Handing the keys back? Before you do, there's a list. Miss bits of it and the inventory check finds them, and that's usually where deposit deductions creep in. So here's the room-by-room version of what clerks actually look for.
Work through it whether you're doing the clean yourself or checking someone else's. Print it, tick as you go, and leave nothing for them to flag. It looks long. It always does. But most of it is quick once you're moving, and the slow rooms are the ones worth the time.
Get the place empty first. Cleaning around boxes and furniture never works, and you'll only end up going back over it. Bins out. Fridge and freezer emptied and defrosted, since a puddle on moving day is nobody's friend. Then start high and work down, one room at a time, so dust from up top doesn't land on what you've already done. Open a window while you're at it. It shifts the damp and stops the whole place smelling of cleaning spray when the clerk walks in.
Nothing exotic, but chasing round mid-clean for a cloth is a pain, so get it together first. A decent oven cleaner and rubber gloves for the caustic stuff. Limescale remover for the bathroom and the kitchen taps. Cream cleaner for sinks and hobs. Glass cleaner for windows and mirrors. Bin bags, more than you think you'll need. A stack of microfibre cloths, colour-coded if you can manage it, so the loo cloth never goes near the kitchen. A vacuum with the nozzle attachments on, a mop and bucket, and a sturdy pair of steps for the high stuff. A scrubbing brush and an old toothbrush for grout and the fiddly corners nothing else reaches.
| Area | The main jobs | Easy to miss |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Oven, hob, extractor, cupboards, sink | Behind and under the appliances |
| Bathroom | Toilet, shower, taps, tiles, grout | Limescale on showerheads and screens |
| Bedrooms | Wardrobes, windows, skirting, floors | Dust on top of frames and doors |
| Living room | Carpets, sills, switches, radiators | Marks on walls, cobwebs up high |
| Hall and stairs | Banisters, floors, light fittings | Scuffs along the walls |
| Outside | Bins, patio, any shed or garage | Weeds, leftover rubbish |
Start here, because it's the room that takes longest and fails the most checks. The oven is the big one. Racks out and soaking, then the inside, the door glass, the seal round the door. Hob and splashback next. Pull the appliances out where you can and get behind them, that grease strip down the side of the cooker is a classic miss. Empty every cupboard, wipe inside and out, handles too. Descale the sink and taps. Do the floor last, right into the corners.
Then the appliances that stay. Fridge and freezer emptied, defrosted, wiped down and left with the door ajar if the property's standing empty, or it comes back smelling. Dishwasher and washing machine filters cleared, and wipe the rubber seal and the detergent drawer where the black gunk sits. Microwave inside and out. Kettle and toaster if they're being left. Bins scrubbed, not just emptied.
Limescale is what gives a rushed job away, so that's the focus. Showerhead, screen, taps, the tiles and the grout between them. Toilet done properly, behind and under the seat as well as the bowl, and don't forget the base where it meets the floor. Buff the mirror and any chrome so it's not streaky. Extractor vent wiped, since it clogs with dust and shows up in photos. Plughole cleared of hair, and check the bottom of the shower door track where the black stuff hides. Bath panel wiped, tile edges done, and the sealant given a scrub if it's gone grubby rather than mouldy. Mouldy sealant is a landlord job, not a tenant one.
Empty the wardrobes and drawers, then wipe them out inside. Skirting boards all the way round, including behind where the furniture stood. Wipe the doors, the frames and the light switches, since fingermarks show up fast under a clerk's torch. Dust the tops of everything, doors and picture rails and frames included, because that's exactly where they check. Radiators catch dust down the back, so get in there with the nozzle. Curtains and blinds too, a going over at least, a wash if they're yours and they need it.
Easy to skip, because they don't look dirty until the light hits them. Do the windows from the inside, the glass, the frames and the sills where the dead flies gather. Wipe the doors both sides, the handles and the frames. Light switches and sockets go grubby with fingers, so give them a wipe. Then the walls. You're not repainting, but scuffs and marks that lift with a damp cloth or a sponge should come off. Anything that needs filling or a fresh coat is a different conversation with your landlord, so flag it rather than leave it to be found.
Save these for last, once the dust from everywhere else has settled and been dealt with. Hard floors swept then mopped, into the edges and the corners, not just the middle where feet go. Carpets vacuumed slowly and more than once, right up to the skirting where the crumbs live. If a carpet's marked, or it's been a long tenancy, a machine clean lifts what a vacuum won't, and it's often the thing standing between you and a deduction for a tired-looking floor. Let them dry fully before the check, since damp patches read as stains in a photo.
The walls take a battering in a hallway, so check for scuffs and get them off where they'll come. Banisters wiped, stair carpet vacuumed edge to edge. Cobwebs out of the high corners. Then the stuff that slips everyone's mind. Meter readings noted and photographed. Spare keys gathered up, all of them, including the one that lives in a drawer. Light bulbs all working and replaced where they've gone. Smoke alarm still in one piece. Any outside space tidied, bins rinsed, and rubbish actually taken away rather than left round the side for someone else to find.
Two things inventory clerks always look for, sometimes literally sniff for. Pet hair works into carpets, under furniture and along the skirting, so vacuum slower than feels necessary and go over the edges twice. A machine clean helps where it's ground in. Smoke is harder, since it sits in soft furnishings and on the walls as a faint yellow film you stop noticing when you live with it. Air the place right out, wipe down walls and paintwork where they feel tacky, wash the curtains you can, and be realistic. If the smell's in deep, a clean lifts a lot of it but not always all of it, and that's worth knowing before the check rather than after.
More than you'd think. People wildly underestimate the oven alone. A small flat done properly is the best part of a day, a family house closer to two if it's been lived in hard. Start the day before if you can, get the empty rooms and the high dusting out of the way, then hit the kitchen and bathrooms fresh. Trying to blitz the lot in a couple of hours before the check-out is how bits get missed and deposits get docked.
Before you lock up, do a lap as if you're the clerk. Same order they'll use, room by room, light on and blinds up. Look at it cold, not as the person who's just spent a day scrubbing. Open a cupboard at random. Run a finger along a frame. Check the oven glass from the side, where the smears show. It's surprising what you spot on a second look that you walked straight past the first time. Fix the misses now. It's a lot easier than arguing over photos a fortnight later.
Yes, quite a bit deeper. A normal clean keeps a lived-in home ticking over. An end of tenancy clean strips it back to the state it was let in. Ovens, limescale, inside cupboards and all the corners a weekly clean skips.
It depends on the property, so there's no single figure worth quoting. Size, condition and whether carpets need doing all move it. A cleaner will quote once they know what the job involves rather than guess down the phone.
Usually the inside is what's expected, since the outside is often down to the landlord or simply out of reach on a flat. Do the inside glass, frames and sills properly. If ground-floor outsides are easy to reach, a quick go doesn't hurt.
Ask for it in writing, with photos and specifics, rather than a vague not clean enough. If it's fair, sort the bits named. If it isn't, your inventory, your own photos and this checklist are your evidence. A deposit scheme will look at both sides, so keep a record of what you did.
You can, and this list covers what to hit. Set aside more time than you think, especially for the oven and the bathrooms. If the place is big or it's been a long tenancy, getting a team in is often the sensible call, if only to hand the risk over.
Rather not spend your moving week on your hands and knees? We do end of tenancy cleans to inventory standard across Northampton and nearby. Tell us about the property today and we'll book you in before the keys are due back.
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