Cleaning is the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment. Cleaning is often performed for

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

hygienic Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

functional Functional may refer to: * Movements in architecture: ** Functionalism (architecture) ** Form follows function * Functional group, combination of atoms within molecules * Medical conditions without currently visible organic basis: ** Functional s ...

safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

, or

environmental protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

purposes. Cleaning occurs in many different contexts, and uses many different methods. Several occupations are devoted to cleaning.

Contexts

Cleaning occurs in various commercial, domestic, personal, and environmental contexts, which differ in scale and requirements. *

Commercial cleaning Commercial cleaning companies are contracted to carry out cleaning jobs in a variety of premises. Commercial cleaners, often referred to as custodians or janitors, work in many different types of buildings such as schools, banks, and offices. T ...

, in business or other commercial settings ** Terminal cleaning, in healthcare settings *

Housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopp ...

, including

spring cleaning Spring cleaning is the practice of thoroughly cleaning a house in the springtime. The practice of spring cleaning is especially prevalent in climates with a cold winter. In many cultures, annual cleaning occurs at the end of the year, which may ...

Hygiene Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

, including

personal grooming Grooming (also called preening) is the art and practice of cleaning and maintaining parts of the body. It is a species-typical behavior. In animals Individual animals regularly clean themselves and put their fur, feathers or other skin c ...

Environmental remediation Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...

, the removal of pollution or contaminants from the natural environment

Methods

Cleaning is broadly achieved through mechanical action and/or

chemical process In a scientific sense, a chemical process is a method or means of somehow changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by an outside force, and involves a chemical reaction of som ...

es (usually

solvation Solvations describes the interaction of a solvent with dissolved molecules. Both ionized and uncharged molecules interact strongly with a solvent, and the strength and nature of this interaction influence many properties of the solute, includi ...

); many methods rely on a combination of mechanical and chemical action. Methods include: *

Washing Washing is a method of cleaning, usually with water and soap or detergent. Regularly washing and then rinsing both body and clothing is an essential part of good hygiene and health. Often people use soaps and detergents to assist in the emulsific ...

, usually done with water and often some kind of

soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

detergent A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with Cleanliness, cleansing properties when in Concentration, dilute Solution (chemistry), solutions. There are a large variety of detergents. A common family is the alkylbenzene sulfonate ...

** Mopping, usually using a mop ** Wiping, usually using a dry or moist piece of

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is n ...

(such as

toilet paper Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet/bath/bathroom tissue, or toilet roll) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the human anus, anus and surrounding region of Human feces, feces (after defecation), and to clean the external gen ...

paper towel A paper towel is an absorbent, disposable towel made from paper. In Commonwealth English, paper towels for kitchen use are also known as kitchen rolls, kitchen paper, or kitchen towels. For home use, paper towels are usually sold in a roll of p ...

and

wet wipe A wet wipe, also known as a wet towel, wet one, moist towelette, disposable wipe, disinfecting wipe, or a baby wipe (in specific circumstances) is a small to medium-sized moistened piece of plastic or cloth that either comes folded and individu ...

) **

Pressure washing Pressure washing or power washing is the use of high-pressure water spray to remove loose paint, mold, grime, dust, mud, and dirt from surfaces and objects such as buildings, vehicles and concrete surfaces. The volume of a mechanical pressure w ...

, using a high-pressure stream of water **

Wet cleaning Wet cleaning refers to methods of professional cleaning that, in contrast to traditional dry cleaning, avoids the use of organic solvents, the most common of which is tetrachloroethylene (commonly called perchloroethylene or "perc"). Proponents o ...

, methods of professional laundering that avoid the use of chemical solvents *

Abrasive blasting Sandblasting, sometimes known as abrasive blasting, is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface or remove sur ...

, typically used to remove bulk material from a surface, may be used to remove contaminants as well *

Acoustic cleaning Acoustic cleaning is a maintenance method used in material-handling and storage systems that handle bulk granular or particulate materials, such as grain elevators, to remove the buildup of material on surfaces. An acoustic cleaning apparatus, ...

, the use of

sound wave In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

s to shake particulates loose from surfaces **

Ultrasonic cleaning Ultrasonic cleaning is a process that uses ultrasound (usually from 20 to 40 kHz) to agitate a fluid, with a cleaning effect. Ultrasonic cleaners come in a variety of sizes, from small desktop units with an internal volume of less than , to large ...

, using ultrasound, usually from 20 to 400 kHz **

Megasonic cleaning Megasonic cleaning is a specialized cleaning method that utilizes high-frequency sound waves to remove contaminants from delicate surfaces. It is particularly effective in industries like semiconductor manufacturing, optics, and medical device pr ...

, a gentler mechanism than ultrasonic cleaning, used in

wafer A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the foo ...

medical implant An implant is a medical device manufactured to replace a missing biological structure, support a damaged biological structure, or enhance an existing biological structure. For example, an implant may be a rod, used to strengthen weak bones. Med ...

