How To Clean A Basement: The “Fresh” Guide

We all want a clean home, but do you really ever clean your basement?

If you’re like many homeowners, your basement probably looks something like this:

Or this:

You want to clean your dirty basement, but how do you do it? Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn exactly what needs to be done to clean your basement, and keep it clean for more than a week.

Let’s get cleaning!

Step 1: Identify What You Don’t Need, It’s Probably Much More Than You Think

Let’s be honest, your basement is messy, probably because you’ve been collecting a handful of items over the years, and just forgot to thoroughly clean your basement, and that’s completely fine. 

However, once you identify what you don’t need, you’ll have a piece of mind knowing that your basement can actually get cleaned, once and for all.

So before you actually begin cleaning, identify which objects in your basement you don’t need, so you can get rid of them for good.

This is the most important step because if you don’t know what you don’t need, your basement floors will be covered with objects, preventing you from cleaning.

On top of that (no pun intended), if you don’t get rid of the stuff you don’t need, you won’t have any space to actually enjoy your basement.

Once you identify what you don’t need, it’s now time to get rid of those objects, for good.

Step 2: Get Rid Of The Stuff You Don’t Need, For Good

This step is straight-forward. The items you find that you don’t need should be either thrown out or donated.

This step will take some time, but it will definitely clear up your basement.

It will also enable you to see your floor that should be vacuumed with a powerful carpet cleaner and cleaned with a stain remover.

Moving on…

Step 3: Vacuum Your Basement, The Right Way

Now that you’ve removed the items that were taking up space, your basement floors and/or carpets are probably dirty...very dirty. But to clean your basement floors, you’ll need to vacuum them. If you have a fireplace in your basement, then you'll want to use the best ash vacuum for your fireplace.

We have many reviews of the best lightweight, canister, and even vacuums made specifically for carpets.

Our top 3 favorite vacuums we recommend are:

1. Best Bissell Vacuum: Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum
2. Best Vacuum For Carpets: Hoover PowerDash Carpet Cleaner
3. Best Lightweight Vacuum: Dyson Cordless Stick Vacuum

Once you have a powerful vacuum ready to go, and your basement floors are free of any objects, it’s time to vacuum dirt, dust, and debris away!

Step 4: Remove Carpet Stains To Freshen Up Your Carpets

This step might be optional for some people, but if your basement carpets are dirty when revealed, then follow the steps below to revive their cleanliness:

1. Purchase a high-quality carpet shampoo or stain remover to fight off tough carpet stains.
2. Apply a fair amount of the stain remover to the stain and let it sit for at least 20 minutes.
3. Bloch out the solution with a wet paper towel 5-10 times.
4. With a dry towel, use your body weight to stand on the towel while on top of the stain to dry it.
5. Enjoy your clean carpet.

Step 5: Organize & Decorate Your Basement, Be Creative

Congrats! You have decluttered and cleaned your basement. The last step in this guide is to organize and decorate your newly-cleaned basement. But how do you do so without getting it dirty again? Well, keep reading to find out. 

1. Organizing: Sort everything in your basement into similar categories and “zones”. We recommend sorting your basement into similar categories because it will help you find the things you use and need much quicker. Fun fact: We recently studied the home organizing industry and learned that the top five items that people misplace in their homes regularly are shoes, keys, TV remotes, phones, and glasses.
2. Decorating: This step should be very creative and fun. It’s your turn; decorate your basement to show your personality and include your favorite items. Adding a high-quality sectional sofa could make your basement a great place to relax after a long day. 

Fun fact: did you know that the home decoration market is expected to be worth $838 billion by 2027?

Step 6: Enjoy Your Clean Basement

And that’s it! Cleaning your basement might have been a chore, but now you have a basement that can actually be enjoyed.

If you’re looking for more articles like this, check out our blog. You’ll find guides on how to clean tile floors all the way to curated lists of the best house cleaning services. You can also read our product reviews, one of them covering the best gas boilers in 2020.