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New Apartment Cleaning Checklist

Clean the place while it is empty, top to bottom and back to front. It takes about two hours with nothing in the way, and every corner is reachable.

An empty apartment being cleaned before move-in, mop bucket and open windows

Do it before the furniture

The gap between getting the keys and the van arriving is worth protecting, even if it costs you a day. An empty apartment can be cleaned properly in a couple of hours by one person. The same apartment with a bed, a sofa and thirty boxes in it takes a weekend and you still will not get behind the fridge.

A turnover clean by a letting agent is done fast, to a standard of looking clean. That is not the same thing, and your plates and your food are about to go in there.

The order that stops you cleaning twice

Gravity decides the order. Dust and drips fall, so everything high happens before everything low, and floors are always last. Within the floors, work away from the front door so you never walk back across wet.

Stage	Where	What it covers
1. High and dry, everywhere	Whole apartment	Light fittings, tops of door frames, ceiling corners, extractor grilles, curtain rails. Dust falls, so all of it happens before you wet anything. Do every room in one lap.
2. Kitchen, wet	Kitchen	Inside every cupboard and drawer, then the fridge, the oven, the hob, and the sink and taps last. Cupboards before appliances, so drips land on floor you have not cleaned yet.
3. Bathroom, wet	Bathroom	Cistern and seat hinges, sink overflow, taps, tiles and grout, the shower head, the drain, then the bowl last with its own cloth that goes in the bin.
4. Everything at hand height	Whole apartment	Windows and sills, window tracks, radiators, skirting boards, door handles, light switches, sockets, and inside every wardrobe. This is the pass people skip.
5. Floors, back to front	Whole apartment	Vacuum the whole place, then mop from the corner furthest from the front door outward. You leave onto floor you never walk on again.

What the last clean always missed

Inside kitchen cupboards and drawers — A turnover clean does the fronts. Crumbs, old liner paper and the odd dead insect live inside, and your plates are about to go in there.
The fridge seal and the drip channel — The rubber gasket holds mould in its folds and the channel at the back of the shelf holds standing water. Both are ten seconds each and always skipped.
Extractor filter and hob rings — Grease that has been baked on by the last tenant becomes your smoke alarm going off in week two.
Window tracks and the runner channel — Grit and dead flies. A dry brush and then a damp cloth. Worth it because you open those windows all summer.
Behind the toilet and the base of it — The one square foot no turnover clean has ever reached.
Washing machine drawer and rubber door seal — If the flat comes with one, pull the drawer right out and wipe under the seal before you run a load of your own clothes.
Under the sink — Leftover bottles and a sticky ring. Empty it, wipe it, and it becomes your best storage.

Photograph everything while it is empty

This is the part that pays you back a year later. Before anything comes in, walk the apartment with your phone and record the condition of a place you have not lived in yet. An empty room photographs honestly.

Every room, wide, from two corners.
Close-ups of every mark: scuffed skirting, chipped worktop, stained carpet, cracked tile, marks on the walls.
Inside the oven and the fridge, before you clean them.
Windows, frames and any damp or mould in the corners.
The meter readings, gas and electric, with the serial number visible.
Keys, and how many of each you were given.

Email the whole set to yourself and to the landlord or agent on day one, then attach the same photos to your inventory form. That dated record is what makes getting your deposit back a short conversation, and it is the same reason the move-in day order matters.

What to have in the car

Bring	What it is for
Roll of bin bags	There will be more to throw out than you expect, and no bin yet.
Two packs of cloths, different colours	One colour for kitchen, one for bathroom. Do not let them mix.
All-purpose spray and a bathroom spray	Two bottles covers ninety per cent of the job.
Cream cleaner or baking soda	For the sink, the hob and anything with a ring on it.
Rubber gloves and a scrubbing sponge	You will be putting your hands somewhere unpleasant within the first ten minutes.
Kitchen roll and a squeegee	Windows and mirrors, streak free, with no bucket.
Mop, bucket and a vacuum	Borrow if you have to. Sweeping a hard floor leaves a haze you will notice for a week.
Toilet roll and hand soap	Not cleaning supplies. Still the two things everyone forgets on move-in day.

Keep it all in one box and label it, because it is the box you need first and the one that always ends up at the bottom.