Moving In or Out in Roseville: A Room-by-Room Move-Out Cleaning Checklist

A move has a way of eating the last few days. The truck is loaded, the boxes are out, and then you stand in an empty house that is dustier than you expected, with a walk-through coming up. Cleaning an empty home is a different job from cleaning a lived-in one, because everything the furniture was hiding is suddenly visible. This checklist goes room by room so nothing gets missed. It works the same for a home you're leaving and one you're about to move into.

Before you start: get everything out first

Clean after the last box is gone. Cleaning around stacks of boxes means cleaning twice. Once the rooms are empty, open every closet, cabinet and drawer, and look at the floors from the doorway while the light comes in at an angle. Side light shows dust, scuffs and marks that straight-on light hides.

Work from the top of each room to the bottom. Dust falls, so ceiling fans, light fixtures and vents come before baseboards, and baseboards come before floors. Floors are always the last thing you touch in a room.

Kitchen

• Empty and wipe the inside of every cabinet and drawer, including the corners where crumbs collect.
• Wipe cabinet fronts and handles, especially around the stove where grease builds up.
• Clean the countertops and the backsplash.
• Clean the sink and faucet, and wipe around the base of the faucet where water spots gather.
• Wipe the outside of the oven, range and dishwasher, plus the inside of the refrigerator and microwave if they stay with the home.
• If appliances were moved, check the floor and wall where they stood.

The kitchen is where most walk-throughs slow down, so it's worth the extra attention.

Bathrooms

• Scrub the tub or shower, including the walls, the base and any glass door or track.
• Clean the toilet inside and out, including the base and the wall behind it.
• Clean the vanity, sink and faucet, and wipe the mirror.
• Empty and wipe the medicine cabinet and the vanity drawers.
• Look closely at grout lines and corners, where soap residue and hard water spotting show up.
• Wipe the baseboards, then mop the floor right up to the edges.

Bedrooms and closets

• Wipe closet shelves and rods, and vacuum the closet floor.
• Dust ceiling fans, light fixtures and vents.
• Wipe doors, door frames and light switches, where fingerprints collect.
• Wipe baseboards all the way around the room.
• Check walls for scuffs and small marks, and see which ones wipe off.
• Vacuum carpet, or sweep and mop hard floors.

Living areas, hallways and the entry

Open rooms show every mark, and these spaces often have the most baseboard to cover. Wipe windowsills and window tracks, check the corners for cobwebs, and wipe switch plates and door handles. In the entry, wipe the door and its frame and clear out the threshold, because that's where the last few days of foot traffic ended up.

Floors come last

Vacuum first, including the edges and corners, then mop the hard floors. Start at the far end of the house and work toward the front door so you're never walking back over a floor you've finished. If you're still carrying things out, do one last pass at the exit once the final trip is done.

Moving in? Clean before the boxes arrive

The same checklist works in reverse. The previous owner or tenant may have cleaned, but standards differ, and it's far easier to clean cabinets, closets and bathrooms while they're empty than after your things are inside them. Having it done before move-in day means your first night in the new place starts with clean drawers and a bathroom you can use right away.

Or hand the list to someone else

Move-in and move-out cleaning is one of our three services. It's a detailed clean of an empty home that covers the kitchens, bathrooms, floors and surfaces, with attention to detail throughout. The Move-In / Move-Out page under Services has the overview.

If you'd like to know what's covered for your specific home, call or text us at (916) 833-3316 for a free estimate. It helps to tell us the move date, how many bedrooms and bathrooms the home has, and whether it's already empty. That's the same information you used to walk through this checklist, so you probably have it in your head already.