Moving in or out: a deep-cleaning checklist that saves your deposit

Moving out: clean after the house is empty, and concentrate on the kitchen, the bathrooms, the walls and the things the owner will look at. Moving in: clean before the boxes arrive, and concentrate on the places the previous tenant will not have touched — tops of cupboards, behind where the fridge stood, inside the chimney, the floor traps. Either way, a full home deep clean in an empty house is the easiest and most thorough clean you will ever have done, because there is nothing in the way.

On our rate card a full home deep clean is ₹1,999 for a 1BHK and ₹2,799 for a 2BHK; a kitchen deep clean alone is ₹999 and a bathroom scrub ₹699.

Moving out: the hand-over checklist

Work through the house in this order, top to bottom, wet rooms last.

Every room

• Ceiling fans, tube lights and the tops of wardrobes and door frames
• Walls: marks from furniture, hand prints around switches, nails removed and holes filled if the agreement asks
• Windows, grills and tracks — Nellore dust packs the tracks solid
• Floor scrubbed and mopped; corners and skirting

Kitchen

• Chimney filters and hood degreased
• Tiles behind the hob, cabinet fronts and tops, insides of all cabinets emptied and wiped
• Sink descaled, drain trap cleaned
• Gas point and the floor where the cylinder stood; behind where the fridge was

Bathrooms

• Taps, showerhead and glass descaled; commode inside, outside and around the base
• Grout scrubbed; floor trap cleaned and the smell gone
• Exhaust fan wiped; geyser exterior wiped (switched off at the MCB first)

Balcony and utility

• Drain cleared of leaves and dust, floor scrubbed, railing wiped
• Washing machine inlet point and the floor under it

Take photos of every room, dated, once it is done. Hand over the photos with the keys.

Moving in: what the last tenant will have skipped

A flat that looks clean at the viewing is usually surface-clean. Before your things arrive, have these done or do them yourself:

1. Inside the chimney hood and the filters. Often never cleaned in years.
2. Behind and under where the fridge, washing machine and cot stood. Grease, dust and sometimes cockroach droppings.
3. Tops of wardrobes, cupboards and the kitchen wall cabinets.
4. Floor traps in every bathroom and the balcony. Pour water in, lift the grating, clear the hair. If the bathroom has been shut for weeks the trap will be dry and the flat will smell of drains until it is refilled.
5. Commode and basin — descaled, not just brushed.
6. Inside kitchen cabinets and drawers before you put plates in them.
7. The overhead tank and sump are a separate job, but ask the owner when they were last cleaned.

If any of this turns up damp patches on walls, seepage stains on the ceiling, or tiles that have lifted, photograph them before you move in and send them to the owner. That is the moment to record it.

Order of operations when dates clash

Life being what it is, the movers come the same day the clean is due. Then:

• Clean the kitchen and bathrooms first, completely. You will need them tonight.
• Have the bedrooms vacuumed and floors mopped before the cot goes in.
• Leave the balcony, the insides of wardrobes and the detailed wall work for the following day.

Tell us the situation when booking so the team plans that way.

What cleaning will not do at hand-over

• It will not hide a damp patch or a crack. If the wall has seepage, it will look clean for a few days and the mark will come back.
• It will not repaint scuffed walls. If the agreement asks for painting, that is the painter's job after the clean.
• It will not fix a slow drain — clearing the trap helps; a blockage further down is plumbing.
• It will not remove deep scratches from a floor or a burn mark from a counter.

Agree with the owner what is "cleaning" and what is "damage" before the team arrives, and the hand-over goes quickly.