Apartment cleaning once you settle in
Regular visits for the new unit, planned around its stairs, elevator and parking.
Moving in or out
Move-In & Move-Out Cleaning in Boston
Our move out cleaning services in Boston are built for empty homes. With the furniture gone, every cabinet, drawer, closet and appliance is open and reachable, so the clean goes inside them too. The same scope works before a move-in, so the new place is ready before the first box comes through the door.
- Inside cabinets, drawers, closets and appliances
- Planned around movers, elevator bookings and lease dates
- A written checklist you can hold up against your lease
Moving out or moving in: what changes
Moving out. The aim is to hand the unit back in the condition your lease or sale agreement describes. That usually means the places a walkthrough looks at first: inside the oven and fridge, bathroom fixtures, cabinet shelves, floors and the marks furniture leaves behind.
Moving in. You rarely know how the last occupant cleaned. A move-in clean gets the shelves wiped before your dishes go in, the bathroom ready for the first night, and the floors done while nothing is standing on them.
Both assume the home is empty or close to it. Leftover furniture, boxes and bags of junk are cleaned around, not taken away: we do not haul belongings or debris.
Empty-home checklist
This is the usual move scope. Your quote confirms each item, and anything your lease specifically mentions can be added to the list.
Kitchen
- Every cabinet and drawer cleaned inside and out, shelves included
- Inside the fridge and freezer, once emptied and with the ice cleared
- Inside the oven, the broiler drawer and the stovetop
- Dishwasher door, edges and gasket
- Sink, faucet, counters and backsplash
- Floor, including the edges where appliances meet the cabinets
Bathrooms
- Inside the vanity, the medicine cabinet and any drawers
- Toilet, tub, shower walls and grout
- Mirrors, faucets, towel bars and the exhaust fan cover within reach
- Floor washed by hand around the base of the toilet
Bedrooms and closets
- Closet shelves, rods, tracks and floors
- Inside built-in drawers and wardrobes
- Window sills and window tracks
- Doors, frames, switch plates and baseboards
Throughout the home
- Reachable light fixtures, radiators and vent covers
- Inside of the entry door and the threshold
- Light marks on walls spot-cleaned where the paint allows
- All floors vacuumed and mopped wall to wall
Interior windows can be added. Carpet shampooing, painting and patching, and hauling away furniture or debris are not included, so if your lease asks for any of those, plan them separately.
Timing a move clean around everything else
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Ask early for late August
If your lease ends around September 1, send your request as soon as you know your dates. The last days of August are the most crowded moving window in the city.
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Clean after the movers
An empty unit is the whole point. Book the clean for after the truck is loaded, or for the next day, rather than squeezing it in while boxes are still going out.
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Check the building's rules
Your building may ask for an elevator reservation, a loading dock slot or a certificate of insurance from vendors. Include those details in your request so we can tell you before booking whether we can meet them.
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Keep the utilities on
Water, power and working lights are needed for the clean. Schedule any shutoff for after the cleaning date.
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Walk through with your list
Compare the finished unit with your lease or move-out instructions. Your landlord or buyer makes their own judgment; our part is the checklist we agreed on.
Moving in Boston around September 1
Many Boston leases turn over on September 1, which makes late August and the first days of September the busiest moving window of the year. Reserving curb space for a moving truck takes a street occupancy permit from the city, and that is arranged by you or your movers.
Crowded streets affect cleaners too. When a block is lined with trucks, tell us about any driveway, loading zone or garage. In buildings with a single elevator, movers and cleaners may have to share reserved time slots.
Security deposits and landlord walkthroughs
A thorough clean makes a walkthrough easier, but the landlord looks at more than cleanliness, and the decision about a deposit is theirs. Check the cleaning and condition clauses in your lease before you book so the checklist matches them. We cannot give legal advice on deposit rules.
Our Boston move-out cleaning checklist for renters covers what to handle yourself before the cleaner arrives.
Other cleaning around a move
Deep clean if you are staying put
The detailed version for a furnished home that needs a reset.
Cleanup after a renovation
Fine dust removal when work was done before the move-in.
Recurring visits in the new place
Weekly, every-other-week or monthly, with a checklist you set once.
What affects a move cleaning quote
Move cleans are quoted from the specific unit. The main factors are:
- Size of the home and the number of bathrooms
- Condition at move-out, especially the oven, the fridge and bathroom buildup
- How empty the unit really is when the clean starts
- Stairs, elevator booking windows and parking near the building
- Add-ons such as interior windows
Flexible dates make it easier to find an opening, especially near September 1. The pricing page explains how quotes are built.
Move cleaning questions
Will a move-out clean get my security deposit back?
We cannot promise that, because the landlord decides. What we can do is clean to a written checklist that you compare with your lease beforehand. If the lease names specific items, add them to the request.
Should the cleaning happen before or after the movers?
After. Cleaners need empty cabinets, closets and floors, and boxes going out the door bring dust and grit back in. For a move-in, book the clean before your furniture arrives.
My building asks vendors for a certificate of insurance. What should I do?
Put it in your request, along with the building management contact and any deadline. We will tell you before booking whether we can provide what the building asks for.
How do I choose a move out cleaning service in Boston?
Look for a checklist that goes inside appliances, cabinets and closets, not just a list of rooms. A good company asks about elevators, parking and your lease dates, says plainly what it does not do, and does not promise anything about your deposit. Reviews you can verify on independent sites are worth more than claims on a company's own page.
Do I need to be there for the clean?
No. You may already be in the new place by then. Leave access with a lockbox, the building manager or your agent, and we confirm the arrangement before the visit.
Request a move-in or move-out cleaning quote
Call or email us with the type of space, its rough size, your ZIP code and what you need done. We reply with a free quote, and nothing is booked until you approve it.