Cleaning

Contexts

• Commercial cleaning
• * Terminal cleaning, in healthcare settings
• Environmental remediation, the removal of pollution or contaminants from the natural environment
• Housekeeping, including spring cleaning
• Hygiene, including personal grooming

  Methods

• Washing, usually done with water and often some kind of soap or detergent
• * Pressure washing, using a high-pressure stream of water
• Abrasive blasting, typically used to remove bulk material from a surface, may be used to remove contaminants as well
• Acoustic cleaning, the use of sound waves to shake particulates loose from surfaces
• * Ultrasonic cleaning, using ultrasound, usually from 20–400 kHz
• * Megasonic cleaning, a gentler mechanism than ultrasonic cleaning, used in wafer, medical implant, and industrial part cleaning
• Carbon dioxide cleaning, a family of methods for parts cleaning and sterilization using carbon dioxide in its various phases
• Dry cleaning of clothing and textiles, using a chemical solvent other than water
• Flame cleaning of structural steel with an oxyacetylene flame
• Green cleaning, using environmentally friendly methods and products
• Plasma cleaning, using energetic plasma or dielectric barrier discharge plasma created from various gases
• Sputter cleaning, performed in a vacuum by using physical sputtering of the surface
• Steam cleaning, in both domestic and industrial contexts
• Thermal cleaning, in industrial settings, involving pyrolysis and oxidation
• Wet cleaning, methods of professional laundering that avoid the use of chemical solvents

  Cleaning by item

Buildings and infrastructure

• Beach cleaning
• Carpet cleaning
• Chimney cleaning
• Crime scene cleanup
• Exterior cleaning
• Floor cleaning
• Graffiti removal
• Roof cleaning
• Silo cleaning
• Street cleaning

  Other items

• Coin 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

• Cleaner
• Housekeeper
• Janitor
• Maid

  General

• Cleaning, for other uses of the term
• Cleanliness, an abstract concept for a state that may be achieved by cleaning
• Cleaning agent, substances used in cleaning
• Contamination control, of which cleaning is a part

  Biology and health

• Cleaning symbiosis, among living creatures
• Hygiene, a set of practices performed for the preservation of health
• Sanitation, techniques to protect human health by providing a clean environment
• Sterilization, the elimination or deactivation of biological agents

  Organizing

• Professional organizing, improvement of organizing systems and processes
• Sorting, any process of arranging items systematically

  Other contexts

• Cleaning event, in which solar panels on planetary rovers are cleaned by wind
• Cleaning validation, used to assure that manufacturing residues are removed
• Cleanroom, a room with low levels of particulates, used in specialized manufacturing or research
• Priming, cleaning of scientific equipment with the same chemical that will be used in an experiment