What Does a Move-In Cleaning Include?

Move-in cleaning includes full sanitization of every surface in your new home, inside all cabinets and drawers, inside all appliances (upon request), detailed bathroom deep cleaning, and thorough floor care throughout — all before your furniture arrives. It’s essentially a deep cleaning with an added focus on sanitization, because you’re inheriting a space where strangers lived before you.

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Move-in cleaning starts at $250 for a one-bedroom apartment and takes three to five hours depending on home size and condition. The goal is establishing a clean, sanitized baseline that’s truly yours before you unpack.

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Why Move-In Cleaning Matters

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The previous tenant’s cleaning — or the landlord’s cleaning crew — may not meet your standards. And even if the unit looks clean on the surface, there are areas that standard turnover cleaning typically misses: inside upper cabinets, behind toilet bases, refrigerator shelving, oven interiors, and window tracks.

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Moving into a new home without proper cleaning means putting your dishes in cabinets that haven’t been sanitized, cooking on surfaces you haven’t verified are clean, and sleeping in rooms that carry the previous occupant’s dust and residue. For most people, that awareness lingers and creates discomfort that a proper move-in clean eliminates entirely.

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Complete Move-In Cleaning Checklist

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Kitchen

Every cabinet and drawer wiped and sanitized — shelves, drawer bottoms, and interior walls. Countertops sanitized. Inside the oven cleaned (upon request). Inside the refrigerator cleaned — every shelf, drawer, and compartment (upon request). Inside the microwave and dishwasher. Sink and faucet scrubbed and sanitized. Stovetop and range hood cleaned. Backsplash wiped. Appliance exteriors cleaned and polished.

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Bathrooms

Toilet deep cleaned inside and out — bowl, seat, exterior, base, and behind. Shower and tub scrubbed with attention to grout lines. Sink, vanity, and faucet sanitized. Mirror cleaned. Medicine cabinet or storage cabinets wiped inside. Exhaust fan cover cleaned. Floor thoroughly mopped including behind toilet and around fixtures.

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Bedrooms and Living Areas

All surfaces dusted and wiped. Inside all closets — shelves, rods, and flooring cleaned. Window sills and tracks cleaned. Light fixtures dusted. Baseboards wiped throughout. Light switches and outlet covers wiped. Door handles sanitized.

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Throughout

All floors vacuumed and mopped thoroughly, including inside closets, corners, and along edges. Sliding door tracks cleaned. Interior doors wiped including top edges. All accessible vent covers wiped.

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Move-In vs. Deep Cleaning: What’s Different?

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The services overlap significantly, but move-in cleaning has a distinct focus:

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Sanitization over maintenance. Deep cleaning resets a home you’re already living in. Move-in cleaning sanitizes a home that someone else occupied. The emphasis is on making every surface hygienically clean for a new occupant.

Inside all cabinets and drawers. In deep cleaning, cabinet interiors are an add-on. In move-in cleaning, they’re standard because you need clean cabinets before putting your belongings away.

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Empty home advantage. Move-in cleaning is best done before furniture arrives. An empty home allows the team to access every surface, every corner, and every closet without working around your belongings. The result is more thorough than any cleaning done after you’ve moved in.

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New Construction Move-In Cleaning

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Moving into new construction requires additional attention. Construction dust — fine particles from drywall, sawing, sanding, and installation — settles on every surface, inside every cabinet, and inside every vent. It’s pervasive and different from regular dust.

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Construction dust requires multiple passes. A single cleaning may leave residue that becomes visible once you start using the space. Many new construction buyers schedule an initial post-construction cleaning followed by a second cleaning a week later to catch what settled after the first pass.

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Timing Your Move-In Clean

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Schedule move-in cleaning for the day you get keys, before the movers arrive. This gives the cleaning team an empty unit to work with and gives you a sanitized home to move into.

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If you can’t schedule before moving day, at minimum book the cleaning before you unpack. Having boxes stacked in rooms is workable, though less ideal than an empty unit.