Value Village ／ Everyday know-how
This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete.
Every December, Japanese households, schools and offices do a deep clean before the new year. It looks like a national chore; it is closer to a maintenance schedule with a fixed date, and it has a specific order that makes it work.
| Step | Where | Why this order |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Declutter and discard first (check municipal collection dates — many areas have final collections before the 28th–30th) | You cannot clean around things |
| 2 | High places: ceiling, light fittings, tops of shelves, curtain rails | Dust falls down |
| 3 | Walls, windows (inside and out), screens, tracks | Before floors |
| 4 | Kitchen: range hood/fan, stove, oven, fridge exterior and gasket | Grease needs time to soak — start early in the day |
| 5 | Bathroom, toilet, drains | Mould and scale need dwell time |
| 6 | Floors last, back to front toward the door | You do not walk on what you cleaned |
| 7 | Genkan (entrance) last of all | It is the boundary; finish there |
[Verify] Susu-harai date and collection schedules are general; check your own municipality's year-end calendar.
Floors are last. Everything you clean above them drops dust and drips; doing them first means doing them twice.
Grease and scale respond to time and the right pH more than to strength: alkaline (baking soda, sesquicarbonate) for grease; acidic (citric acid) for scale. Never combine chlorine bleach with acids — see the baking soda and citric acid article.
Spreading it over a week of short sessions is how most households actually do it. A list on the fridge, one zone a day.
Cold, dry December air means less pollen and fewer insects than spring, and rain is rare in eastern Japan. Windows and screens cleaned now stay clean until pollen season.
The functional payoff is inspection: you find the leaking hose, the dead battery in the smoke alarm, the gasket that no longer seals. Households often pair ōsōji with replacing smoke-alarm batteries and checking the emergency kit.
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https://www.env.go.jp/chemi/
https://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/resource/
https://www.bunka.go.jp/english/
⚠️ Editorial note: the source URLs above were identified by search. Our working environment cannot reach go.jp domains, so the contents have not been checked against the text. Verify every source before publication and record who checked it and when.
What we share here are ideas and everyday practices passed down among people living in Japan, together with general information drawn from public sources. They are not official recommendations, and they are not professional instruction. Practices vary between households and regions.
This is general information. Results vary from person to person and depend on your own conditions and surroundings.
Please decide for yourself, using your own judgement, whether any of this suits your situation. We cannot accept responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from following this article.
Always follow the instructions on any product you use, and never mix cleaning products. If you rent your home, check with your landlord before making any changes.
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