Move-out cleaning is the last thing anyone wants to do and the first thing a landlord looks at. Getting it right is mostly about sequence and completeness, not effort.
Clean empty, and clean last
Do the clean after the last box leaves. Cleaning around furniture guarantees a second pass, and floors done before the movers arrive will need doing again.
Kitchen
- Inside every cupboard and drawer, including the corners
- Inside the oven, including racks and the glass door
- Inside the fridge and freezer, defrosted if required
- Dishwasher filter and door seal
- Range hood and filter degreased
- Sink descaled, taps polished, drain cleared of debris
Bathrooms
- Full descale of tub, tile, grout and shower glass
- Toilet cleaned inside, outside and at the base and bolts
- Vanity interior wiped out and left dry
- Mirror, fixtures and towel rails polished
- Exhaust fan cover dusted
Everywhere else
- Closet shelving and floors, including the rails
- Baseboards, door frames, doors and the tops of doors
- Interior windows, sills and the tracks
- Light fixtures, switch plates and vents
- Wall marks spot-cleaned where the paint allows
- Floors vacuumed then washed, finishing at the exit
What Ontario landlords tend to check
In our experience the recurring flags are: the oven interior, the fridge seals, bathroom grout, cupboard interiors, window tracks and marks on trim. Those six items account for most disputed deposits.
Document it
Photograph every room once the clean is finished, with the date visible in your phone's metadata. It takes two minutes and it ends arguments before they start.
When to hand it over
If you are moving across the GTA in one day, doing the move-out clean yourself at 9pm rarely ends well. A professional empty-unit clean takes a crew a few hours and comes with a written checklist. Book end-of-month dates two to three weeks ahead — they go first.