Clean a Philadelphia home from the top floor down and finish at the front door. Inside each room, go high to low and dry before wet, so the floor is always the last thing you touch. In a rowhome that puts the bedrooms first, the stairs on the way down, the main floor from the back of the house to the front, and the vestibule last, with one trip to the washer before any of it.
The order is the easy part. The questions come from where a booked visit stops in each room: the sheets, the floor behind the sofa, the laundry room, the ceiling over the stairs. This guide takes those room by room and links each room’s full task list rather than copying it.
The order, and why it suits a rowhome
Three rules decide the sequence. Dust falls, so the floor above goes before the floor below, and the shelf before the table under it. Loose grit comes up dry before anything goes on wet, because a damp mop pushes grit around instead of lifting it. And you finish at a door, so you never walk back over a floor you’ve just done.
A Philadelphia rowhome makes those rules concrete: it is a stack of rooms on one stair. The City’s Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual (Philadelphia City Planning Commission, 2008) describes the small mid-to-late-1800s rowhouse of South, North and West Philadelphia by its “entry vestibule, shed kitchen, shallow closets.” Its notes on the first floor add: “Often the kitchen is in a one story addition at the rear of the house.” For a house like that, the order runs:
- The washer, first. Strip the beds, carry the linens down in one trip and start the load. The machine runs while you clean everything else.
- The top floor. Bedrooms first and the bathroom last, since it is the wet room. Each room high to low, working back toward the stair.
- The stairs and landings, top step down. Whatever you knocked loose upstairs settles on the treads, so they get done once, on the way down.
- The main floor, back to front. The kitchen at the rear, then the living room toward the street.
- The vestibule and front door, last. The mat goes back down when the floor under it is dry.
In a flat or a condo the same rules work on one level: start in the room farthest from the door. The kitchen checklist and the bathroom checklist cover those two rooms. The four below have limits worth knowing before a visit.
Bedrooms: the sheets and the floor under the bed
The bedroom checklist holds ten Standard lines, and every tier above Standard keeps them, including “Clean Bedroom Blinds / Mirrors,” “Vacuum Under Bedroom Frames” and “Dust & Clean Countertop / Bedside Table.” Two boundaries matter more than the rest.
The linen change. Changing sheets is a Dream Home line, not a Standard, Deep or Move one. Dream Home lists “Change Bedsheets (2 bedrooms included)” next to “Laundry Wash & Dry (2 Loads).” On the other tiers, washing is the add-on “Laundry Wash & Dry (Per Load),” and a load of laundry is not a remade bed. Settle it before the visit: if a change is booked, leave the fresh set on the bed and say where the used set goes; if not, strip the bed yourself beforehand and make it after. For the wash, the CDC’s household cleaning guidance lists linens with laundry items: “Launder using detergent and recommended water temperature” and “Dry items completely.”
Under the bed. “Vacuum Under Bedroom Frames” means the floor a vacuum can reach with the bed where it stands. Our Terms of Service are specific: “For safety, Cleaners cannot move furniture or objects weighing more than 30 pounds. If heavy items block areas needing cleaning, please move them before the appointment.” So the result depends on what’s under there. Storage bins and suitcases you can slide out the night before; a platform bed or a frame with built-in drawers leaves no gap to reach. The Rowhouse Manual notes that when most rowhouses were built, bedrooms “were almost always shared, even if furniture all but filled the room.” In a back bedroom where the bed nearly meets the walls, the floor you clear around it is the floor that gets cleaned.
Closets and clutter. Deep adds “Empty Closet Floors Vacuumed / Mopped,” and the working word is empty: shoes, bags and laundry come off the closet floor first, and with shallow closets that means finding them another spot for the day. For clothes, “Organize Clothes Clutter (30-mins)” is an add-on, and Dream Home carries “Professional Organization (30-mins).” Blinds and mirrors are Standard; the window glass is not: “Clean Interior Windows (6 max)” is a Move line and an add-on on the other tiers. No line on any tier mentions the mattress or the inside of a dresser.
Living room: sofa codes and the 30-pound line
There is no living-room group on our checklist. The living room falls under the entire-house checklist, the lines that apply everywhere: “Ceiling Fans Dusted,” “Dust Room Decorations & Picture Frames (up to 9ft),” “Dust Window Sills / Ledges,” “Vacuum Upholstered Furniture” and “Floors Swept / Mopped / Vacuumed” among them. Deep adds “Detailed Dusting Of Common Areas (30-mins).” Taken in order: the fan and the frames, the sills, the sofa, then the floor.
Upholstery codes. The sofa is where people expect more than the line says. Its cleaning code is on the furniture’s tag, and La-Z-Boy’s fabric care guide shows how the codes work. W: “Spot clean only with water-based shampoo or foam upholstery cleaner,” and “Cushion covers should not be removed and laundered.” S: “Spot clean only with a water-free dry cleaning solvent” and “Do not use water.” W-S fabrics get separate steps for water-based and oil-based stains. X: “Do not use a foam or liquid cleaner of any type. Vacuum or brush lightly to remove soil.” For fabric in general the guide recommends “frequent vacuuming or light brushing,” and for a piece dirty all over: “Use a professional furniture cleaning service when an overall soiled condition has been reached.”
Vacuuming is what the X code allows and what the guide recommends for fabric in general, and it is what the checklist names. No line on any tier mentions stains, shampoo or steam, so a mark on a W or S cushion is yours to treat with the right product, or a specialist’s. Pet hair has its own line: “Pet Shed Removal” is on Dream Home and is an add-on on the other tiers.
