Everyone puts off cleaning, especially when you are a college student. It’s not a lot of fun, sure, but your luxury student housing will look much better after you’ve done the cleaning.

An apartment cleaning checklist is a major asset in ensuring everything gets tidied top to bottom. Huddle up with your checklist, choose your favourite podcast or album, put it on a Bluetooth speaker, and get ready to clean!

Below are the eleven tasks to include in your college apartment cleaning checklist:

1. Kitchen dishes

As dishes are piling up on the daily, always make sure they are included in your apartment cleaning checklist. They may be on the countertops, in the sink, or waiting in the dishwasher. If you don’t keep up with anything else, do this one. Every day, soap and rinse the dishes. This will prevent flies and unwanted pests coming around, and will keep you on top of kitchen waste.

2. Wipe down kitchen surfaces

Look around the kitchen for the most touched surfaces. Chances are you may have greasy fingers, a dirty hand, or you may eventually find accumulating debris on things like handles, on the counter, in the sink, or on the stove. Spray and wipe down these surfaces, preferably with something eco-friendly and all-natural.

3. Sweep and clean the kitchen floor

Spills happen in the kitchen and with so much foot traffic, the floor gets its fair share of attention. Sweeping the floor is a quick way to get all those crumbs and dropped bits and bobs off out. Secondly, any spills or troubled spots on the floor can be tackled with a spot cleaner. Of course, choose a cleaner that’s safe for your floor type.

4. The bathroom

The bathroom can be a very nasty place if you’re not following through regularly with some apartment cleaning. First off, check out the counters and wipe them down. Clean the sink, removing any toothpaste, beard hairs, or anything else that may be taking up this real estate. Disposable cleaning wipes are great for this. From there, use a Swiffer or a broom to sweep up your bathroom floor taking care of anything that may have fallen. Lastly, empty that garbage!

5. The toilet bowl

A high quality toilet bowl cleaner works wonders at removing any debris and stains that may be hanging around on the sides of the toilet. Every week or so, apartment or non-apartment household, every toilet bowl needs a good clean. All you need to do is get in there with a brush and an effective, eco-friendly cleaning product. In minutes, you’re clean!

6. Your shower stall or bathtub

Just like the toilet bowl, every bathtub or shower stall gets dirty and requires a good clean. Squeegeeing after use is a great way to cut down on staining and debris remaining in the tub. Shower sprays in your apartment cleaning supplies cabinet work well after the fact at tackling mildew or any sort of soap scum that may exist. Don’t use these a lot, as many are heavily chemical-based. A quick spray, minute soak, and wipe-down works extremely well at getting a shower stall back to looking like new.

7. Pillowcases, sheets, blankets, and more

Fire up that washer, if you’re fortunate enough to have a washer and dryer in your unit, and pull together your blankets, pillowcases, sheets, and any other materials you can get in there and have washed. This can be very time-consuming but doing a full apartment-wide wash of these materials every once in a while really gets rid of those pesky bugs, stains, and more.

8. Put away clothes and get a hamper

In an apartment or condo – let’s face it – sometimes the way we keep our clothes isn’t the best. Dirty clothes end up on the floor and clean clothes end up still in the laundry basket. Invest in a drawer or clothes organizer and buy a hamper to carry any dirty clothes. This will make your apartment look very clean and you’ll win big points with your parents, visitors, or a partner!

9. Vacuum the living room and couch

Take the couch apart and vacuum underneath those pesky pillows. Sweep up crumbs and with a handheld vacuum, go over any materials that can’t be fit into the washing machine or which can’t be swept. A living room is where we go to sit, watch TV, sometimes eat, and socialize with others. It’s prone to crumbs and accumulation of all sorts of things. Pick those up, vacuum, and get your couch feeling welcome to others again.

10. Clean out the fridge and wipe down

In an apartment, we don’t often think about cleaning the fridge. We see dirty clothes, the bathroom, and the floor, and we stick to these key areas. The refrigerator is also important, especially if you have a fruits and vegetables drawer. Clear out everything, spray it all, and complete your clean-up with a wipe-down.

11. Wipe down windows and mirrors

Windows and mirrors don’t need to be done regularly but they do accumulate fingerprints, smudges, and stains from rain if it’s an outside-facing window. What you want is an eco-friendly surface cleaner, a window cleaner, or a water and vinegar mix you can make from home to clean these areas. Spray and wipe. In seconds, you’ve wiped away everything!