For a lot of Adelaide families, Christmas starts the day the Pageant comes through the city. This year that's Saturday 14 November, and by the time the floats are packed away there are six weeks left before the family arrives for Christmas lunch.
Christmas week belongs to the shopping and the cooking, so the bigger cleaning jobs need to be done before it. This plan spreads them out, one room or one job a weekend. If you'd rather hand the lot over, our deep cleaning team can do it in a single visit in early December.
Do the jobs that make a mess first and the ones that stay clean last. The spare room can be done in November. The fridge is best left until the week before Christmas.
Why Start on Pageant Weekend
The Pageant has been marking the start of the season in Adelaide for a long time. It was first held on 18 November 1933 as the Children's Christmas Parade, started by Edward Hayward, who owned the John Martin's department store, and plenty of older South Australians still call it Johnnie's Pageant. These days it sets off from King William Street at South Terrace, and more than 335,000 people turned out for it in 2025.
It also falls at a useful point on the calendar. Six weeks gives you six weekends, and most of the pre-Christmas jobs fit into a morning each.
Do Early
- The spare room and its linen
- Windows, flyscreens and tracks
- Dusting high up before the tree goes in
Leave Until Late
- Clearing out the fridge
- The guest bathroom's final once-over
- Floors, the day before people arrive
The Spare Room and Bathroom
In most houses the spare room spends the year as the place things go when there's nowhere else for them. Clearing it is the slow part, so it's the job to start with. Once the boxes and the ironing pile have found a new home, the cleaning itself is quick.
Spare bed linen that has sat in a cupboard since last summer usually needs a wash before anyone sleeps in it. Do it on a dry, warm day and it'll be off the line by lunchtime.
Spare Room
- Wash the sheets, pillowcases and mattress protector, then vacuum the mattress
- Empty a drawer and leave some hangers in the wardrobe
- Dust the bedside table, the light shade and the top of the wardrobe
Guest Bathroom
- Descale the shower screen and clean the grout lines
- Wipe the dust off the exhaust fan cover
- Put out clean towels and a spare roll of paper
Clean the bathroom properly in November and you'll only need a quick wipe-down the day before your visitors arrive.
Make Room in the Fridge
The fridge is the one job to leave late, because it fills up again as soon as the Christmas shopping starts. Give it a proper clear-out in the week before: take everything out, throw away the jars and sauces that are past their best, and wipe the shelves and door seals with warm, soapy water before it all goes back.
The Food Safety Information Council's advice for the festive season is to make room for perishable food by taking the alcohol and soft drinks out, and putting them on ice in a container, an esky or the laundry sink. Associate Professor Julian Cox, the Council's scientific director, explained that this means the fridge is opened less often, which helps it stay at 5°C or below.
Before the Christmas Shop
- Empty the fridge one shelf at a time and throw out anything old.
- Take out the removable shelves and drawers and wash them in the sink.
- Wipe the inside walls and the rubber door seals, then dry them.
- Put a fridge thermometer inside and check it reads 5°C or below. The Council adds: the colder the better.
On the day itself, the Council says not to leave perishable chilled food out of the fridge in summer heat for more than two hours, and to refrigerate or freeze leftovers as soon as possible.
Windows and the Outdoor Table
Christmas in Adelaide is often eaten outside, or at least with the back doors wide open. That puts the glass sliding door, the windows onto the patio and the outdoor setting in full view of everyone at the table.
Late November is a good time to clean them, before the decorations go up and the lounge room fills with boxes. If the windows are high or there are a lot of them, our window cleaning team does the glass, the tracks and the flyscreens.
Glass and Screens
- Vacuum the door tracks before you wash the glass
- Take the flyscreens down and hose them off on the lawn
Outdoor Setting
- Brush the cobwebs out from under the table and the pergola
- Wash the chairs and give the cushions a day in the sun
A Six-Week Plan
Here is one way to spread a pre-Christmas clean across the weekends from the Pageant to Christmas. Swap the weeks around to suit your own calendar. The only fixed point is the fridge, which goes last.
- Pageant weekend (14-15 November): clear and clean the spare room, and wash the spare linen.
- 21-22 November: the guest bathroom, shower screen and grout included.
- 28-29 November: windows, door tracks, flyscreens and the outdoor setting.
- 5-6 December: dust the high places, wash the skirting boards and vacuum under the furniture, then put up the tree.
- 12-13 December: the oven and the kitchen cupboards. Our oven cleaning guide goes through it step by step.
- 19-20 December: clear out the fridge, move the drinks to an esky and check the temperature.
That leaves Christmas week for a vacuum and a quick wipe of the kitchen and bathroom, and nothing bigger.
Book a Pre-Christmas Clean
Six weekends of jobs is a lot to find time for in the busiest part of the year. Our Adelaide team covers the city and inner east, the Hills, the western beaches and the northern suburbs, with fully insured and police-checked cleaners. Tell us which rooms need doing and we'll send a personalised quote.
Spare Room and Bathroom
Ready for visitors
Kitchen
Benches, cupboards and behind the appliances
Windows
Glass, tracks and flyscreens
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.When is the Adelaide Christmas Pageant in 2026?
Saturday 14 November 2026. The Pageant sets off from King William Street at South Terrace. It was first held in 1933, as John Martin's Children's Christmas Parade.
Q.When should I book a pre-Christmas clean?
Book it in November and aim for a date in the first half of December. That keeps the big clean away from the cooking and the visitors, and leaves Christmas week for a quick tidy.
Q.How cold should the fridge be for Christmas food?
The Food Safety Information Council says to use a fridge thermometer and check the fridge stays at 5°C or below, the colder the better. Moving drinks out to an esky or a laundry sink full of ice means the fridge door is opened less, which helps it hold that temperature.
Q.What does a pre-Christmas deep clean cover?
Our deep cleaning goes room by room and takes in the hard-to-reach places a regular clean leaves for later. Before Christmas most people ask for the spare room, the bathrooms and the kitchen. Tell us which rooms and jobs matter most and we'll send a personalised quote.
