Where a move-out clean fails the walk-through
Most people clean a house they are leaving the way they clean a house they live in: counters, floors, a quick wipe of the bathroom. A walk-through is a different kind of look. The person doing it opens every door, runs a finger along every ledge and checks places that daily cleaning never reaches.
The usual failures are in the same spots. Inside the kitchen cabinets and drawers, where crumbs and shelf liner residue hide. Inside the oven, the refrigerator and the microwave. Baseboards and window sills. The tracks of sliding doors and windows. Behind the toilet, around the tub and shower grout, and the inside of the vanity. Light switch plates and door edges, where hands leave marks.
Move-in cleaning is the other side of the same coin. A home that looks empty still carries whatever the last household left. A clean before the furniture arrives is far easier than one after, because every surface is reachable.
The empty-house order of work
An empty house is cleaned from the top down and from the back to the front, so nothing already clean gets dirty again. We start with the highest things: ceiling corners, vents, light fixtures and the tops of cabinets and door frames. Dust falls, and we want it to land on surfaces we haven't done yet.
Next come the walls and windows, then the inside of every cabinet and closet, working shelf by shelf. Appliances follow: the oven, the stovetop, the refrigerator and the dishwasher, inside and out. Bathrooms are scrubbed and disinfected next, including the tub or shower, the toilet, sinks, mirrors and fixtures. Baseboards come last of the detail work, since they catch whatever fell.
The floors are always the final step. Hard floors are swept and mopped, and carpet is vacuumed, working toward the exit so we aren't walking over finished work. A short final look, room by room, catches anything that was missed. For homes in Monroe, the Lehigh Valley and Northampton County, a Free Estimate comes first, and you can reach us at 484-898-7190.
What to check at the walk-through
Whether you are a tenant, an owner selling or a landlord turning over a unit, the walk-through goes better with a plan. Start at the front door and move through the house in the same order every time, so nothing is skipped. Open every cabinet and drawer, look inside the oven and refrigerator, and check each bathroom last, since that is where problems are most likely to show.
Tenants should compare what they see against the condition they received the home in, and photograph the rooms once they are clean. Owners preparing to sell should look at the places a buyer would look: kitchens, bathrooms, closets and floors. Landlords should check inside appliances and under sinks, where missed cleaning and small leaks both show up.
A clean house is the easiest thing to hand over. If a spot gets missed or something needs another pass, let us know and we will take a look.