The 30-pound line. Under the Terms quoted above, the sofa and a loaded bookcase stay where they are; if the floor behind one matters, pull it out before the visit and push it back after. The TV isn’t on any checklist line. If you clean the screen yourself, follow your maker’s manual. Samsung’s, for example, says: “Turn the TV off and let it cool down for a few minutes before unplugging it.” It calls for “a microfiber cleaning cloth” and adds: “Never spray water directly onto the TV.”
Laundry room: there is no checklist for it
Our published checklist has four room groups: Entire House, Bathroom, Bedroom and Kitchen. There is no laundry-room group and no laundry-room checklist page. So the checklist doesn’t say how a laundry room is treated. The nearest lines are the whole-house ones, “Floors Swept / Mopped / Vacuumed” and “Dust Light Fixtures / Door Frames / Shelves (up to 9ft)”, and whether your cleaner applies them to a laundry room is worth confirming before the visit.
The machines. Washer and dryer fronts are not on Standard. Deep adds “Wipe Down Major Appliances Exterior (2 Max).” The checklist doesn’t say whether that limit counts per room or per home, or whether a washer and dryer count as major appliances, and the kitchen has machines too. If you want the washer and dryer wiped, ask before you book. When you wipe them yourself, follow the maker’s page. Whirlpool’s, for its front-load washers, says to “use a soft, damp cloth or sponge,” to “use only mild soaps or cleaners when cleaning external washer surfaces,” and “do not use abrasive products.” For the shelf of bottles beside them, the CDC’s rule: “Do not mix products or chemicals with each other.”
Lint, and the floor behind the dryer. This is the laundry-room job that is about fire, not looks. The U.S. Fire Administration’s report on clothes dryer fires (2012), covering fires reported from 2008 to 2010, found that among fires with a known cause “failure to clean (34 percent) was the leading factor contributing to the ignition of clothes dryer fires in residential buildings.” Its list of dos: “Clean the lint filter before and after each cycle,” don’t forget “the back of the dryer where lint can build up,” and have the interior and venting “serviced and cleaned periodically by qualified service personnel.” No checklist line covers the lint screen, the back of the dryer or the vent, and under the 30-pound rule the machines stay put. The screen is yours between loads; the duct is a technician’s.
Cabinets and the basement. Inside cabinets is a Move line, “Clean Inside Cabinets (must be clear),” and the add-on “Clean Inside Cabinets” on the other tiers. Neither names a room, so if you mean the laundry cabinets too, say so. For wood fronts, KraftMaid’s care guidance calls for “a damp cloth for cleaning and a thorough drying” and says to “steer clear of harsh detergents, abrasive formulas, and powdered cleaners.” A laundry in a finished basement leaves the basement itself as a separate choice: Move includes “Clean Finished Basement (30 mins),” and both basement add-ons name a finished one. Our rowhome cleaning guide covers the basement in detail.
Stairs, hall and front door: the last room
The passage between rooms is covered by two entire-house lines: “Hallway & Staircases Vacuumed And/or Mopped” and “Wipe Down Door Handles and Light Switches.” Baseboards are not on Standard or Deep; “Spot-Clean Baseboards (30-Mins)” is a Move line.
The stairs, top down, once. Do them after the upper floors and before the main floor. The Rowhouse Manual is blunt: “Rowhouses often have very steep staircases to minimize the space they use,” and “It’s also harder to stop a fall on a steep stairway.” The winders many small rowhouses have “must be walked with care because it is easy to lose your footing on the narrow part of the tread.” Carry one thing at a time, keep a hand for the rail, and make the linen trip to the basement before the cleaning starts, not with a basket on a damp tread halfway through.
Over the stairwell. Our Terms set the reach: “Cleaners work safely using standard two-step stools provided by Hometress or the client. They do not climb higher (no ladders) and will only clean areas within safe reach from the floor or the step stool.” A light fixture hung high over the stair run is often beyond that, and it waits for someone with the right equipment.
The vestibule, last. The Rowhouse Manual makes the case for the two-door vestibule: “Because we live in a climate where winters can be severe, it is very desirable to have a two-door entry between the exterior and the interior.” It is also where grit stops, if you let it. Bruce’s hardwood care page says to “place natural or colorfast mats outside each entrance” and warns that “small stones stuck in shoe treads can gouge or scratch hardwood.” Finish here. Lift the mat and vacuum under it on a bare-floor setting, or “disengage the beater bar,” in Bruce’s words. Damp-clean only if your floor’s maker allows it; Bruce’s line is “DON’T use water or steam on hardwood floors.” Wipe the handle and the switch, and put the mat back once the floor is dry.
Booking it, room by room
Our help center puts the scope rule plainly: the checklist in the booking flow “is the definitive list of what a reset covers,” and “anything not on it isn't included by default.” It is the one caveat here, and it settles most of the questions above. Match each room’s ask to a tier or an add-on:
- Sheets changed: Dream Home. Washing only: the “Laundry Wash & Dry (Per Load)” add-on.
- Empty closet floors, and appliance exteriors (up to two): Deep.
- Baseboards: Move. Interior windows and inside cabinets: Move, or an add-on on any tier.
- Pet hair on the sofa: the “Pet Shed Removal” add-on, or Dream Home.
Our guide to what each checklist tier adds prints every tier’s ten added lines word for word, and what a house cleaner won’t do in Philadelphia covers the rest of the Terms’ limits, from litter boxes to mold.
Then do your part in the same order as the clean: beds stripped or a fresh set out, closet floors clear, anything heavy you want cleaned behind already moved, the vestibule clear. Our checklist for preparing for house cleaners covers the rest. When you’re ready, book a cleaning in Philadelphia; the service step shows the full checklist for the tier you pick before you confirm.