Move-In and Move-Out Cleaning in MetroWest: The Empty-House Checklist

Why an empty house is a different kind of clean

When the furniture is gone, a house shows you everything. Scuffs at the base of the walls, a dusty track under the window, crumbs in the back corner of a drawer. None of it was visible a week ago, and none of it will be reachable again once the new couch or the boxes go in.

That's the reasoning behind move-in and move-out cleaning, and it works in both directions. At SC Cleaning Services we clean old homes after the furniture is taken out, and we clean new homes before the furniture arrives. Either way, the crew gets to work on bare floors and open closets, which is a very different job from cleaning around a lived-in house.

The empty-house checklist

Here's what a full move-in or move-out clean covers in a home around Framingham:

• Inside the cabinets, which is where the crumbs and shelf-liner residue hide
• Inside the closets
• Countertops
• Baseboards
• Doors, including front and sliding doors
• Cobwebs, in corners and around fixtures
• Window sills and blinds
• Light fixtures
• A full bathroom, top to bottom
• Vacuuming carpet, then vacuuming and washing the floors
• The inside of the windows
• The oven and the fridge, if the house has them

A move-out clean goes further than a deep clean you'd book while living in the house, because it's done in an empty home and has to reach the places a new owner or tenant will open on day one. That means cabinets, closets, and appliances get the same attention as the surfaces everyone sees.

Timing it around the truck

The cleaning window is narrow, so plan it before moving day gets close. For a move-out, the clean happens after the last box and the last piece of furniture are out and before you hand over keys or the walkthrough happens. For a move-in, it happens after the previous owner or tenant is gone and before your truck pulls up.

Between those two points there may be only a day or two, sometimes less. If you have a closing date or a lease end, call us as soon as you know it. We'd rather hear about it three weeks ahead than the evening before, and it gives us the best chance of fitting your date. We don't promise a slot until we've talked, because the calendar is the calendar.

If you're listing a house in MetroWest

Sellers in Wellesley, Weston, Newton, and Sudbury sometimes clean twice: once before photos and showings, and again after the furniture leaves. The first one is about presentation. The second is about handing the buyer a house they can walk into without finding anything to complain about.

If you're working with a realtor, ask whether they want the cleaning done before the listing photos or after the last showing. Often the answer is both, and it can make sense to book the empty-house visit early so it isn't competing with everything else on your closing week.

Add-ons worth asking about

The standard list covers the inside of the house. A few extras are available for an additional fee, and you'd need to contact us for costs:

• Professional carpet cleaning
• Cleaning the outside windows
• Sweeping the garage
• Porch and deck cleaning
• Decluttering toys

Carpet is the one we'd look at first in a move. It's far easier to extract a carpet in an empty room than to work around a bed frame, and it makes the biggest visual difference.

What's not included, what to bring, and how to get a number

For safety reasons, areas out of reach of a stepladder, roughly 12 to 15 feet up, aren't part of the clean, and our staff don't carry ladders. We use extendable dusters for those spots. If you want a high fixture or a vaulted ceiling reached, you'd need to have a ladder available.

On supplies, one-time customers can have us bring cleaning products for an additional $45, plus $15 for the rags. Otherwise you provide your own.

Call (508) 816-6286 and tell us the size of the home, whether it's a move-in or a move-out, and the date you need it done. Estimates are free and same-day. They're rough ranges based on what you tell us, so if the house is in worse shape than described, the final number can shift after the work. Details on our move-in and move-out cleaning page lay out the full list if you'd like to check it against your own.