Table of Contents
The short answer
Do the checks before the cleaning. On the first day back, walk through every room and look for water marks, pest signs and anything that smells wrong, then bring the home back to life in a fixed order: power, AC, water, drains, fridge. Clean on the second day, when the air has turned over and you know what you are dealing with. Dust comes off dry first, from the top of each room down, and the floors are washed last.
A home shut for more than a month needs more than a routine visit. Every flat surface carries settled dust, the bathrooms have dried scale and sometimes dark spots, the fabrics hold stale air and the kitchen cupboards need checking before food goes back in. That is deep-clean work, with one difference: part of the job is finding out what the closure has caused.
Most of it is within reach of a household with a free weekend. If you would rather hand it over, IHR Dream Cleaning sends a team sized to the home. Our villa cleaning page lists a return from summer travel among the reasons villas are booked, and asks you to say so when you book so that the right service and hours are planned. A deep clean starts at 2 cleaners for 3 hours each, which is AED 180 with your own products and AED 210 with ours.
What a closed home collects in an Abu Dhabi summer
Nothing in this table is a sign of a neglected home. It is what heat, still air and time do to any property here, and knowing the cause tells you whether cleaning will fix it.
| What you find | Why it happens | What puts it right |
|---|---|---|
| Fine dust on every surface | It keeps arriving through door gaps, window seals and vents | Dry removal first, then a damp wipe |
| A drain smell in the bathrooms | The water seal in the drain traps has evaporated | Refilling each trap with water |
| Musty air in rooms and wardrobes | No air movement, and humidity if the AC was off | Airing, running the AC, washing fabrics |
| Dark spots on silicone, grout or a ceiling corner | Damp air standing still in a warm room | Cleaning on the surface; repair if it is in the material |
| A ring in the toilet bowl, crusted taps | Standing or drying water leaves its minerals behind | A descaler and time |
| A fridge that smells | Switched off with the door shut, or a power cut | Emptying, washing, airing with the door open |
Two things decide how big the job is
The first is whether the AC was left running. A home left with the AC on at a high setting comes back dusty but dry. A home with the AC off all summer has been through weeks of heat and damp air, and fabrics, wardrobes and the backs of furniture against outside walls are where a musty smell and spotting begin.
The second is the length of the closure. After two weeks with the AC running, a longer regular clean deals with the dust. After four to eight weeks, plan a deep clean. After a longer absence, or any summer with the AC off, add the checks on the AC, the water and pests described below. These bands are our reasoning from how dust and damp behave, not a published rule.
The first day: checks before any cleaning
Work through these in order. The order is deliberate: you look before you switch anything on, and you get air moving before you raise dust.
- Walk through every room before you unpack, looking at ceilings, the floors near bathrooms and the kitchen, and the cupboard under each sink.
- Check the electrical panel. If a breaker is down, reset it once. If it trips again, leave it off and call an electrician.
- Start the AC and let it run with the internal doors open.
- Run the water: cold taps first, then hot, then flush every toilet.
- Pour a jug of water into every floor drain and run each basin, shower and bath for a minute.
- Open the fridge and freezer and decide what stays.
- Open the wardrobes, the kitchen cupboards and any room that stayed shut, so they air with the rest of the home.
- Change the bed linen and vacuum the bedrooms you will sleep in tonight. The rest can wait until tomorrow.
What to look for on the walk-through
You are looking for three things that cleaning cannot fix and that get worse when they are missed.
- Water. A brown ring on a ceiling, bubbling paint, a swollen skirting board or cabinet base. Photograph it before anything is cleaned, and compare it with the signs of a hidden leak.
- Pests. Droppings like ground pepper in kitchen cupboards and under the sink, gnawed packets, or a line of ants. A few dead insects on a sill mean little. Fresh droppings mean something is living there.
- Mould. A few dark dots on bathroom silicone are common after a closed summer. A patch on a wall, a ceiling or the back of a wardrobe says the surface has been damp for weeks, and the cause needs finding.
