathroom. Price the job accordingly, and pay it in full.