A move out cleaning checklist for Georgia renters

A move out inspection is not a general impression of the property. It is a list and the person walking through has walked through a lot of units. They open the cabinet under the sink, they pull the crisper drawer out of the refrigerator, they run a finger along the closet shelf and they look at the base of the toilet. If you clean for that list rather than for the look of the room, you have done the job.

Cleaning is one part of what a landlord assesses. Damage, unpaid balances and normal wear are judged separately and no cleaner can make a commitment about a decision your landlord makes.

Do these things first, before any cleaning

1. Find the walkthrough time, not the lease end date. They are often different and only one is the deadline
2. Empty the property completely, including the garage, the attic access and every closet
3. Remove all trash and anything left for disposal, since a cleaner will not haul it
4. Confirm the utilities stay on until after the walkthrough, because the job needs water, power and light
5. Photograph every room once it is empty and before it is cleaned
6. Read the inspection checklist your landlord or agent gave you, if there is one

The photographs matter more than most renters expect. An empty room photographed before cleaning and again after gives you a record of the condition you handed the property back in. It costs five minutes and it is the only evidence you will have if a deduction is disputed later.

Kitchen

• Inside the oven, including the racks, the door glass and the drawer beneath it
• Inside and behind the refrigerator, including the shelves, drawers, seals and drip tray
• Inside every cabinet and drawer, including the corners and the back edge
• The top of the upper cabinets and the top edge of the doors
• The range hood face and the filter
• The wall and backsplash behind the range where spatter lands
• Inside the dishwasher, including the door seal and the filter
• Under the sink, including the cabinet floor where leaks leave marks
• The counters, the sink, the faucet and the drain surround
• The floor, including the edges and the gap beside the appliances

The oven and the refrigerator are the two items most likely to be checked and the two most likely to be rushed. Both need product and dwell time rather than force, so start them before anything else in the kitchen and come back to them.

Bathrooms

• The toilet inside, outside, behind the seat hinges and around the base where it meets the floor
• The shower or tub, including the grout, the caulk line and the door track
• Shower glass treated for mineral film rather than wiped
• The exhaust fan cover, which collects dust and is almost never cleaned
• The vanity inside and out, including the drawer runners
• The mirror, the light fixture and the switch plate
• The floor, including behind the toilet and along the baseboard

Bedrooms, living areas and hallways

• Closet shelves, rods and floors in every room
• Baseboards, door frames, trim and both faces of every interior door
• Window interiors, sills and the tracks the windows slide in
• Ceiling fan blades, light fixtures and vent covers
• Switch plates, outlet covers and door handles
• Wall marks, spot cleaned where they lift without taking paint with them
• Floors vacuumed and mopped, including the edges along the baseboard

Window tracks are the item renters skip most often and inspectors check most reliably. They collect grit, dead insects and pollen, they are visible the moment a window is opened and they take a vacuum crevice tool and a damp cloth rather than any skill.

The order to work in

Work top to bottom through the whole property rather than finishing one room at a time. Fixtures, fans and vents first, then trim, frames and doors, then cabinet and closet interiors, then appliances, then floors on the way out. Cleaning a room completely and then dusting a ceiling fan in the next room puts the dust back on the floor you already did.

Start the slow chemistry early. Oven product, grout and any hard water treatment go on at the beginning so they work while you handle the rest of the property. Coming back to them is faster than standing over them.

Georgia specific conditions to expect

Red clay is the local problem. It gets into entry flooring, grout lines and carpet edges, it is fine enough to sit inside an unsealed grout line and it stains light tile. It needs a brush and a product rather than a mop and it is worth starting on the entry areas early because they may need a second pass.

Pollen is the seasonal one. If you are moving out between late February and May, expect a yellow film on every sill, track and entry floor and expect more of it to arrive while you are cleaning. Do sills and tracks late in the sequence rather than early.

Humidity produces the third: a film on bathroom ceilings, the top of shower walls and along caulk lines, particularly in units with an interior bathroom and a weak fan. It cleans off completely and it is on nearly every inspection list.

When to hand it to someone else

A move out clean on an empty two bedroom apartment is a long day for one person and most of a day for two. If the walkthrough is tomorrow, if the oven has not been cleaned in the length of the tenancy or if you are also driving a truck across the state that afternoon, the arithmetic usually favors booking it out. Our move in and move out cleaning is built around the list above and works to the walkthrough time rather than the lease date.

If you are moving into somewhere rather than out, the same logic applies in reverse. The day before your furniture arrives is the only day the cabinets are empty and the closets are reachable, which makes it the right day for a deep cleaning of the new property. Cleaning around furniture afterward costs you that access permanently.