A move out cleaning checklist covers every room of the empty home: kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and closets, then the details landlords check, such as baseboards, doors, vents, sliding door tracks and the inside of cabinets and appliances. Work high to low, finish with the floors and photograph each room before you return the keys.
Key takeaways
- Clean the empty home room by room, high to low, with floors last.
- Open every cabinet, drawer and appliance, because inspectors will.
- Your lease, not a generic list, decides what the landlord can require.
- Photograph every room after the cleaning and before the key return.
Short on time? Jump to what landlords usually inspect, or start with the kitchen checklist.
How to Use This Checklist
This move out cleaning checklist is written for a home that is already empty: furniture gone, boxes out, food cleared. Cleaning around boxes leaves lines of dust exactly where an inspector looks.
Work one room at a time, high to low: fans and vents first, then cabinets and counters, then baseboards, and floors last. Match the cleaning agent to the surface: a degreaser for the stove and range hood, and a pH-neutral cleaner on natural stone. Read your lease before you start, because it may list items of its own, such as professional carpet cleaning or replacing air filters.
Ask the landlord or property manager for their move-out checklist if they have one. Management companies often use a standard inspection form, and cleaning to that form is easier than guessing.
Kitchen Checklist
The kitchen deserves the most time, because grease and crumbs hide in places a quick wipe never reaches. Open every door and drawer as you go.
- Inside every cabinet and drawer: crumbs out, shelves wiped, your own liner removed
- Inside the oven, the racks and the drawer under it
- Inside the fridge and freezer, shelves and drawers, with the door seals wiped
- Stovetop, burner grates and the area around the knobs
- Range hood and its filter, if it lifts out
- Microwave, inside and out
- Dishwasher door edges and the filter at the bottom
- Counters, backsplash, sink and faucet, with hard water marks removed
- Cabinet fronts and handles, where cooking grease builds up
- Floor, including the edge along the bottom of the cabinets
Leave the fridge clean, dry and running, or propped open if the landlord asks you to unplug it. A closed, unplugged fridge in a Florida summer turns musty quickly.
Bathroom Checklist
Bathrooms show build-up more than any other room, and Florida humidity makes it worse. Give each one the same full pass, including the guest bath nobody used much.
- Toilet inside, outside, around the base and behind it
- Shower and tub, with soap scum off the walls and glass
- Grout lines and caulk, especially the bottom row of tiles
- Shower door tracks and the edges of the glass
- Sink, faucet and the drain cover
- Mirror and medicine cabinet, inside and out
- Vanity drawers and the cabinet under the sink
- Exhaust fan cover, which collects dust and lint
- Towel bars, toilet paper holder and light fixtures
- Floor, corners and the baseboard behind the door
Dark grout that will not come clean after scrubbing may be mildew under the surface. That is a question for the landlord, not something to hide, and it is covered in the section on what a cleaning will not fix.
Bedrooms, Closets and Living Areas
With the furniture gone, bedrooms and living rooms show what was hidden for years: dust lines on baseboards, hair under beds and marks where a sofa touched the wall.
- Ceiling fan blades and light fixtures you can reach safely
- Closet shelves, rods and the closet floor
- Doors, door frames and handles
- Light switches and outlet covers
- Baseboards, especially where furniture stood
- Blinds, dusted slat by slat
- Spot marks on walls, cleaned gently so the paint is not damaged
- Floor where beds, dressers and sofas stood
The Sliding Door to the Lanai
Sliding doors to the lanai collect sand, pollen and leaves in the track. Vacuum the track, wipe the frame and clean the handle. The lanai itself, the pool deck and the screens are outdoor areas your lease may ask you to sweep or rinse, so plan them apart from the inside clean.
Closets That Smell Musty
Closed closets in an empty Florida home trap humid air. Wipe the shelves, leave the doors open for the final hours and keep the AC running until the walkthrough, unless your lease says otherwise.
