Move Out Cleaning Checklist

All My Sons Moving & Storage has been in the business of helping companies and families relocate local and long-distance for over 30 years. We’ve compiled these moving guides to help our customers make their relocation with ease.

A task that falls on your final move-out checklist is a thorough deep cleaning of your old home or apartment. Once the furniture has vacated the property, there will be hordes of long-lost cat toys, forgotten pens, and devious dust bunnies to deal with before you can turn in your keys and declare this chapter of your life closed.

You can hire a cleaning service if you’ve got the cash, but if you’re pinching pennies on your moving budget then you can roll up your sleeves and get it done the DIY way.

Here’s a comprehensive move-out cleaning checklist.

Even when you’re booking with professional movers, the entire moving process is time-consuming and draining. Right as you’re packing up your boxes, preparing the mop and the dusters might be the last thing you want to be doing. There are a variety of reasons you should either push through or look to hire a professional service.

Performing a big post-move deep clean enables you to:

• Find and Remove All Your Personal Items: Throwing open all the cabinets, closets, and cupboards to start scrubbing might unearth some sneaky items attempting to become an unwelcome house warming gift for the next person moving into your old home. You can reclaim or trash these items as necessary.

• Fulfill a Clause of Your Sales Contract: Most sales contracts in the US ask for a home to be “broom-clean” upon move-out, but some contracts will ask for even more as a condition of the sale. Talk to your real estate agent to ensure you understand how clean the property is required to be before you hand off keys.

• Get Your Deposit Back: Renters often have a clause in their lease that stipulates the property must be clean before the deposit can be returned. Some property managers will recommend or require this be performed by a professional service.

• Be Courteous to the Next Tenants or Owners: Even if you’re not bound by a contract or lease agreement to clean, it’s just plain good human behavior to make sure you leave your last home in great, clean condition. Your home’s next tenants or owners will be delighted when they walk in and find clean floors, polished fixtures, and dusted surfaces.

If you are cleaning yourself, we have a few general cleaning tips to help you work efficiently. You’ll have your old home shining like new in no time.

• Have Your Cleaning Supplies With the Essentials: Separate the items you will need to use to clean such as the vacuum, toilet brush, multi-surface cleaner, and your cleaning rags. These should be packed with the essentials, or the items going on the moving truck last to be unloaded first. 

• Work From Top to Bottom: Start your cleaning as high as possible and work your way to the floor so that if any dust or dirt come raining down, you’ll be able to sweep it all up in one pass. 

• Plan to Finish the Cleaning When the Home is Empty: Even if you start cleaning before you start packing, you should plan to have some cleaning left once all your personal items have been removed. Moving furniture and appliances will unearth areas of your home you haven’t seen or thought about in a while. You could discover items you’ve been searching for like lost socks or spare change. Regardless of whether or not you unearth anything of actual value, don’t put the vacuum away on the moving truck until every last dust bunny has been thrown out.

• Bust Cleaning Boredom: Just because you’re cleaning doesn’t mean you have to be bored to tears. Enlist the help of friends, turn on some upbeat music, or listen to a thrilling audiobook to break up the cleaning monotony. Take regular breaks with fun rewards, and before you know it you’ll be able to declare cleaning done.

The foyer of your old home welcomed all your guests during your stay. Give it a good spruce to welcome the new tenants or owners.

• Doormat: Remove and pack if it’s yours. Shake out and vacuum if it belongs to the home.

• Floor: Mop or vacuum.

• Door: Sanitize door knobs and knockers.

• Entry Mirrors: Clean and shine so that your reflection smiles brightly back at you.

Watch out for festering food particles and grease. Your kitchen contains a number of hidden areas you should give a good scrub. 

• Microwave: Scrub the inside of the microwave and wash the turn-table. 

• Stove: Scrub and sanitize the surface of your stovetop. 

• Oven: Use the self-cleaning feature on the oven and wipe out the ash or scrub the inside of the oven yourself.

• Range Hood: Soak filters in hot water and dish soap. 

• Refrigerator: Wipe down shelves and the front of the fridge. Move the fridge to the side and vacuum up any dust bunnies lingering behind it.

• Sink: Sanitize sink handles, scrub the basin, and scrub the faucets. Make sure the garbage disposal still runs.

• Backsplash: Wipe down and sanitize.

• Countertops: Sanitize and shine.

Bedrooms are for rest and relation. With most of the furniture moved out, there won’t be too many fixtures that need deep-cleaning, but don’t forget to look up and down.

• Floors: Vacuum, sweep, or mop according to the surface.

• Windows: Clean the glass with window cleaner and then open windows and scrub the window tracks. Dust the window sills. 

• Ceiling Fans: Use an old pillowcase or a ceiling fan duster to knock dust off the blades.

• Baseboards: Dust until they shine. 

• Doors: Sanitize all doorknobs and clean scuffs and stains off the door surface.

• Light Switches: Sanitize these, lots of hands touch them.

Your bathroom is an area you might like to keep clean on a regular basis, but don’t neglect this space as you’re moving out. A clean, shining bathroom is a welcoming sight to the owners of your old home.

• Bathtub: Scrub the inside of the tub and the faucets. Check the drain and make sure it is not clogged. 

• Shower: Use shower cleaner to scrub the walls and floor of your shower. Remove the shower curtain.

• Toilet: Clean the inside of the bowl and scrub the top, bottom, and underside of the outside of the toilet. Make sure to sanitize the handle.

• Sink: Clean the inside of the basin and scrub the faucets.

• Cabinets: Dust corners and remove everything you own from the inside of the cabinets. Collect and toss any grim you find inside.

• Mirrors: Use glass cleaner to polish and shine all mirror surfaces.

• Floors: Vacuum, sweep, and mop according to the surface type.

If the appliances in your old home belong to the old home, you should leave them in great shape for the new owner. Finish running your own loads of laundry, and then proceed to clean the washer and dryer.

• Washer: Clean and dust the surface of the machine. Run a cleaning cycle on the washer with hot water and vinegar.

• Dryer: Clean out the lint trap. Clean and dust the surface of the machine.

• Cabinets: Dust corners and remove everything you own from the inside of the cabinets. Collect and toss any grim you find inside.

Outside areas need a little tender care during the move-out too. Put your patio or porch on your final move-out cleaning checklist.

• Doors: Wash off grim. Sanitize handles.

• Floors: Sweep leaves, dirt, and other organic debris into the grass. Pick up any inorganic trash you find and dispose of it properly.

• Windows: Clean the glass with window cleaner and then open windows and scrub the window tracks. Dust the window sills. Remove screens to clean them with soapy water and then reinstall when finished.

Once all the cleaning has been completed, you can confidently hand off your keys to your landlord, real estate agent, or the next owners of your old home. With the cleaning supplies packed with the essentials, you might even want to give your new home a quick clean before you officially move everything in.

Will you be moving houses or apartments soon? You can trust All My Sons Moving & Storage to handle everything from full-service professional packing to the heavy lifting. Local or long-distance, All My Sons can help you get settled no matter where your destination may lie. Click the quote button below to get started on your move.