Move-out cleaning: what actually gets checked.

Clean after the furniture is out, not before

Every surface the movers touch gets marked again on the way out, and the floor under a sofa has not been cleaned in years. Cleaning a full apartment and then emptying it means doing it twice.

If you are hiring both a mover and a cleaner, book the clean for the afternoon of the move or the following morning.

The things that actually get inspected

These are the ones that come up again and again.

• Oven and stovetop, including the drip pans and the glass in the door
• Refrigerator — emptied, wiped, and the seals cleaned
• Bathroom grout, shower door tracks and the toilet base
• Inside cabinets and drawers, which people forget entirely
• Baseboards, window sills and light switch plates
• Floors, including the corners and under where the appliances stood
• Walls — scuffs, and the holes where things hung

Nail holes and paint

Small nail holes are usually normal wear. A wall of anchors from a mounted television is not, and that one surprises people.

Patch and sand before you repaint, and check your lease before painting anything — some require the original colour and some forbid touch-ups entirely, on the grounds that a mismatched patch looks worse than the hole.

Document the empty place

Photograph every room once it is empty and clean, with something showing the date. Do this even if the landlord seems reasonable.

Deposit disputes are decided months later on whoever has evidence. Fifteen minutes of photographs is the cheapest insurance in the whole move.

If you are selling rather than renting

Buyers do a final walkthrough, usually the day of closing, and they are looking for the condition they agreed to buy. The two that cause problems are things left behind — paint cans, garage shelving, anything in the attic — and appliances that were supposed to stay but did not.

Anything you leave behind that was not in the contract becomes the buyer's problem to dispose of, and it can hold up a closing.