What a move-out clean covers in an empty home
Our cleaners work an empty place in a set order, because an empty home opens up shelves, racks and corners that stay closed when you still live there. The order assumes the furniture is out and the fridge and oven have been emptied. The visit starts with a walk through the rooms, with you or with your notes, so wall marks are flagged and anything the landlord or the building wants done a certain way is agreed before any cleaning starts. Then cabinets and appliances come first and the floors come last.
The order of a move-out clean
Inside the cabinets and appliances first, the bathrooms next and the floors last, once the home is empty.
Cabinets and drawers
Every door and drawer opened, shelves wiped inside and out.
Fridge, oven and microwave
Shelves and racks out where they lift out, insides wiped.
Bathrooms
Glass, tile and fixtures, with the water film taken off.
Floors last
Vacuumed and mopped.
1. Cabinets and drawers, inside and out
Every kitchen cabinet opened one at a time, shelves and drawer boxes wiped front to back, pulls and door fronts gone over. Bathroom vanities and the medicine cabinet the same way. Linen closets and hall closets get the shelf above the rod and every shelf below it, with the rod wiped.
2. The fridge, the oven and the smaller appliances
Fridge and freezer wiped shelf by shelf once ice has been emptied, with the gaskets and the crisper drawers out and done one at a time. The oven inside, with the door glass taken care of and the racks washed and set back. The microwave inside and out, and the dishwasher door and seal.
3. Bathrooms, top to bottom
Shower glass and tile first, with the hard water film wiped off the glass, the chrome and the grout. Grout lines around the tub, the toilet base, the back of the toilet and the vanity. The mirror and the light cover worked from the floor, and the exhaust fan cover wiped.
4. Closets, sills, tracks and blinds
Closet shelves wiped the full width, rods wiped, sills on every window front and back, window tracks vacuumed then wiped out, and blinds slat by slat where they come down with a cloth. Inside glass on every window. We do no outside windows above the ground floor and we do not lean out of a window.
5. Baseboards, door frames, switch plates and outlet covers
A season of shoe scuffs along the baseboards, finger marks around door handles, dust on the tops of door frames, and the thin gray line below each switch plate. Each one wiped. We spot-clean scuffs on walls where they come off cleanly and flag anything that needs a paint touch-up, which belongs to a painter.
6. Floors, last, out toward the door
Vacuumed in each room, along baseboards and into corners. Hard floors mopped. San Diego's code counts streets, curbs and gutters as part of the storm drain system, and Think Blue names mopping among the wash water that must never reach it. We finish at the door the keys will hand back through and work our way out behind us.
| Room | What a move-out clean covers | What to have done before we come |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Cabinets inside and out, counters, sink, stove, backsplash | Cabinets and drawers emptied, fridge and freezer cleared |
| Bathroom | Shower glass and tile, grout, toilet, vanity, mirror, floor | Toiletries and medicine cabinet emptied |
| Bedrooms | Dusting from the floor, sills, tracks, closets, floors | Furniture out, closets emptied, hangers down |
| Living room | Baseboards, door frames, switch plates, floors | Furniture out, nothing left on shelves |
| Appliances | Fridge, oven, microwave, dishwasher door and seal | Shelves, racks and drawers emptied; food out |
| Windows | Inside glass, sills and tracks, blinds within reach | Items off sills and in front of windows |
If more than a few of those rows read like your place, this is the clean to line up.
When move-out cleaning fits, and when another service fits better
When this is the right page
The furniture is out, or will be out before we come. The fridge and the oven have been emptied. The keys go back on a date you already know. You want the shelves, the racks and the corners of an empty home cleaned, and you do not want to spend the last of the move on your hands and knees.
When another service fits
If you still live in the place and the move is weeks off, a deep clean while you still live there is a better start, with a move-out pass later once the rooms are empty. If the new place needs it first, see cleaning a new place before the boxes. If what remains is leftover furniture, boxes or trash, that is a job for a hauler, not for us. If the empty place is in an apartment or a condo building, the way we get in on the day matters as much as the clean, and the building's loading zone, elevator or front desk sorting goes on the call.
What the California deposit law says, and what it does not promise
A move-out touches California Civil Code 1950.5. The standard it sets is plain: a landlord may use the deposit for the cleaning needed to return the unit to the same level of cleanliness it was in at the start of the tenancy.
The same law adds that a landlord cannot charge a tenant for professional cleaning unless it is reasonably necessary to return the place to its condition at the start of the tenancy, not counting ordinary wear and tear. Starting April 1, 2025, the landlord must photograph the unit after the tenant hands it back and before any cleaning or repairs they will deduct for, and again after that work is done. Keeping your own photos of the empty rooms gives you a record of your own.
What the visit covers
Every cabinet and drawer, the inside of the fridge, oven, microwave and dishwasher door, bathrooms top to bottom, closets, inside windows with sills and tracks, baseboards, door frames and switch plates, and the floors last. We go over products on the call, including any the landlord or the condo rules say to use or avoid, and we agree on anything in or out before any cleaning starts. We do not patch, caulk, paint or repair, and we do not haul furniture, boxes or chemicals. Old cleaning products you cannot pack belong at the City's household hazardous waste facility, by appointment and taken there by you.
From the call to the walk-through
- You call with the address, the day the furniture leaves, the day the keys go back, and anything the lease or the building says.
- We go over the rooms, the appliances, products, and how we get in and leave on the day.
- You get a price for the visit and decide.
- The cleaning happens, and we walk the empty rooms with you at the end.
Who moves out of a San Diego home
Move-out cleaning in San Diego lands in houses as well as apartments. Renters occupy 279,312 of the city's 530,412 homes, about 53 percent, and about one renter household in five, 54,546 of them, rents a detached house. About 15 percent of city residents moved in the past year. The service is for renters, landlords and property managers, and the clean is the same whichever side of the lease is placing it.