Power and the AC
A breaker that tripped while the home was empty is worth one reset and no more. If it trips again, something on that circuit is faulty, often an appliance or a water heater, and the safe course is to leave it off. The signs that need a professional are set out in tripping breakers, flickering lights and warm sockets.
A dusty smell for the first few minutes of AC is usual, because the first air through a still system carries what settled in the grilles. On a split unit, rinse and dry the washable filters as the maker's instructions describe if they are grey. What is not normal is a musty smell still there the next day, black spotting on the grilles, water dripping from an indoor unit or a room that will not cool. Those need a technician, and musty smells and black spots on AC vents explains what each usually means.
Our AC duct cleaning page lists a long vacancy among the common reasons the service is booked. It does not follow that every return from holiday needs it. Run the system for a day, wipe the grilles, and decide on what you see and smell. Duct cleaning is quoted from the system and the number of vents, from AED 350 for a studio or one-bedroom apartment and from AED 750 for a villa. A single split unit is cleaned for AED 99.
Water that has stood in the pipes and the tank
Water that has sat in pipes through weeks of heat is stale, and it may come out warm, cloudy or with a slight smell. Run it off before you drink it, cook with it or wash in it. Open each cold tap fully for a few minutes until the water is clear and cooler, do the same with the hot taps, and flush every toilet. Turn each shower on and step out while it runs, so that nobody stands in the first spray.
In a villa with its own tank, flushing replaces what was in the pipes, not what is in the tank, and that water has spent the summer in the heat with nothing drawn through it. If it is discoloured, carries grit or still smells after a good flush, stop using it for drinking and cooking and have the tank cleaned. Our water tank cleaning page describes the work: draining, removing sediment, disinfecting, rinsing and refilling, quoted from the tank's size and access. Do not open or climb to a roof tank yourself. How often a tank needs doing is in water tank cleaning: how often and what the process is.
In an apartment the tank and pumps belong to the building, so water that stays off-colour is a matter for the building management. Replace any water left standing in a dispenser, a filter jug or a kettle.
Drains and the smell in the bathrooms
Every floor drain, basin, shower and bath has a bend in its pipe that holds a little water. That water is the seal between your home and the drainage system. In six weeks of summer it can evaporate, and what you then smell is the drain itself. A dry trap is also an open door for cockroaches.
The fix is water: a full jug down each floor drain, including the ones in the kitchen, the laundry and the balcony. The smell should fade within hours. If one drain still smells the next day, the cause is something else, and bad smells from a bathroom floor drain goes through the possibilities. Do not pour bleach and a drain cleaner down together. Mixed cleaning chemicals can give off dangerous gas.
The fridge and freezer
If the fridge was left running, check that it ran the whole time. A clock on the oven or microwave that has reset itself, or ice cubes that have melted and refrozen into a solid block, point to a power cut while you were away. Frozen food that has thawed and refrozen should be thrown away, and so should anything chilled that you are unsure about.
If it was switched off with the door shut, expect a smell and probably mould on the seals. Wash the shelves and drawers in the sink with warm water and washing-up liquid, wipe the inside and the folds of the door seals the same way, then dry everything. Avoid strongly scented products, because the plastic lining holds on to smells. Leave the door open for a few hours before switching on, and give the fridge most of a day to reach temperature before you restock. If it is still warm the next morning, start with the simple checks for a fridge that is not cooling.
The cleaning: what to do, and in which order
By the second day the smells that were only stale air have gone, and the ones that remain are telling you something. That is the day to clean.
- Air the home while it is cool outside, early in the morning. In the humid months, close the windows again before the day heats up: warm, damp air drawn into a cooled room leaves moisture on cold surfaces.
- Strip every bed and gather the towels, bath mats and throws that sat out all summer. Start the washing machine first, because it runs while you work.
- Remove dust dry, from the top down: ceiling fans and light fittings, the tops of wardrobes and door frames, curtain rails, AC grilles, shelves, then furniture.
