Move-out cleaning

This is not a maintenance visit with the sofa pushed aside. Move out cleaners are there to present the shell: inside cabinets if we agreed, inside the fridge and oven if they are on the note, baths down to the tracks, floors to the corners, and closets only when the closet is empty enough to clean. If boxes, a mattress, or a bag of trash still occupy the room, the scope shrinks to what we can reach, and the walkthrough will show the difference.

The empty home

Empty means the floors are visible, the counters are clear, and the hanging rod in the closet is not still holding a wardrobe. A lamp left for the next tenant is fine if we know it stays. A room of donations you hope we will “work around” is not empty. Move out cleaning service time is spent on surfaces, not on sorting a life into keep and discard. If movers finish at noon and the cleaner is booked at one, confirm the truck is actually gone. Overlap is the most common reason a well-planned empty-home clean becomes a partial one.

Houses and apartments both qualify, and they do not clean the same way. A house may have a basement, a garage, and more baseboard than the lease ever mentioned. An apartment move out cleaning has to respect the building: elevator windows, where bulk items are forbidden, and a super who will not hold a freight car because a cleaning crew is early. Tell us the rules when you book. We will not argue with a loading dock that was never reserved.

Cabinets, fridge, and oven

When the scope includes cabinets, we clean inside them: shelves, crumbs, shelf paper you have already removed, and the hinge line. We do not peel contact paper that is stuck as if it were paint, and we do not dispose of food you left “for whoever.” The refrigerator is in scope only if you have emptied it. We wash shelves and bins, wipe the door seals, and clean the cavity. A fridge that still holds jars is a wipe of the outside and a note that the interior was blocked. The oven is the same idea. Cavity, door glass, and racks at the level written in the quote. Racks that need a long soak need a sink and time. We do not restore pitted enamel, and we do not dismantle a gas line.

Dishwashers, microwaves, and range hood screens follow the same rule: named, or not done. Pull-out trash cans and the floor of the cabinet under the sink are included when that cabinet is empty of hazardous bottles. Paint, solvents, and leftover chemicals are not our waste stream. Leave them out of the cabinet and arrange your own disposal. Move out cleaners who are handed a sink full of unknown liquids should stop that cabinet and tell you. That is the correct outcome.

Utilities, access, and what we will not haul

Wet cleaning needs water. Vacuuming and lights need power. If the utility shutoff happens before we arrive, the interior work we can still do shrinks to dry dusting, and the quote no longer matches the day. Leave water and power on through the end of the visit, then shut them off yourself if the lease requires it. We do not call the utility for you, and we do not stay to meet a shutoff technician unless that wait is written and timed. Keys for us are separate from keys for the landlord. A lockbox code, a super, or you at the door all work. Tell us which, and test it. An empty apartment with a dead code is a missed walkthrough, not a small inconvenience.

We will not haul away mattresses, sofas, boxes, paint cans, or bags of clothing. Building bulk-trash rules are yours to follow. If the lease says items go to a dock between certain hours, reserve that dock before we are booked to clean around the pile. Ordinary bagged trash from the clean itself, such as wiped-out debris from an empty cabinet, can go to the bin you name. A truck’s worth of move debris cannot. Move out cleaning is not junk removal. If the home still holds furniture you intend to leave, say so. We clean around listed items. We do not decide what the next tenant inherits.

Who books this, and how the day runs

The sequence is short. Describe the lease deadline, the room count, and whether the fridge, oven, and cabinets are required. A written scope, if offered, is confirmed separately from this website; the form here does not send it. You empty the home, keep utilities on, and clear hazardous leftovers out of the cabinets. A confirmed visit follows the note and leaves the space ready for your inspection. You do the walkthrough. If something on the list was missed, tell us that day, while the unit is still empty and a return is physically possible. A complaint after new tenants have moved in is a different problem, and often an impossible one.

Included when the home is empty

• Floors washed or vacuumed to the corners in every room on the note.
• Baseboards and visible trim in those rooms, now that furniture is gone.
• Inside cabinets and drawers when they are empty and listed.
• Refrigerator interior, seals, and cavity after you have removed food.
• Oven cavity and door at the level the quote describes, racks included only as written.
• Microwave, dishwasher, or hood screen only when each one is named.
• Bathrooms detailed, including tub rims, toilet bases, and shower tracks.
• Interior glass and sills included by name, on the inside.
• Closets cleaned when they are empty enough to enter and they are on the list.
• Switches, handles, and the tops of appliances where a walkthrough hand will go.
• Bagged debris from the clean itself, taken to the bin you identified.
• A list you can carry into the landlord appointment, matching what we were hired to do.

Before the date, and after we finish

Remove food, trash, and personal items the day before if you can. Defrost the freezer early enough that standing water is gone. Pull shelf paper you do not want cleaned around. Reserve the elevator. Leave parking instructions for a building that tows. Confirm water and power stay on. If a painter or a carpet crew is in the unit the same morning, the clean belongs after them, not beside them. Apartment move out cleaning stacked on top of wet paint is how dust returns before the manager arrives.

What stays out: junk hauling, donation runs, utility calls, deposit negotiations, repairs, patching nail holes, and odor treatments that belong to a restorer. Carpet extraction is a separate booking if the lease demands it. We check our work against the empty-home list before we lock up, using the access method you approved. You should check it too, with the lights on and the cabinets open, because that is how the other person will look. Specific misses get corrected while access still exists. Rooms that were never on the quote, including a garage full of leftover lumber, are not a surprise inclusion at the end of the day.