A Move-Out Cleaning Checklist for Renters and Landlords

The moving truck is packed, the keys are on the counter, and you have one more job: leaving the place clean enough that nobody argues about it later. Anyone who's moved out of a rental knows how easy it is to run out of energy at exactly this point. The fridge is empty, the carpet is dusty, and the bathroom looks worse once the shelves are bare.

A tenant handing back a unit and a landlord about to list it need the same thing: a clear checklist that keeps the work from sprawling. This one follows the order most cleaners use, top to bottom and back to front, so you're not re-doing anything you've already finished.

Start with the empty rooms, top to bottom

Before any cleaning begins, make sure everything you own is out, including the stuff in closets, the garage and under the sinks. Cleaning around leftover items wastes time. Then work from the highest surfaces down: ceiling corners and cobwebs, light fixtures, tops of doors and frames, shelves, and finally baseboards. Gravity does the rest. Dust you knock down will land on the floor, and the floor is the last thing you'll do.

Open the closets and wipe the shelves and rods. Wipe light switches, outlet covers and door handles, since those collect fingerprints more than anything else in a house. Check window sills and tracks, where dust and dead bugs tend to collect.

The kitchen is where deposits are won or lost

Ask a landlord what they look at first when they walk through, and the answer is usually the kitchen and the bathrooms. The kitchen has the most places for neglect to hide.

• Empty every cabinet and drawer, then wipe the inside. Crumbs, shelf liner residue and sticky rings from bottles are the usual finds.
• Wipe the cabinet fronts and handles, where cooking grease collects.
• Clean the counters and the sink, including around the faucet base and the drain.
• Clean the outside of the appliances. If you're comfortable with it, clean the inside of the fridge and oven too, and leave the fridge door propped open.
• Wipe the stovetop, the hood and the backsplash.
• Sweep and mop the floor last, including along the edges where the cabinets meet the floor.

The inside of cabinets and drawers deserves special attention. It's the part most people skip, and it's the part a landlord or a new tenant opens first. Alithace Cleaners' move-out cleaning includes the interior cabinets and drawers for exactly that reason.

Bathrooms: the details that show

Bathrooms are small, but they take longer than people expect. Soap scum, hard water and mildew all show up in a bare bathroom with nothing to distract the eye.

• Scrub the shower or tub, the walls around it and the glass or curtain track.
• Clean the toilet inside and out, including the base and behind the seat hinges.
• Clean the sink and the counter, then the mirror last so it's streak-free.
• Wipe the inside of the vanity cabinets and drawers.
• Empty and wipe the medicine cabinet.
• Clean the exhaust fan cover if you can reach it.
• Mop the floor, finishing at the door so you don't walk over wet spots.

Floors come last

Vacuum carpet and rugs first, working toward the door, and vacuum the edges where the carpet meets the wall. On hard floors, sweep or vacuum before you mop, because mopping over grit just pushes it around. Hardwood and vinyl plank each have their own preferred cleaning products, so use something gentle if you don't know what the floor is made of, and don't soak it.

Floors go last because you'll be walking back and forth with supplies and kicking dust off the walls all day. Do them as you leave and you won't have to do them twice.

What landlords and property managers typically check

In general, a walk-through comes down to a handful of questions. Is anything left behind? Are the kitchen and bathrooms clean? Are the cabinets and drawers empty and wiped? Are the floors clean? Are there marks or damage beyond ordinary wear? Rules about deposits and what counts as normal wear vary by lease, so read yours and ask your landlord if you aren't sure. A tidy, well-cleaned unit also makes the next step easier for the landlord, whether that's listing photos or a new tenant's move-in.

If you're a landlord, a clean unit photographs better and shows better. A property manager turning several units can save real time by handing the full list to a cleaning crew rather than doing it themselves between showings.

When it makes sense to hand it off

If you're moving across town while also finishing a job, packing a truck and wrangling kids, the last day isn't the time to scrub a shower. Move-out cleaning exists for that. Alithace Cleaners' service covers full kitchen cleaning, bathroom sanitization, floor cleaning and interior cabinets and drawers, and it's set up for tenants, landlords, property managers and real estate listings in Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene, Hayden, Rathdrum, Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake. The team brings its own supplies and equipment, and you don't need to be home, so you can hand over the keys and leave access instructions.

You can read more on the Move-Out Cleaning page, or book online. If you'd rather talk it through, call (208) 776-9022 Monday through Saturday, 8 AM to 7 PM, or email info@alithace.com.