Guide
Move-out cleaning,
deposit intact.
What property managers typically look for at the final walkthrough — and the handful of places that most often cost people part of their deposit.
Read your lease first
Everything below is what inspections commonly cover. Your lease is what actually governs, and it may name specific requirements — professional carpet cleaning with a receipt is a common one in Northern Virginia rentals, and no amount of vacuuming substitutes for it if the lease demands a receipt.
Check the lease, then use this.
Kitchen
Where deposits are usually lost.
- Inside the oven, including the racks and the door glass
- Inside the refrigerator and freezer — emptied, defrosted, wiped, left open if it’s being switched off
- Inside every cabinet and drawer, including the corners
- Range hood and filter
- Dishwasher interior, including the filter and seal
- Counters, backsplash, sink and taps — including the drain
- Behind and beside the stove and refrigerator where they pull out
Bathrooms
Second most common deduction.
- Toilet inside, outside, base and behind
- Shower and tub — scum, scale, grout lines, door tracks
- Sink, counter, taps and drain
- Mirrors and any glass
- Inside vanity cabinets and drawers
- Extractor fan cover
Everywhere else
The whole-house sweep.
- All floors, including where furniture stood
- Carpets vacuumed — and professionally cleaned if the lease says so
- Baseboards, door frames, doors and handles
- Light switches and outlet covers
- Interior windows, sills and tracks
- Blinds
- Closet interiors, including shelves and rails
- Ceiling fans and light fixtures
- Cobwebs in corners and ceiling edges
- Bins emptied and cleaned; nothing left in the garage or on the patio
The five that cost people money most often
- Inside the oven. Every inspection checks it. It is also the single most unpleasant hour of a move-out, which is why it gets skipped.
- Cabinet and drawer interiors. They were full until yesterday, so they never get cleaned. The inspector opens them.
- Window tracks. The sliding door track especially. Grit accumulates for years and is instantly visible.
- Baseboards. Nobody notices them in an occupied house; they're conspicuous in an empty one.
- The refrigerator. Emptied is not the same as cleaned, and a fridge that has been switched off and closed for a week is its own problem.
Timing it
Book the clean for after the property is genuinely empty and before the final walkthrough — not for moving day, when the house is full of boxes and movers. If that window is tight, say so when you call.
Or hand it over
A move-out clean is the job most worth paying someone else to do, because the alternative is doing it at 11pm on the last day of your lease with the vacuum you already packed. Astrid does empty-home cleans across Sterling, Ashburn and Brambleton — call for a free estimate and mention it's a move-out, plus any specific checklist your property manager gave you.
Keep reading
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