An initial cleaning is the first professional cleaning visit in your home (or the first visit after a long gap). It is usually a deep cleaning because the home has not yet been “maintained” by a professional system.

Enter: industrial-strength but still DIY-friendly ingredients that tackle the toughest messes without relying on commercial chemicals filled with who-knows-what. This isn’t your average “vinegar and baking soda” list (when mixed together these actually do not effectively work)—these are serious cleaning agents that professionals use (but you can too). Here’s how to level up your cleaning game with ingredients like sodium percarbonate, oxalic acid, sulfamic acid, and mor