Before your things go in
Our cleaners work through an empty unit in the order below, starting with the surfaces that will carry your dishes, your clothes and your toothbrush, and finishing with the floors furniture is about to cover.
1. Shelves and drawers where the dishes and food will go
Every kitchen cabinet is opened and wiped front to back, including the toe-kick under the lower cabinets. Each drawer comes out and is wiped inside and out. Pantry shelves, the shelf under the sink and the inside of any cabinet with a built-in trash all get the same pass. Nothing you unpack goes onto a shelf that has not been cleaned.
2. The fridge and the oven in a new kitchen
The fridge opens onto a clean inside: shelves and drawers washed, gaskets wiped where the door seal meets the frame, the ice maker tray emptied if anything is in it. The oven, once cold and empty, is cleaned inside and the racks are washed and set back in. The microwave is cleaned inside and out, with the turntable off and washed. The point of the appliance step on a move-in is a kitchen you can cook in from the first meal without the previous tenant's week showing up on a plate.
3. The bathroom
Grout around the tub and shower is worked with a brush. Shower head, taps, behind the toilet, the vanity inside and out, the medicine cabinet and the mirror all get their own attention. The fan cover is dusted from the floor with an extendable duster, which is how we reach any high spot in a bathroom. Ladders, step stools, chairs, tub edges and counters are never used.
4. Closets and built-ins
Clothes, boxes and linens are heading into every closet shelf and rod in the place. Each shelf is wiped the full width before any of that goes in. The rod is wiped so a sleeve against it stays clean, and the floor of the closet is swept and washed. Built-in bookshelves and linen cabinets each get a shelf-by-shelf wipe.
5. Switch plates, door handles and cabinet pulls
The hard points the hand touches every day of a home none of your hands have used yet. We wipe each light switch, both sides of every door handle, and every cabinet pull or knob. The thermostat gets a pass along its edge, where fingerprints collect.
6. Windows in rooms about to be furnished
Sills get a pass front and back so a plant going on one sits on a clean sill. Tracks are vacuumed and then wiped out so a window opens cleanly the first time you reach for it. Inside glass is cleaned on every window. Outside glass above the ground floor is left to a window washer, and no cleaner leans out of a window on our visits.
7. Floors, before furniture covers them
Hard floors are vacuumed and then washed, and carpet is vacuumed. Cleaning the floors once with nothing in the way means the baseboards and the corners both get reached, which is harder to do once the couch is in the living room.
| Spot | Why it matters before you unpack | What the clean covers |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen cabinet shelves | Your dishes go here | Each shelf wiped front to back |
| Fridge gaskets and drawers | Food sits against them | Gaskets wiped and drawers washed |
| Inside the oven | First cooked meal | Cleaned once cold and empty |
| Bathroom grout | Hard to reach once the shower curtain is up | Brushed and rinsed clean |
| Closet shelves | Clothes stacked straight on them | Wiped the full width |
| Switch plates and handles | A thousand hands before yours | Wiped on both sides of each door |
| Window sills and tracks | Open for the first spring breeze | Vacuumed and wiped |
| Floors in empty rooms | Furniture will cover them | Reached corner to corner |
If more than a couple of rows describe why you called, a move-in clean fits what you are planning for the empty rooms.
When move-in cleaning fits, and when a later deep clean does
When this is the right page
You have the keys and the furniture has not arrived. Nothing is in the way. You want the shelves, drawers and bathroom cleaned before your things touch them. A one-bedroom condo, a two-bedroom walk-up or a three-bedroom house with no boxes yet all fit the same visit.
When to wait and book a deep clean later
If the movers are already in, boxes are stacked and the fridge is half-full, book a deep clean once you settle in instead. A deep clean after a move still reaches cabinets, baseboards and floors once the move dust is down. If you are also leaving an old place on the same week, see the page on the place you are leaving and we can plan both visits in the same call.
For a longer rhythm once you are in, see a regular schedule at the new place. For an apartment in a building with a service elevator and a loading dock schedule, see cleaning in an apartment building for the questions we go over on the call.
A clean done for strangers walking through is not the clean your dishes will sit on.
A clean for showings and a clean before your things
The clean the apartment got before you saw it is a different kind of clean from one done for your own things.
A clean done for showings
- Counters wiped and surfaces reset.
- The floor cleaned where a visitor would walk.
- Enough that the apartment looks ready to lease.
A clean done before your things
- Shelves and drawers wiped inside, where dishes will go.
- The fridge, freezer and oven, gaskets included.
- Grout, and the bathroom fan cover from the floor.
- Window sills, tracks and the closet floor.
What the visit covers
Move-in cleaning is a full visit to an empty unit, with your belongings and the previous tenant's day-to-day life both out of the picture. The visit covers every cabinet and drawer, the inside of the appliances, the bathroom top to bottom, the closets and the floors. We go over products on the call, including anything to avoid on a particular surface, such as a sealed stone counter or a new finish the builder left a note about. We do not patch, paint, caulk or take care of punch-list items from a new build; those belong to the builder or a handyman.
From your call to the keys
- You call us with the address, the day the keys turn, the day the truck comes, and anything the lease or condo rules say.
- We go over products, pets and anything the building needs us to know, including how we get into the unit when you cannot be there.
- You get a price for the visit and decide.
- The cleaning happens, and we walk the empty rooms with you at the end if you can be there.
New arrivals across Chicago
About 30 percent of Chicago households, and about 42 percent of renter households, moved into their home in 2020 or later, so a lot of leases have turned over recently. 116,849 of Chicago's 1,277,054 housing units, about 9 percent, were vacant. Two-bedroom homes are the most common size in Chicago, so a two-bedroom move-in is a common shape of this call: a kitchen with its cabinets and appliances, a bathroom, closets and the floors. A larger home has more rooms to run through, a studio has fewer, and in each one the cleaning happens before furniture goes in.