- Vacuum the floors, the sofa, the mattresses and the rugs before any water touches the room.
- Only now wipe with a damp cloth: surfaces, switches, door handles, skirting boards, and the insides of any wardrobe that smelled stale.
- Clean the kitchen, then the bathrooms, giving the descaler time to work.
- Wash the hard floors last, working towards the door.
- Finish with the balcony or the outdoor areas, so that the sand out there is not walked back in.
Why the dust comes off dry first
The dust that settles in a closed home here is fine, and there is a lot of it. A wet cloth turns it into a thin mud that streaks surfaces and packs into corners, switch plates and the grain of wood. A vacuum with a brush head lifts it away for good. For the same reason, do not start by mopping: a mop over six weeks of dust carries grey water from room to room.
Bedrooms, wardrobes and fabrics
Linen left on a bed all summer has collected dust even under a cover, so wash it, and do not shake it out indoors. Vacuum the bare mattress slowly on both faces. Open every wardrobe and smell it. Clothes that smell stale need washing or a day of airing, and a wardrobe with spotting on its back panel needs emptying, wiping and drying with the doors open before anything goes back.
Curtains, sofas and carpets hold the stale smell longest because they cannot go in a machine. Vacuum them thoroughly, and give them two days of normal air movement. If the smell stays, they need washing in place. Fabric items booked together with a deep clean are 10% off, with sofas at AED 30 a seat and carpets at AED 10 a square metre.
Kitchen
The kitchen is mostly a matter of checking before you restock.
- Check every opened packet of rice, flour, pulses, cereal, nuts and spices. Small beetles, moths or webbing mean the packet goes into the bin outside, and the shelf is vacuumed and wiped before anything is put back.
- Wipe the cupboard shelves and the cutlery drawer. Dust gets in around the doors.
- Run the dishwasher and the washing machine empty on a hot programme before the first real load, and wipe their door seals.
- Wash the dish rack, the sink strainer and the bin, inside and out.
- Look behind and under the fridge and the cooker with a torch. That is where pest signs show first.
Bathrooms
Standing water leaves a ring at the waterline of the toilet bowl, and taps and shower glass that were wet when you left have dried with a crust. Both are limescale, and both need an acid descaler left to work, not harder scrubbing. Two cautions apply. Acid etches marble and other natural stone, so keep descaler off stone floors and vanity tops. And never use a descaler and bleach together, or one after the other without rinsing well in between. The method, and what to do about dark spots on silicone, is in bathroom deep cleaning: limescale, grout and mould.
Balconies, yards and the outside of a villa
A balcony collects a summer of sand in its corners and its door track. Sweep or vacuum it dry before any water goes down, clear the drain outlet, and clean the sliding-door track before you force a stiff door. In a villa, add the entrance, the yard and any outdoor seating. If the summer included a dust storm, the outside needs its own approach, covered in cleaning a villa after a sandstorm.
Villas and apartments come back differently
A villa has more of everything a closure affects: more bathrooms with traps to refill, more outside doors letting in sand, rooms nobody entered even before the trip, and its own water tank. Our villa page counts a majlis, a maid's room or a driver's room as part of the visit only when you tell us about them, so that time is allowed for them and they are not discovered on arrival. Deep cleans after summer travel are a regular part of our work in Khalifa City, Mohammed Bin Zayed City and Shakhbout City, where large family villas are the usual home.
A sealed tower keeps most of the sand out, so the dust layer is thinner and the work is quicker. The points that catch apartment residents are different ones. The security desk may need to be told who is coming if a cleaner arrives before you do. The balcony door track is where the sand is. And a bathroom with no window relies on an extractor that has not run for weeks: wipe its grille and check that it still pulls air.
Pests and mould: when cleaning is not the answer
A cleaner removes what has settled. Some of what you find after a closure is a symptom, and cleaning it away only hides it for a week. Leaks, AC faults and tank water were dealt with on the first day. Two more need the same judgement.
