What a move-out clean covers, room by room

The truck is loaded, the keys go back tomorrow, and the place you have lived in for two years is a set of empty rooms with every mark on them visible. Furniture hides a lot. Once it is gone, the baseboards, the cabinet interiors, and the corner of the shower you stopped noticing months ago are all anyone sees.

A move-out clean has a defined scope. Here is what it covers room by room, what it leaves alone, and when in the move it belongs.

Clean after everything is out, not before

An empty home is what makes this service different from a standard clean. Every cabinet interior, closet shelf, and stretch of floor is reachable for exactly one afternoon. Anything still sitting in a room on the day is surface nobody can clean.

So the clean goes after the movers and before the walkthrough. If the truck leaves Friday and the landlord comes Monday, the middle of that is the slot.

Move dates slip, which is worth planning around rather than being surprised by. Book once the date is firm, and tell us if it moves. Rescheduling more than 48 hours ahead costs nothing.

The kitchen, 13 tasks

Thirteen of the 35 tasks on our published 35-point checklist are kitchen tasks, and a move-out covers all thirteen. This is where most of the work in an empty house is.

• Inside every cabinet, drawer, and the pantry, wiped out. On a move-out this is base scope, and it is the largest single difference from any other visit
• Stovetop, range, burners, and control panels
• Exteriors of the microwave, refrigerator, oven, and dishwasher
• Behind and under anything movable, vacuumed and mopped
• Sink, countertops, and backsplash, cleaned and dried
• Cabinet and drawer fronts, light switches, and door handles
• Ceiling fans, light fixtures, vents, and cobwebs out of the corners
• Doors, door frames, and baseboards
• Floors vacuumed, swept, and mopped

The gap behind the refrigerator is the one most people never see until moving day, and it is also the first place a landlord's flashlight goes.

The bathrooms, 13 tasks

Another thirteen, and again a move-out covers all of them.

• Shower and bathtub cleaned and disinfected, with the tile grout scrubbed
• Toilet inside, outside, and around the base
• Sink, countertop, soap dish, mirrors, and glass
• Inside all cabinets and drawers, and inside linen closets with the shelves wiped
• Windowsills, light switches, and handles
• Light fixtures, vents, and cobwebs
• Doors, door frames, and baseboards
• Floors vacuumed, swept, and mopped

Grout is where a Charleston summer shows up. A house that has been closed up between tenants holds its humidity, and the shower is where that lands. Scrubbing grout is part of the scope. Mold is a different job: our cleaners do not treat it, and a property with a real mold problem needs a specialist before any cleaning crew is useful.

Bedrooms, closets, and living areas, 6 tasks

• Inside closets, with the shelves wiped
• Doors, door frames, and baseboards
• Windowsills, and mirrors
• Ceiling fans, light fixtures, vents, and cobwebs
• Light switches, handles, and trash
• Floors vacuumed, swept, and mopped

Three tasks from the standard list drop off here, which is why a move-out is 32 of the 35 rather than all of them. Making beds, dusting personal decor, and vacuuming under couch cushions have nothing to act on in an empty house.

Downtown and in the older Mount Pleasant houses, the door frames and window casings are deeper than they look and hold a surprising amount of dust along the top edge. Original trim is worth a second pass.

What a move-out clean does not include

Eight things are available at booking and are not part of the 32:

• Inside the refrigerator
• Inside the oven
• Inside the microwave
• Inside the washer or dryer
• Interior windows
• Interior vents
• Basement
• A sink full of dishes, hand-washed

Appliance interiors are the ones that catch people out. If your lease names the oven and the refrigerator, add them when you book. Cabinet and drawer interiors are the opposite case: they are already in a move-out, so adding them would mean paying for them twice.

Some of the move-out list is not cleaning at all. Patching nail holes, touching up paint, and replacing a cracked switch plate are repairs, and cleaners do not do repairs. They also do not lift anything over 35 pounds, work above a standard step stool, or handle mold, sewage, biohazards, or pests. If a job needs any of that, it needs a different trade first.

The deposit question, answered honestly

No cleaning company can promise you your deposit back. That decision belongs to your landlord, and it takes in wear, damage, and the lease terms alongside how the place looks.

What a clean does is remove the easy reasons to withhold. Walkthroughs concentrate on the same short list every time: appliance interiors and exteriors, cabinet interiors, bathroom grout, baseboards, and floors. Those are the areas a move-out clean is built around.

Photograph the property yourself once it is clean and empty, before you hand the keys over. A dated set of photos is the cheapest protection available to a tenant, and it costs you ten minutes.

If you are hiring it out

A short video or a few photos of the property sent a couple of days ahead help us scope the job and set the right expectation for what a single visit will achieve. It is a request rather than a requirement, and it does not affect your guarantee.

If something was missed, tell us within 48 hours with a few photos and we will come back and put it right at no charge, scheduled within 7 days.

Booking a move-out clean takes about a minute, and there is no long-term contract attached to it. The rest of the move is hard enough.