Why Clean Before You Unpack
An empty home is the easiest home you will ever clean. Nothing to move, nothing in the cabinets, nothing blocking the baseboards. Once the couch and the boxes are in, the corners and the inside of the cabinets go untouched for a long time.
It also helps later. Take dated photos of each room once it is clean. If there is ever a question about the deposit when you move out, you have a record of how you found it. Our guide to Florida's deposit rules explains the deadlines.
Kitchen
- Inside the oven, the broiler drawer and the range hood
- Inside the fridge: every shelf, drawer and door seal
- Inside the dishwasher: the filter, the walls and the door seal
- Inside and outside every cabinet and drawer, before the dishes go in
- Countertops, backsplash and sink
- The garbage disposal, scrubbed and freshened
Do the cabinets first. Shelf liner and dishes are the first things most people unpack, and once they are in, nobody wipes those shelves again.
Bathrooms
- Shower tile and grout, scrubbed
- Tub or shower surround, detail cleaned
- The toilet: the base, the back, the tank and under the rim
- Inside the medicine cabinet and the vanity drawers
- Caulk lines and the exhaust fan cover
Ready to get started?
Bedrooms and Closets
- Inside every closet: rods, shelves, floors and corners
- Window sills and window tracks
- Ceiling fan blades
- Baseboards, scrubbed by hand
Start with the fan in each room, then work down to the baseboards and the floor last. Our guides to ceiling fans and baseboards walk through each one.
Throughout the Home
- Walls spot cleaned for scuffs and marks
- Light switches and outlet cover plates
- Interior doors and door frames
- All floors, cleaned last
This is the same list our team works through on a move-in or move-out clean.