Pests: what is normal and what is not
One or two dead cockroaches near a floor drain, or a few dead flies on a window sill, are what a quiet, dark, closed home produces. Clean them away, refill the traps and watch for a week. What counts as a problem is anything alive and repeating: cockroaches seen on several nights, small ones in kitchen cupboards, droppings that reappear after you have cleaned. That means they are breeding in the home, where a spray from the supermarket does not reach.
Our pest control page describes the visit: an inspection first, then treatment aimed at the pest and the places it was found. A studio starts at AED 149, a two-bedroom home at AED 199 and a villa from AED 299, confirmed before the visit. Have the deep clean done before the treatment, since washing floors and skirting boards straight afterwards can remove what was applied. Which pests a household can manage on its own is covered in household pests in Abu Dhabi and when to call.
Mould that is more than a few spots
Spots on bathroom silicone and grout are a cleaning matter. A patch on a painted wall, a ceiling or the back of a wardrobe is a moisture matter: wiping removes the mark, and it returns unless the damp that fed it has gone. Sometimes the cause was simply a summer with the AC off. Sometimes it is a leak. If a patch is larger than your hand, comes back after cleaning or sits under a stain, have the cause found before anyone repaints. If someone at home has asthma or another breathing condition, leave a large patch to somebody else and ask a doctor's advice.
Doing it yourself or booking a team: hours and cost
A household can reopen an apartment in a weekend with a decent vacuum and the usual products. The test is the calendar: most families come back a few days before school and work start, with suitcases to unpack and a fridge to fill.
Our published hours guide for a deep clean is the starting point. A home closed with the AC off, or for three months, sits above it, and the hours are confirmed against what you describe when you book.
| Home | Team in the hours guide | Your products | Our products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or one bedroom | 2 cleaners, 3 hours each | AED 180 | AED 210 |
| Two bedrooms | 2 cleaners, 4 hours each | AED 240 | AED 280 |
| Three bedrooms | 2 cleaners, 5 hours each | AED 290 | AED 340 |
| Villa, four or five bedrooms | 4 cleaners, 5 hours each | AED 580 | AED 680 |
How those figures are made up
Each figure is the number of cleaners multiplied by the price of one visit of that length, VAT included. Our products and equipment add AED 5 per cleaner-hour. Booking without materials means your own vacuum, mop, cloths and products must be in the home and working on the day, and a cupboard that was emptied before the holiday is a poor start.
If the job needs longer, the team leader asks you first, and extra time is added in 30-minute steps only with your agreement. Every visit length is on the price list.
Is a regular clean enough?
After a fortnight away with the AC running, usually yes: book a longer visit than usual and say that the home has been closed. After a month or more, book a deep clean. A regular visit is sized to maintain a home that was cleaned last week, and it runs out of time before it reaches wardrobe tops, grilles, skirting boards and the insides of cupboards, which is where a closed home needs the work. The two are compared in regular cleaning or deep cleaning, and the deep cleaning page sets out what the visit includes.
Booking the visit: before you land, or after
A clean before you arrive
Walking into a clean home after a long flight is the better experience, and it is possible if someone you trust can open the door: a relative, a neighbour with a key, or the building's reception where it holds keys. That person should do the first-day checks a day earlier, so that the water has run and the AC is on before the team starts. Be sure of the access. If the team travels to the home and cannot get in, the published charge is AED 60. A booking can be moved or cancelled without charge up to 6 hours before it starts, which helps when a flight changes.
A clean after you arrive
If nobody can let a team in, do the first-day checks yourself, sleep in fresh linen, and have the clean done on the second or third day. Hourly visits can be booked up to 30 days ahead, so the slot can be reserved from abroad once the flights are fixed. A same-day visit needs about 2 hours of notice and depends on which teams are free. We work 8 AM – 8 PM every day, at the same price on Fridays, weekends and public holidays.
