ParrotNotes

Free Cleaning Checklist Template

Pick the type of clean, a standard home clean, a deep clean, a move-out or move-in, an office or an Airbnb turnover, and the checklist fills with rooms and tasks, each marked for every visit, weekly or monthly. Rename rooms, add or remove tasks, add the client's requests, then print it for the crew or leave a copy with the client. Tick tasks on screen or on paper.

A checklist for the visit, not a service agreement. The tasks and how often they are done are what you agree with your client.

What goes on a cleaning checklist

  • Job details

    Your business, the client, the address, the date and the crew, so the sheet the crew carries belongs to one home or site and one visit.

  • Special requests

    Access, pets, products to avoid and rooms to skip, in the client's words, printed at the top where the crew sees them before they start.

  • Rooms and areas

    Kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, living areas, entry, laundry and a throughout list; for offices, reception, workstations, restrooms, break room and meeting rooms. Rename, reorder or add your own.

  • Tasks

    One job per line, written so a new crew member knows when it is done: "Clean the toilet inside, outside and at the base", not "Bathroom".

  • Frequency

    Each visit, weekly or monthly. The monthly tasks are where the deep-clean jobs live on a recurring client: inside the fridge, the range hood, grout, vents and baseboards.

  • Tick boxes and sign-off

    A box beside every task, ticked on screen or on paper, and lines for the crew and the client at the bottom of the printout.

How to build a cleaning checklist for your crew

Start from the type of clean you are quoting. A standard clean covers the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas every visit, with the heavier jobs spread over weekly and monthly visits. A deep clean does all of them at once, plus inside the oven, the cabinets and behind the furniture. A move-out clean is a deep clean of an empty home: inside every cabinet, closet and appliance, walls spot-cleaned and window tracks done. An Airbnb turnover adds the reset: fresh linens and towels, restocked supplies, damage and left-behind items reported to the host.

Walk the home or site with the client before the first visit and change the list to fit it: rename the rooms to what they are called there, take out what does not exist, and write the client's requests in the box at the top. Order the tasks the way the crew works, top to bottom and dry before wet: dust high surfaces first, then wipe, then floors last. The CDC's home cleaning guidance names light switches, doorknobs and countertops as the high-touch surfaces to clean regularly, so every type of clean here has that line in the throughout list, each visit.

The same guidance says to clean surfaces before you disinfect them, not to mix products or chemicals with each other, to make sure the room is ventilated and to follow the directions on each product's label. Put any product rule the client gives you in the special requests. For a recurring client, print the each-visit tasks for the crew sheet and keep the weekly and monthly ones on the full list, then press Next visit to clear the ticks and reuse the same checklist.

Pricing the job before you clean it? Put the rooms and extras on the estimate template.

Signing a recurring client? Set the visits, the price and the cancellation terms with the service agreement template.

Standard clean, deep clean, move-out clean, turnover

Standard clean
The recurring visit: surfaces, kitchen, bathrooms, floors and trash every time, with the heavier jobs rotated weekly or monthly.
Deep clean
Everything in the standard clean plus the jobs that build up: inside the oven and fridge, cabinet fronts, grout, vents, fans, baseboards, behind furniture. Often the first visit for a new client.
Move-out / move-in clean
A deep clean of an empty home, including inside every cabinet, drawer, closet and appliance, walls and window tracks, often for a deposit inspection or a new owner.
Airbnb turnover
The clean between guests: linens and towels changed, supplies restocked, the place set up as in the listing photos, and anything damaged or left behind reported to the host.

Tips for checklists crews actually follow

  • Write tasks you can see are done

    "Wipe the baseboards" can be checked; "tidy up" cannot. If the client could inspect it, it is a good line.

  • Top to bottom, dry to wet

    Order each room the way the crew moves through it: high dusting first, surfaces next, floors last, so nothing falls on a clean floor.

  • Print the each-visit sheet for the crew

    Untick weekly and monthly in the view settings and the printout is the list for today. Keep the full list for the office and the client.

  • Put the client's words at the top

    "No bleach on the marble" read before the crew starts is a complaint that never happens. Update it after every walkthrough.

More for people who sell and run home services: property inspection notes, home improvement sales, pest control sales.

Source

The client tells you what matters on the walkthrough.

Record the walkthrough before you quote with ParrotNotes on your phone. The client's special requests, the rooms to skip and the products to avoid end up in the note, with a summary and action items, ready to copy onto the checklist. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.

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