Stress-free pre-Christmas cleaning: a plan for the four weeks of Advent

You can handle pre-Christmas cleaning without stress if you spread it over the four weeks of Advent: decluttering and sorting in the first week, the kitchen and the oven before baking in the second, windows, textiles and living rooms in the third, and the bathroom, floors and preparing for guests in the fourth. On the last day before the holidays, all that remains is a quick tidy and taking out the rubbish.

Why spread the cleaning over Advent

December is full of obligations, and cleaning crammed into the final weekend easily clashes with baking, shopping and visits. If you divide the work, you only need one larger area and a few small tasks each week. The order also has a practical reason: a kitchen cleaned before baking only needs a wipe afterwards, and floors washed a week before the holidays would get dirty again by Christmas Eve anyway.

You will find a detailed list of tasks room by room in the article deep cleaning a flat: a room-by-room checklist. Here is the Advent schedule.

The four-week plan

Week 1: decluttering and waste

Start with your belongings, because empty shelves are quicker to clean. Go through the wardrobe, shoe cabinet, pantry and children's toys, and separate what you will donate, sell or throw away. Throw out expired food from the pantry straight away, so that you know exactly what you have before baking.

Do not put off bulky waste. According to their website, Pražské služby recycling centres are closed at the end of 2026 from 23 to 27 December and from 1 to 3 January 2027, and on 31 December they are open only from 8:30 to 14:00 (Pražské služby: Sběrné dvory). Residents with permanent residence in Prague can drop off bulky waste there free of charge up to 5.5 m³ per person per year, and anyone can hand in discarded electrical appliances free of charge.

Week 2: kitchen and oven before baking

Always clean the oven switched off and cooled down. In its instructions, Bosch warns that cleaning products damage the enamel in a hot oven, and does not recommend chlorine-based or abrasive cleaners and cloths (Bosch: How to clean an oven). According to the same instructions, soak the racks and trays in hot water with washing-up liquid for several hours, scrub, rinse and dry them. If your oven has pyrolytic cleaning, remove all the racks before starting it.

Clean the door glass without a glass scraper and without applying much pressure to the open door, as the same manufacturer states. You will find the procedure for different types of oven in the article how to clean an oven.

Elsewhere in the kitchen:

• empty and wash the fridge to make room for the festive shopping,
• wash or launder the extractor hood's grease filter according to the instructions,
• wash the cupboards on the outside, the worktops and the tiles behind the cooker,
• clean the microwave and descale the kettle.

When baking and cooking, ventilate or switch on the extractor hood. The US EPA recommends this as one way to reduce humidity in a home and the risk of mould (EPA: A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home).

Week 3: windows, textiles and living rooms

Do not wash windows from the outside in frost, as the water freezes on the glass and the frame. Wait for a day above freezing, or clean only the inside and leave the outside until spring. It also helps to ventilate for shorter periods while washing, so that steam does not condense in the room. The article how to wash windows without streaks describes the squeegee method.

In living rooms, work from top to bottom: light fittings, tops of wardrobes, shelves, radiators, and only then furniture and the floor. Wash curtains, throws and blankets according to their labels, and vacuum the sofa and armchairs where guests will sit. When cleaning upholstery, follow the label and test every product on a hidden spot.

Week 4: bathroom, guests and floors

Leave the bathroom and toilet for the last week, as they get dirty fastest. Descale the taps and shower enclosure with a product suitable for the material, and never combine products containing chlorine with acidic cleaners or vinegar. Ventilate while you work and wear gloves.

• Prepare clean towels and bed linen for guests, and check your supply of toilet paper and soap.
• In the hallway, set aside space for wet shoes and coats, for example a drip tray and a doormat.
• Vacuum and mop the floors throughout the flat, from the furthest room towards the door.
• Clear space for the tree, vacuum there beforehand, and check that extension cables and strings of lights are not damaged.

When guests arrive with small children

When cleaning, cleaning products are often left within reach on the worktop or under the sink. If you are expecting a visit with small children, put them away beforehand, up high or in a cupboard the child cannot open, including dishwasher tablets and laundry gel capsules. Always keep products in their original labelled packaging and never decant them into drink bottles.

If a child or anyone else swallows a product or inhales its fumes, call the Toxikologické informační středisko (Toxicological Information Centre) on 224 91 92 93 or 224 91 54 02 and keep the product packaging to hand. In a life-threatening situation, call the ambulance service on 155.

What to leave for the last day

On Christmas Eve or the day before, leave only what will get dirty again and takes a few minutes: wipe the kitchen worktop and hob, clean the toilet and washbasin, change the towels, quickly vacuum the most-used floors and take out all the bins. If you run out of time, express cleaning is suitable for these tasks; deep cleaning covers more extensive cleaning before the holidays.

After the holidays: the tree and waste in Prague

Flatten wrapping paper and boxes and put them in the blue container, and plastic packaging in the yellow one. Do not pour food leftovers or used oil down the drain; recycling centres accept oil in a plastic bottle.

Strip a natural tree completely before disposing of it. According to information from Pražské služby published in January 2026, trees belong next to the coloured sorted-waste containers, not in bins or skips, and in the centre, where there are fewer coloured containers, they can also be left next to public black bins that stand outside, not in courtyards (Praha 1: Kam odnést stromečky po svátcích). Artificial trees belong at a recycling centre. According to the same report, the refuse collectors collected them from 7 January until the end of February; check the current dates for the coming season with Pražské služby or your city district.