However clean a property looks on handover, it has been lived in by someone else, and the previous occupier cleaned to their standard rather than yours. Move-in cleaning is about resetting it to a baseline you have set.
It is also purely practical. Once furniture is in place, half of the property becomes difficult to reach, and carpets are far cheaper and easier to clean before a single box is carried across them.
The short version
- Clean before the furniture arrives, not after
- Kitchens and bathrooms are where previous-occupant grime hides
- Carpets should be cleaned while the rooms are empty
- Check extractors, seals and drains, not just surfaces
- Change the locks and the toilet seats, and clean what you cannot see
Why empty matters so much
In an empty property every wall, floor and corner is reachable. Skirtings can be done in one pass, carpets can be cleaned wall to wall with no furniture to work around, and cupboard interiors can be emptied and dried before anything goes into them.
Carpet cleaning in particular is faster and produces a better result in an empty room. There is no furniture to protect, no risk of dye transfer from feet, and drying is quicker with clear airflow.
The kitchen first
Cupboard and drawer interiors should be washed and dried before anything is put away. Crumbs, spills and the film left by cooking vapour are usually present even in a property that looks tidy.
Appliances that stay with the property deserve attention: the oven interior and door glass, the fridge seals, the washing machine door gasket and detergent drawer, and the dishwasher filter. Those four are where smells come from.
- Cupboard and drawer interiors, plus the tops of wall units
- Oven, hob, extractor filter and splashback
- Fridge, freezer and their seals
- Washing machine gasket, filter and drawer
- Sink, waste, overflow and behind the taps
Bathrooms
Descale everything: taps, shower head, screen and tiling. Then look at the parts that indicate whether the room has been ventilated properly, because that tells you what to expect later.
Check the extractor actually pulls air, look at the state of the silicone seals, and clear the shower and basin wastes. Discoloured or lifting silicone is a replacement job and is worth doing at the start rather than living with it.
Floors, carpets and smells
Carpets left by a previous occupant often hold odour even when they look acceptable, particularly where there have been pets or smokers. Hot water extraction with an appropriate treatment deals with most of it, and doing it before you move in means the property smells like yours from day one.
Where the smell is coming from beneath the carpet rather than the pile itself, cleaning the surface will not resolve it. We will tell you if that is the case rather than take a booking that cannot succeed.
The things people forget
There is a short list of items that almost never get cleaned during a handover and that are quick to deal with while the property is empty.
- Light switches, sockets, door handles and door tops
- Radiators, including behind them
- Window frames, sills and the drainage channels
- Extractor grilles in the kitchen and bathroom
- Under the stairs, loft hatch surrounds and airing cupboard shelves
- Bin store area and any outside tap or drain gully
Sequencing it around the move
Ideally the clean happens the day before the removal van. That gives carpets overnight to dry and means you are unpacking into a finished property rather than working around a cleaner.
If completion and moving happen on the same day, prioritise the kitchen, the bathrooms and the bedroom carpets. Everything else can be handled once you are in.