Moving day is long, and cleaning the place you're leaving usually falls at the very end of it. It's worth doing properly: a rental that's handed back clean gives a landlord far less to object to at the walk-through. Check your own lease for what it asks of you, then work through the home room by room.
Start with the kitchen, because it takes the longest. Clean inside the oven and the refrigerator — and defrost the freezer the day before. Wipe inside every cabinet and drawer once it's empty. Degrease the stovetop, range hood and backsplash, and scrub the sink.
Bathrooms come next. Scrub the tub, shower walls and grout, clean the toilet inside and out including the base, and wipe out the vanity and medicine cabinet. Clean the mirror last so it's streak-free.
In bedrooms and living areas, the work is in everything the furniture was hiding. Wipe baseboards, closet shelves and rods, door frames and light switches. Clean window sills and tracks. Take down any nails or hooks if your lease asks you to.
Leave floors for last, working your way out of each room: vacuum carpets, including the edges and inside closets, then sweep and mop hard floors.
Before you hand over the keys, walk through with your phone and take photos of every room, the inside of the oven and refrigerator, and the bathrooms. It's a simple record of the condition you left the home in.
If that list is more than you have time for in the middle of a move, we can do it for you. Hefziba Cleaning does move-in and move-out cleanings across Suffolk County, Long Island and Brooklyn. Call (631) 235-8832 for a free estimate.