What Landlords and Property Managers Usually Inspect
A move-out inspection compares the home with how it was when you moved in. Inspectors open, touch and look behind things, so the table lists the spots that get checked and who usually handles each one. [PREENCHER: na última coluna, os descontos de caução que a Anne mais vê na região]
| Area | What gets checked | In a move-out cleaning | Plan separately | Most common deductions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Inside oven, fridge and cabinets; grease on cabinet fronts | Counters, sink, cabinet fronts; inside oven, fridge and cabinets as extras | Broken appliances or missing parts | [PREENCHER] |
| Bathrooms | Soap scum, grout, hard water on faucets, toilet base | Fixtures, glass, grout lines and corners | Cracked tiles, failed caulk, mold that keeps returning | [PREENCHER] |
| Walls and doors | Scuffs, fingerprints, marks around switches | Doors, frames, switches; spot wall washing as an extra | Nail holes, patching and painting | [PREENCHER] |
| Floors | Dust lines, hair, sticky spots, carpet stains | Floors vacuumed and mopped | Carpet shampooing or steam cleaning | [PREENCHER] |
| Windows | Glass, tracks and screens | Sliding door tracks | Window glass inside and out, screens | [PREENCHER] |
| Outside | Lanai, pool deck, driveway, yard, trash bins | Not included | Sweeping, pressure washing, yard work | [PREENCHER] |
Look at the last column. Nail holes, carpet stains and broken blinds are repairs or specialist work, and no amount of cleaning changes them. Book those early in moving week, so the specialists finish before the final clean.
Florida Deposit Rules Worth Knowing
This is general information, not legal advice. Your lease and the current Florida Statutes decide your case, so read both, or ask a lawyer if a claim is disputed.
In Florida, the rules on returning a security deposit are in section 83.49 of the Florida Statutes. If the landlord does not intend to claim any of it, the deposit must be returned within 15 days after the lease ends. If the landlord intends a claim, written notice must be sent within 30 days, by certified mail to your last known mailing address or by e-mail as the statute allows. [VALIDAR]
Once that notice arrives, you have 15 days to object to the claim or the amount. That is why the landlord should have your new mailing address before you hand back the keys. [VALIDAR]
During the lease, section 83.52 asks tenants to keep the part of the home they use clean and sanitary and to remove all garbage. In practice, leave no trash in bins, closets or cabinets, and no food in the fridge or pantry.
No cleaning company can promise you will get a deposit back. What a thorough clean does is take the cleaning items off the inspection list, so any discussion is about real damage, not dust.
Rather hand this checklist to someone else?
We do move out cleaning in Davenport and Four Corners once the last box is gone, with inside cabinets, oven and fridge on request.
Book My Move-Out Cleaning DateWhat a Cleaning Will Not Fix
Some items on an inspection list are not cleaning at all. Spotting them early saves a last-minute scramble on handover day.
- Repairs: nail holes, chipped paint, broken blinds, loose handles and burnt-out bulbs
- Carpet shampooing or steam cleaning, which some leases require from a carpet company
- Window glass and screens, inside and out
- Pressure washing, the lanai, the pool deck and the yard
- Mold that returns or follows a leak, which needs a mold remediation specialist
We do not offer window cleaning, carpet shampooing or any exterior work, so book those trades separately and schedule them before the final clean. If the home was just renovated, fine dust needs post construction cleaning first.
Still living in the home and only want a reset? That is a deep clean of a furnished home, not a move-out clean. See deep cleaning vs regular cleaning for what that visit covers.
Photograph the Empty Home Before You Leave
Photos taken right after the cleaning are your record of how you left the home. Take them on the last day, after the final clean and before the key return.
- Open the blinds and turn on every light.
- Photograph each room from the doorway, then each corner.
- Open the oven, fridge, cabinets and closets and photograph the inside.
- Take close-ups of anything that was damaged before you moved in, next to your move-in report if you have one.
- Keep the files with their dates, along with your lease and the landlord's messages.
If you book a move-out cleaning, schedule it close to the key return so nothing gets dirty in between. Read when to book move out cleaning to fit it between the movers and the walkthrough, and check our cleaning prices to plan the budget.
Have a landlord checklist already? Request your cleaning quote and send it along, so the written price matches what will be inspected.
Move Out Cleaning Checklist FAQ
Short answers to what renters and sellers ask most before a move-out.
