A good weekly cleaning checklist for a London home covers the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living areas and floors once each, spread over the week in slots of 10 to 40 minutes rather than one long Saturday. Below is the room-by-room list, a day-by-day plan you can print, and the jobs worth handing to a regular cleaner.

How do you use this weekly checklist?

Treat it as the second layer of a two-layer system: a short daily reset deals with dishes, crumbs and wet bathroom surfaces, and this list covers the rest. If you have no daily habit yet, start with our 15-minute daily cleaning routine. In each room, work from top to bottom and do the floors last.

What should you clean every week, room by room?

Every week, clean what you touch and the places where water, food and dust collect.

Kitchen (about 30 minutes)

Move the kettle and toaster, then wipe the whole worktop, including the strip behind them.
Clean the hob and splashback once they are cool, and the front of the extractor hood.
Wipe cupboard fronts, handles and the fridge door, and the microwave inside and out.
Scrub the sink and plughole, and the base of the tap, where limescale forms first.
Check the fridge: bin anything past its use-by date, wipe one shelf and read the thermometer. Aim for 0 to 5°C, the range the Food Standards Agency gives, and it suggests a weekly check with a fridge thermometer (FSA).
Empty the bin and food caddy and wipe them out.
Put dish cloths and tea towels through a hot washing machine cycle, as the FSA's food safety guide advises.
Sweep, then mop the floor.

Bathroom (about 25 minutes per bathroom)

Clear the bath edge and shower shelf, then clean the screen, the tiles at splash height, the bath and the basin.
Put limescale remover on the taps, the shower head and around the plugholes, wait as long as the label says, then rinse well.
Clean the toilet bowl and under the rim, then the seat, hinges, outside of the bowl and the floor around the base.
Clean the mirror, wash the bath mat and swap the towels.
Check the silicone sealant and grout for the first black spots of mould.
Empty the bin and mop, finishing at the door.

Use one product at a time, and rinse in between. Never mix bleach with limescale removers, vinegar or ammonia-based cleaners. The UK Health Security Agency says bleach mixed with acidic products releases chlorine gas, and mixed with ammonia it can produce chloramines, which irritate the airways (UKHSA). In the toilet, flush between a limescale gel and a bleach cleaner.

If you rent and spot mould, government guidance on damp and mould says tenants can usually remove very small amounts with a mould and mildew cleaner, but larger areas need professionals. Report spreading damp or mould to your landlord.

Limescale is the London problem. Thames Water, which supplies much of London, describes the water across its whole region as hard (Thames Water). A weekly pass stops deposits setting into a crust. If they already have, the bathroom limescale guide covers heavier methods.

Bedrooms (about 15 minutes each)

Change the bed. Asthma + Lung UK says a 60°C wash kills dust mites, so use that setting where the care label allows (Asthma + Lung UK).
Dust bedside tables, shelves and window sills with a damp cloth, which the same charity recommends at least once a week.
Vacuum the floor, under the bed as far as you can reach and along the skirting boards.
On cold mornings, wipe condensation off the window and frame, then open the window for a few minutes.

Living room and hallway (about 20 minutes)

Damp-dust shelves, the coffee table and the TV stand.
Vacuum the sofa, including down the sides of the seats.
Wipe door handles, light switches and remote controls.
Shake out the doormat, since street grit scratches hard floors.
Vacuum, then mop hard floors, finishing at the front door.

How do you split the weekly clean across seven days?

Give each day one area, so no session runs longer than about 40 minutes. Move the plan around your bin collection day and your busiest workdays.

Monday, kitchen (30 minutes): worktops, hob, cupboard fronts, microwave and sink.
Tuesday, fridge and bins (15 minutes): fridge check, bins and food caddy, cloths in the wash.
Wednesday, bathroom (25 minutes): the full bathroom list.
Thursday, dusting (20 minutes): damp-dust every room, top to bottom.
Friday, hallway and living room (20 minutes): doormat, touch points, sofa and the pile by the door.
Saturday, floors and beds (40 minutes): change and wash the bedding, then vacuum and mop the whole home.
Sunday, restock (10 minutes): check supplies and note anything that slipped.

To print it, copy the seven days onto one page and stick it inside a cupboard door.

How should the checklist change for a studio, a flat-share or a family home?

Studio and 1 bedroom flats. The whole list fits into two sessions: kitchen, bathroom and fridge midweek, then dusting, bedding and floors at the weekend. In an open-plan studio, cook with lids on pans and the extractor fan running, which the government damp guidance lists as ways to cut condensation.

Flat-shares. Split only the shared rooms. The FSA's guide for students suggests a cleaning rota between housemates, and rotating people through the days above means nobody is stuck with the bathroom every week. Give each housemate a fridge shelf and do the fridge check together.

Family homes. With children or pets, vacuum the kitchen, hallway and living room twice a week. Add the high chair and the floor beneath it and fingerprints on glass doors and low cupboards.

What should you hand over to a regular cleaner?

Hand over the longest and hardest jobs, and keep the ones that need your decisions.

Give to the cleaner: the full bathroom list, kitchen worktops, hob, sink and cupboard fronts, dusting, vacuuming and mopping, and changing the beds if you leave clean linen out.
Keep for yourself: the daily reset, dishes, laundry, clearing the fridge, children's toys, and anything involving paperwork or valuables.
Add one extra job per visit: rotate a small task, such as the fridge shelves, then the skirting boards in one room, then the inside of the windows. Over a month, the extras catch most of what drifts.

Write the handover down once: rooms in order of priority, where the products and vacuum are kept, and surfaces that need care, such as natural stone. On SW Clean London's regular plans the same cleaner comes every visit, and these notes can live in your free online account.

A typical 2 bedroom flat needs 3–4 hours per regular visit, and home cleaning is charged at £17 per hour for weekly or fortnightly visits, 2 hours minimum. Our guide to what a cleaner costs per hour in London explains frequencies, hours and what a visit includes.

Which jobs do not belong on a weekly list?

The inside of the oven, behind the fridge and cooker, the inside of cupboards, stained grout and carpet deep cleaning only need doing every few months. Group them into a seasonal session, or book a deep clean. For the kitchen, our kitchen deep clean guide goes step by step.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a weekly clean take?

The seven-day plan above adds up to about 2 hours 40 minutes for a 1 or 2 bedroom flat that already gets a daily tidy. A family home with two bathrooms, children or pets takes longer, mostly because of extra floors and bathrooms. If it regularly takes far more, the daily layer is probably missing.

How often should you change your bed sheets?

Once a week is a sensible default, and it is what this checklist assumes. It matters more if anyone at home has asthma or a dust mite allergy, because mites live in bedding and a hot wash is what kills them. Keep two sets of linen for each bed, so one can go straight on while the other is washed and dried.

Do you need to clean every room every week?

No. Kitchens, bathrooms and the main floors need weekly attention because food, water and dirt collect there. A spare room or a guest bedroom that nobody uses can go two or three weeks between visits, with a quick dust and vacuum. Put the time you save into the bathroom, which falls behind fastest in a hard-water city.

Would you rather hand the heavier half of this list to someone else? Book a regular cleaner online, with the price confirmed before the first visit.

Weekly Cleaning Checklist for London Flats and Family Homes