Deposits are rarely lost over big, obvious things. They are lost over the oven, the blinds, and the top of the refrigerator — the places nobody cleans while they live somewhere, and every inspector checks when they leave.
Here is the list, room by room. Print it, or send it to whoever is helping you.
Kitchen (where most deposits are won or lost)
- Inside the oven — including the racks and the glass door
- Inside the refrigerator — shelves and drawers out, washed, and the seals wiped
- On top of the refrigerator — almost always forgotten, always checked
- Inside and outside every cabinet and drawer
- Inside the dishwasher, including the filter
- Inside and outside the microwave
- Under and behind the stove if it pulls out
- Range hood and filter
- Sink, faucet and garbage disposal
- Backsplash and counters
Bathrooms
- Tub and shower, including grout and any soap scum line
- Toilet — inside, outside, the base, and behind it
- Vanity, inside cabinets and drawers
- Mirror and any medicine cabinet
- Exhaust fan cover
- Floor cleaned right to the edges and behind the toilet
Every room
- Baseboards — wiped by hand, not vacuumed past
- Blinds — slat by slat, the job everyone dreads and inspectors love
- Window sills and tracks
- Interior windows
- Door frames, doors and the tops of doors
- Light switches and outlet plates
- Light fixtures — emptied of dust and insects
- Ceiling fan blades
- Closets, including shelves and rods
- Air vents and returns
- Scuff marks on walls where they come off
The ones people always forget
Top of the refrigerator. Inside the oven glass. Blinds. Behind the toilet. Dryer lint trap. Patio or balcony. The garage floor.
Every one of these shows up on walkthrough forms, and every one is regularly skipped.
Timing it right
Clean after the movers leave, not before. An empty property cleans faster, comes out better, and costs less if someone else is doing it. Trying to clean around boxes wastes the effort — you will just have to redo the floors.
Give yourself the day after the truck leaves, and do the walkthrough after that.
Take photos
When you finish, photograph every room, the inside of the oven and refrigerator, and the floors. Date-stamped photos have settled a lot of deposit disputes. It costs you five minutes.
Or hand it to us
This list takes most people a full day, and the oven alone can eat two hours. Our move-out cleaning service covers every item above, cleaned to the standard an inspection checks.
We do a lot of these in Cabot, where families often move on short notice, and throughout Central Arkansas. If your date is tight, tell us the date and we will work backwards from it.
