We clean inside every cabinet and closet

An empty house shows every missed spot

Cleaning an empty home is a different job from cleaning one people live in. With the furniture gone, light from bare windows falls straight across the floors and walls. You can see the dust line where a dresser stood and the scuffs behind every door. Nothing is left to hide a missed spot, and whoever gets the keys next will notice it right away. That is why we clean an empty home in a set order.

The work covers places a regular cleaning never needs to reach. We open every cabinet and drawer and wipe the inside, shelf edges included, because crumbs and spilled spices collect in the corners. We clean inside the oven and the fridge, then the vent hood filter over the stove. In the bathrooms we scrub the tub and shower walls, then the base of the toilet where grime builds up. Closet shelves and floors get cleaned as well, since those are among the first doors the next person opens.

When we finish, you can run a finger along the top of a door frame and pull it back clean. The kitchen smells like nothing at all, which is what an empty kitchen should smell like. We do the whole job with safe, green products, so the home is ready for small children and pets on the first night. Nobody has to air out a harsh chemical smell before the boxes come in.

• Cabinets and drawers cleaned inside and out
• Inside of the oven and fridge cleaned
• Tubs and shower walls scrubbed
• Baseboards and door frames wiped by hand
• Floors vacuumed and mopped as the last step

We clean from the ceiling down

Order matters more in an empty house than in a lived-in one. We start with the ceiling fans and light fixtures, since anything up high falls as it is wiped. Next come the tops of door frames and windowsills, then the light switches and door handles that every hand has touched. Cabinets and counters follow. Appliances and bathrooms come after that, and the floors are always the last thing we clean before we back out of the room.

Skip that order and you end up cleaning the same surface twice. Dust knocked off fan blades lands on a counter that was already wiped. Mop a floor before it is vacuumed and the loose grit turns into gray streaks along the grout. A fridge that sat unplugged with the door shut can hold a sour smell. We wipe it out and prop the door so it can air. Small steps like that decide whether a room is clean or only looks clean from the doorway.

The floors get the most care because they take the most abuse on moving day. We vacuum first, and we get into the corners and along the baseboards where dust piles up against the wall. Then we mop hard floors with a damp mop, never a soaked one. That matters on hardwood and on the laminate in many newer homes, because standing water seeps into the seams and lifts the edges. Carpet gets slow, overlapping passes so the grit down in the pile actually comes up.

Red clay comes in on moving day

Around Kernersville, the soil under the lawn is Piedmont red clay, and it does not stay outside on moving day. Work boots and dolly wheels carry it in through the front door all day. On carpet it leaves an orange stain that a vacuum alone will not lift, and on tile it packs into the grout. That is why a move out clean works best after the last box is out of the house.

Spring brings a second problem. Pine and oak pollen coats everything in a yellow film. A front door propped open for the movers lets it drift across the floors and onto every windowsill. Wiped with a dry cloth, pollen just smears. We use a damp cloth and rinse it often. Then we clean out the window tracks, where pollen packs in with grit and dead bugs. Tracks that looked fine in winter are often yellow by April.

Summer humidity is hard on a house nobody is living in. With the air conditioning off, or set high to save money, the rooms can start to smell musty. Mildew shows up first on bathroom caulk and the shower ceiling, then inside closets on outside walls. We check those spots on every move clean and wipe them down. If mildew has stained the caulk itself, we will tell you, because stained caulk has to be replaced.

Older and newer homes need different care

Kernersville has plenty of brick ranch houses built over crawl spaces. Many have hardwood floors with an older finish that dulls when it gets too much water. The heating and air vents sit in the floor, so dust and crumbs fall straight into the ducts. We lift each vent cover to wash it, then vacuum as far into the opening as the hose will reach. Otherwise, the first time the heat comes on, that dust blows back across the clean floors.

Newer two-story homes in the subdivisions around town bring different problems. Builders often use flat paint on the walls, and flat paint rubs shiny or lifts off if you scrub it hard. We spot clean scuffs with a soft cloth and light pressure, and we stop as soon as the wall starts to look glossy. Carpeted stairs take time, because dirt packs in where the carpet wraps over the front edge of each step.

Apartments and townhomes usually come with a move out checklist from the property manager. Most of those lists name the same spots: inside the oven, the drip pans, the bathroom fan cover and the blinds. Kitchen blinds carry a sticky layer of cooking grease, and bedroom blinds carry dust. Each needs a different approach, and a dry duster on greasy slats only spreads the grease around. If you have the checklist, send it with your estimate request and we will work from it.

Move in cleaning starts with the kitchen

When you move in, the last owner or tenant may already have cleaned. That clean was meant to pass a walk-through, and it rarely reaches the inside of a drawer. We start with the kitchen, because that is where you unpack first. Every cabinet and drawer that will hold your plates gets wiped inside. The fridge gets cleaned before any of your food goes in it. If you use shelf liner, it goes down on clean wood instead of someone else's crumbs.

A move out clean is aimed at the person who inspects the home after you leave. For a tenant that is the landlord or property manager. For a seller it is the buyer on the final walk-through before closing. Both tend to check the inside of the oven and the floor where the washer and dryer stood. That laundry floor is often thick with lint and detergent drips, and it is easy to forget once the machines are on the truck.

Keep the water and power on for the clean, since we rinse cloths as we go and need light to spot streaks. If the utilities shut off on your last day, the clean has to happen before that. It also goes better with the house fully empty, because nobody can clean under a sofa that has not been loaded yet. Give us your move date when you ask for an estimate, and we will plan the clean around it.