How an empty home gets cleaned for move-out
Our cleaners work through the rooms in the order below, which only works once the furniture is out and the appliances are cleared. Each room gets the full pass that an occupied home blocks: the back of the cabinet, the floor under where the couch was, the shelf in a closet with nothing hanging off it.
The order of a move-out clean
Top to bottom, and from the back of the home toward the door.
High spots and shelves
Fixtures, frames and closet shelves, from the floor.
Kitchen inside and out
Every cabinet and drawer, the fridge and the oven.
Bathrooms
Tub or shower, toilet, vanity inside and out.
Windows from the inside
Glass, sills and tracks.
Floors, then a last look
Room by room toward the door.
1. A walk-through of the empty rooms
Before anyone opens a cabinet, we walk the home with you or the landlord. Anything the lease flagged, anything the next tenant has asked for, and anything the building wants vendors to know all come up in that walk-through.
2. High to low, with nothing climbed
Light fixtures, the tops of cabinets, the tops of door frames and the shelf above a closet rod all get a pass from the floor, nothing climbed. We do not use ladders, step stools, chairs, tub edges or counters to reach a high spot. Anything that cannot be reached from the floor is left where it is.
3. The kitchen inside and out
Every cabinet opened one at a time, shelves wiped front to back. Every drawer wiped inside and the fronts. The fridge wiped shelf by shelf once emptied, gaskets and drawers included. The oven inside, with the racks out on the counter. The range and the range hood. The sink and the faucet. The one condition on this step is that the appliances have to be emptied before we arrive.
4. Bathrooms top to bottom
The tub or the shower, including the grout lines. The toilet, inside and out, and the floor around the base. The vanity and the medicine cabinet inside and out, with the shelves wiped. The mirror and the light fixture reached from the floor. The floor last.
5. Closets and small spaces
Each closet gets the shelf above the rod wiped the full width, the rod itself wiped, the floor swept and washed, and the walls inside the closet checked for marks that come off with a wipe. A built-in with shelves gets each shelf. Hall closets, linen closets and pantry shelves get the same pass.
6. Windows from the inside, with the walls spot cleaned
Inside glass on every window, with the sills and tracks vacuumed and wiped. Blinds slat by slat where they come down with a cloth. Scuffs and marks on walls, switch plates and doors that come off with a damp cloth, we take off. Painting, patching holes and paint touch-ups are repairs; those belong to the landlord or a painter.
7. Floors last, then a walk-through together
Vacuumed first, including along the baseboards and into the corners. Hard floors mopped. We finish at the door the keys will hand back to and work the rooms out behind us. If you can be there at the end, we walk the empty home together.
| Room | What gets cleaned | What to tell us |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Inside cabinets and drawers, oven, range, fridge, range hood, counters, sink | Whether the fridge and oven can be emptied before we come |
| Bathroom | Tub or shower, toilet, vanity inside and out, mirror, floor | Any surface the landlord or lease asks for a specific product on |
| Bedrooms and closets | Shelves, rods, closet floors, walls inside closets | Whether a staged bed or chest stays for a sale |
| Living room | Light fixtures, sills, floors, inside windows | A built-in or shelving unit that stays |
| Entry and stairs | Trim, baseboards, scuff marks, floors | Front and back doors the movers used |
| Garage or utility area | Shelves, sills, floors | Whether this is included in the clean |
Move-in cleaning before your things arrive
A move-in clean is the same work on the other side of the move: an empty home cleaned top to bottom before the boxes come in. Cabinets, closets, the appliances and the bathrooms are reachable because nothing is in them yet. A move-in clean can come before or after the boxes; we talk through the dates on the call.
When the old place and the new place are both ours to clean, both can be done. The dates get lined up with the keys on the call.
When move-out cleaning fits, and when other work comes first
When this is the right page
The furniture is out, or will be out before we come. The appliances will be empty. The keys go back on a date you already know, or the next tenant is coming in on a date you know. You want every surface in the empty rooms cleaned.
When another service fits
If you still live in the place and the move is weeks away, a deep clean of an occupied home is a better start. If repairs or a remodel left dust behind, dust after repairs comes first, since cleaning finishes once the trades are done. For the carpet, carpet cleaning is a different trade. If the empty unit is in a larger building, apartments and condos covers what the building side changes.
Painting, patching holes and hauling left-behind furniture are different trades; those happen before our visit. The full list of what we clean is on everything we clean.
What the visit covers
Every cabinet and drawer, the inside of the oven, the fridge and the freezer, the range hood, the bathrooms top to bottom, closets and built-ins, inside windows and tracks, spot-cleaned walls and doors, and the floors last. We go over products on the call, including anything the landlord or the lease has named.
What this visit does not include: patching, painting or caulking, carpet shampooing or extraction, hauling furniture or boxes, pest treatment, and disposal of a tenant's old cleaning products. If you have leftover products you cannot pack, San Francisco's household hazardous waste program takes residents' chemicals; the City's page has the details.
From your call to the empty home
- You call us with the address, the day the furniture leaves, the day the keys go back, and anything the lease or the building has asked for.
- We go over products and anything the building needs us to know.
- You get a price and decide.
- The cleaning happens, and we walk the empty rooms with you at the end if you can be there.
San Francisco renters and California's deposit law
About 62 percent of the city's occupied homes are rentals, and about 42 percent of renter households moved in since 2020.
Under California state law, a landlord may use a deposit for cleaning that returns the unit to its cleanliness at move-in, and not for ordinary wear and tear or for conditions that existed before the tenancy. The statute also bars a landlord from charging a tenant for professional carpet cleaning or other professional cleaning unless it is reasonably needed to meet that move-in standard. Since April 1, 2025, California landlords must photograph the unit after the tenant returns it and again after any repairs or cleanings they deduct for; for tenancies starting on or after July 1, 2025, they must also photograph it at move-in.
Our part is leaving the empty home clean. What a landlord agrees to on a deposit is between you and the landlord; see a room by room move-out checklist for what the empty-unit clean reaches, and what sets the price for how the kitchen and the bathrooms show up on the quote.