Move-in cleaning: the rooms and cupboards it covers
It covers the same ground as an end of lease clean. Kitchen: benches, sink, inside the cupboards and drawers, and the shelves you're about to fill with plates. Bathrooms: shower, toilet, vanity and the cupboards under them. Bedrooms: inside wardrobes and along the skirting boards. Then every floor.
Four add-ons sit in the form: the oven, inside windows, carpet steam cleaning and wall marks. The oven is worth a look: nobody wants to cook their first dinner on someone else's baked-on fat.
Renting? Record the condition before a move-in clean
This one's worth doing in the right order. The way you leave a rental is judged against how you found it, so a dirty oven or a stained carpet belongs on your entry condition report (the record of the home's condition when you moved in) before it gets fixed. Photograph what you find, mark the report, then clean.
The deadlines are short. In NSW and Queensland you return the report within seven days of moving in. In Victoria, it's five business days.
Two rental rules to know before move-in cleaning
In Victoria, a rental provider can only require professional cleaning at the end in two cases, and one is that the home was professionally cleaned immediately before your tenancy started and you were told. If your paperwork mentions that, keep it.
In the ACT, you can only be asked for a professional carpet clean at the end if the agreement requires it and the landlord has evidence it was done at the start. Everywhere, a clean you choose to pay for at move-in is your choice, not an obligation.
Move-in cleaning when you've just bought
Sellers leave homes in every kind of state, and a move-in clean gives you a known starting point. Book it for the gap between getting the keys and the removalists turning up. If the home has just had work done, you may want an after-builders clean instead, because fine dust needs different handling. Ask whether anything will be left behind in the shed or the garage, too, since rubbish removal isn't part of a clean.
What to tell the business before a move-in clean
- When you get the keys, and when the removalists are coming.
- Whether the power and water are on.
- How many bedrooms and bathrooms, and which extras you want.
- Whether anyone will be there to let them in.
- Any mould, pet smell or damage you've already spotted.
- Where they can park, and whether the building has a lift or a loading bay.
Your moving in jobs, and what a cleaner takes on
Worth doing yourself
- Walk through with your phone and photograph every room first.
- Mark the condition report before anything changes, if you're renting.
- Get the power and water connected.
- Pack a kettle, bin bags and toilet paper for the first night.
Where a cleaning business earns its keep
- Inside every cupboard and drawer while they're empty.
- The oven, if you add it.
- Shower screens, grout and exhaust fan covers.
- Floors, once the dust from everything above is down.
Our move-in cleaning advice: keys first, truck second
Book the clean for after you've collected the keys and before the truck arrives, and leave a little room between the two. If you're renting, take your photos and mark the entry condition report first, then get the clean done. It keeps a true record of how you found the place, and that's what you'll be measured against when you leave.
