Clean the house while it’s empty, after you get the keys and before the moving truck arrives. Start with the inside of the kitchen cabinets and drawers, then the bathrooms, the refrigerator and the oven, and do the floors last. Once the boxes are in, every one of those jobs takes twice as long.
Why clean a house before you move in?
Because it will never be this easy again. An empty house has nothing in the cabinets, nothing on the floors and nothing in front of the baseboards, so every surface can be reached in one pass.
Even a house that was left in good shape has had a move-out happen in it: furniture dragged across the floors, dust from behind the appliances, the inside of the cabinets that nobody wiped. A home handed over “clean” by the sellers or the last tenants is clean by their standard, and you’ll be putting your dishes on those shelves.
What should you clean first in a new house?
The places your things go into, before the things arrive. The inside of the kitchen cabinets and drawers come first, because the dishes and food are usually the first boxes opened.
The order that works for an empty house:
- Kitchen cabinets and drawers, inside. Shelves, corners and the drawer tracks.
- Refrigerator and oven, inside. You’ll want the fridge the first evening.
- Bathrooms. Toilets, tubs, showers and the inside of the vanities, before the towels and toiletries go in.
- Closets and shelving. Before anything gets hung up.
- Baseboards, door frames, light switches and vent covers. Easy now, hard once the furniture is against the wall.
- Floors, last. Vacuumed and mopped edge to edge, so they’re clean when the first box comes through the door.
How much does a move-in clean cost?
It’s the same job as a move-out clean, and it’s priced the same way. For an empty three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house in average condition, a move-in clean runs $315 to $400.
The range depends on the size of the house and how it was left:
| Home | Move-in clean, empty |
|---|---|
| Two-bedroom patio home or condo, average condition | $250 to $320 |
| Three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house, average condition | $315 to $400 |
| Three-bedroom house that needs a real reset | $345 to $435 |
| Five-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath house with a family room and an office | $730 to $925 |
It costs more than a regular cleaning because the inside of every cabinet, closet and appliance is part of it. Why move-out cleaning costs more than a regular clean explains where the time goes.
When should you schedule a move-in clean?
Between getting the keys and the moving truck, with the water and power already on. If the truck comes the day after closing, book the clean for the closing day or ask the movers for a later window.
If you’re moving from out of state, book it as soon as you have a closing or lease date. The estimator gives you the range from wherever you are now, without anyone visiting first. If you won’t be in town yet on cleaning day, say so when you book, and plan who can let the cleaners in.
A newly built house is a different job. The fine construction dust that settles on every surface needs its own process, which is what post-construction cleaning is for.
What should you do yourself in the first week?
The things only an owner or a tenant should do. A clean house still needs a few checks that aren’t cleaning.
- Change the furnace filter. You don’t know when it was last done.
- Run the dishwasher and the washing machine once empty, with the cleaning cycle if they have one.
- Test the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
- Find the main water shutoff and the breaker panel before you need them.
- Put a mat inside every door that leads outside. Columbus winters bring road salt in on every pair of boots.
What happens after move-in?
Once the boxes are gone, a new house settles into the same rhythm as any other. A home that got a move-in clean is already reset, so it can usually start straight with regular visits every week, two weeks or month. Deep clean or recurring cleaning: which one first? covers how to tell.
We clean homes across 27 communities and 51 ZIP codes in Delaware and Franklin counties, from our office in Lewis Center. Areas we serve has the full list, and recurring cleaning has how the regular visits work once you’ve settled in.