, and industrial part cleaning *

Carbon dioxide cleaning Carbon dioxide cleaning (CO2 cleaning) comprises a family of methods for parts cleaning and sterilization (microbiology), sterilization, using carbon dioxide in its various phase (matter), phases. Due to being non-destructive, non-abrasive, and re ...

, a family of methods for parts cleaning and sterilization using

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

in its various phases *

Dry cleaning Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water. Clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent (usually non-polar, as opposed to water which is a Solvent#Solvent classifications, polar ...

of clothing and textiles, using a chemical solvent other than water *

Flame cleaning Flame cleaning, also known as flame gouging, is the process of cleaning a structural steel surface by passing an intensely hot oxyacetylene flame over it. Mill scale and rust are removed by the reducing effect of the flame and the action of the heat ...

of structural steel, with an

oxyacetylene Principle of burn cutting Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, bio ...

flame *

Green cleaning Green cleaning refers to using cleaning methods and products with environmentally friendly ingredients and procedures which are designed to preserve human health and environmental quality. Green cleaning techniques and products avoid the use of pr ...

, using environmentally friendly methods and products *

Plasma cleaning Plasma cleaning is the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces through the use of an energetic plasma (physics), plasma or dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as wel ...

, using energetic plasma or dielectric barrier discharge plasma created from various gases * Sputter cleaning, performed in a vacuum by using physical

sputtering In physics, sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas. It occurs naturally in outer space, and c ...

of the surface * Steam cleaning, in both domestic and industrial contexts * Sweeping, mechanical removal usually using a

brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped during u ...

Thermal cleaning Thermal cleaning is a combined process involving pyrolysis and oxidation. As an industrial application, thermal cleaning is used to remove organic substances such as polymers, plastics and coatings from parts, products or production components lik ...

, in industrial settings, involving

pyrolysis Pyrolysis is a process involving the Bond cleavage, separation of covalent bonds in organic matter by thermal decomposition within an Chemically inert, inert environment without oxygen. Etymology The word ''pyrolysis'' is coined from the Gree ...

and

oxidation Redox ( , , reduction–oxidation or oxidation–reduction) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of the reactants change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is ...

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a disinfection technique employing ultraviolet (UV) light, particularly UV-C (180–280 nm), to kill or inactivate microorganisms. UVGI primarily inactivates microbes by damaging their genetic ma ...

, which destroys

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

s; used extensively in the medical and food industries * Vacuum cleaning, using a

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, is a device that uses suction, and often agitation, in order to remove dirt and other debris from carpets, hard floors, and other surfaces. The dirt is collected into a dust bag or a plastic bin. ...

Cleaning by item

Some items and materials require specialized cleaning techniques, due to their shape, size, location, or the material properties of the object and contaminants.

Buildings and infrastructure

* Beach cleaning *

Carpet cleaning Carpet cleaning is performed to remove stains, dirt, debris, and allergens from carpets. Common methods include hot water extraction, Dry cleaning, dry-cleaning, and vacuuming. Hot water extraction Hot water extraction, sometimes mistakenly ...

* Chimney cleaning *

Crime scene cleanup Crime scene cleanup is a term applied to cleanup of blood, bodily fluids, and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). It is also referred to as biohazard remediation, and forensic cleanup, because crime scenes are only a portion of the sit ...

Exterior cleaning Exterior cleaning is the process of washing, cleaning a building's exterior part including the restoration of hygiene or removal of litter and/or dirt on the outside of the building. It is not to be confused with interior cleaning, the act of c ...

Floor cleaning Floor cleaning is a major employment, occupation throughout the world. The main job of most cleaners is to cleaning, clean Flooring, floors. Reasons for cleaning floors The principal reasons for floor cleaning are: * To prevent injury, inju ...

Graffiti removal Graffiti has long been considered an act of vandalism that signifies urban decay and a detriment to property values in an area. Therefore, most governments have seen graffiti as detrimental, and have outlawed the practice. However, due to most ins ...

Roof cleaning Roof cleaning is the process of removing algae, mold, mildew, lichen and moss from roofs. Also cleaning oxidation on metal roofs. Cleaning can extend the duration of a roof's ability to function. Algae and other types of build-up often form on ...

* Silo cleaning * Street cleaning

Other items

* Cleaning (coinage), Coin cleaning * Conservation and restoration of cultural property, which often involves careful cleaning * Jewellery cleaning * Laundry, the washing of clothes and other textiles * Parts cleaning, in industry * Pot washing, in food service * Teeth cleaning * Tube cleaning

Occupations involving cleaning

Several occupations involve cleaning, either in their entirety or among other duties. * Cleaner * Dental hygenist * Housekeeper (domestic worker) * Janitor * Maid * Property caretaker * Property manager * Fluffer (London Underground), Fluffer (track cleaner on the London Underground)

Contexts

Methods

Cleaning by item

Buildings and infrastructure

Other items

Occupations involving cleaning

See also

General

Biology and health

Organizing

Technologies

Other contexts