What to say when you book
- How long the home was closed, and whether the AC was left on.
- The number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and any majlis, maid's room, driver's room or store to include.
- Anything you found on the walk-through: a smell, spotting in a wardrobe, a fridge that was off.
- Whether you want the insides of cupboards and wardrobes cleaned. On our villa and deep cleaning pages this is not included unless you ask.
- Marble, wood or other surfaces that need particular products.
- Gate, parking and visitor instructions for the community or the tower.
On the day, and afterwards
The team leader walks the home with you or your contact and agrees the priority rooms and the expected finish time. Before the team leaves, the leader checks the rooms against the agreed list and invites you to walk through. Look at the places this guide has pointed to: the tops of wardrobes, the AC grilles, the shower glass and the door tracks. If you find a missed point later, report it within 24 hours and we return to re-clean it without charge. Payment is made online by card once we confirm your booking.
Before the next trip: closing a home so that it reopens easily
Most of what this guide deals with is decided on the day you leave.
- Have the home cleaned in the last two days before you go. Dust that lands on a clean surface vacuums off. Dust that lands on grease or damp sticks.
- Empty the fridge of anything that can spoil. If you switch it off, wash and dry it and prop the door open.
- Take out every bin, and put opened dry goods into sealed containers.
- Leave the dishwasher and the washing machine empty, with their doors ajar, and no towel or bath mat damp.
- Cover the floor drains with a flat cover or a piece of plastic sheet under a weight, which slows the evaporation that lets smells and insects through.
- Ask someone to visit every two weeks to run the taps, flush the toilets and look for leaks.
Should the AC stay on?
It is a trade between the electricity bill and the humidity. With the AC off for a whole summer the home gets hot and, in the humid weeks, damp, and that is when wardrobes turn musty and mould starts in still corners. With the AC at a high setting, or on a timer for a few hours a day, the air stays drier, and for a long absence that is the safer choice for what is inside the home. In a tower with central cooling, ask the building management what it recommends. Whichever you choose, leave the internal doors and the wardrobe doors open so that air can move.
Common questions
Can we sleep in the home on the first night, before it is cleaned?
Yes. Run the AC for an hour with the doors open, change the bed linen, vacuum the bedroom floor and the bare mattress, and run the bathroom taps and the shower before you use them. That is twenty minutes of work. Everything else can wait for daylight.
Can the clean be booked while we are still abroad?
Yes. Booking is online, on the website or in the IHR Dream app, and payment is by card once we confirm your booking, so everything is settled before anyone travels. Give the name and number of the person who will open the home, and the gate or tower instructions.
Do we have to be at home while the team works?
Someone should be there at the start, to walk through with the team leader, and at the end, to check the rooms before the team leaves. In between you can stay or go out. If you go out, make sure the team can reach you by phone, and come back in time for the final check.
The home still smells stale after cleaning. What next?
Find where it is strongest. At the vents, it is the AC. In one bathroom, it is a drain or damp behind a fitting. In a wardrobe, look at the back panel and the wall behind it. In the room generally, it is the fabrics: curtains, sofa, carpet and mattress hold stale air long after the hard surfaces are clean. An air freshener covers a smell for a day and tells you nothing about its cause.
What about the pool and the garden?
Both are separate trades. A pool that was not serviced while you were away may have turned green or cloudy, and it should not be used until the water has been tested and corrected. We quote pool and garden work after photos or a free inspection, and the pool cleaning and maintenance page explains what a pool visit covers.
Getting the home back to normal
If the first day turns up more than one problem, take them in this order: anything involving water or electricity first, then the AC, then the deep clean, then pest treatment. Repairs make dust and mess, so the clean follows them, and the treatment goes last so that it is not washed away.
For the cleaning itself, the villa cleaning page explains how teams are sized for larger homes, and the same deep clean is booked for apartments. Say that the home has been closed and for how long, choose the day, and the price is shown before you confirm. You can book online from wherever you are, so the visit is fixed before you fly.
