How to Properly Clean Your House Before You Move in

So you are moving into a new house, and a new chapter in your life begins. Will the story have a happy ending — the time will show, but what you can ensure now is a happy beginning in a new place. What can be more exciting than starting over from scratch in a beautiful, clean house?

Whether it is a newly constructed house or someone has lived in it before, there’s a lot of mess to deal with, it is for sure. We asked experts from move-in and move-out cleaning NYC services to share their move-in cleaning tips, and here is what they recommend.

How to prepare a post-construction house for moving in?

Newly-constructed homes or those after a big renovation have two major issues: dust and construction junk, which can be difficult and sometimes even dangerous to clean. Unless your construction contract includes detailed cleaning, the crew is likely to pass on the house to you just as it is.

So it will be your pain to deal with all those piled building materials leftovers, scattered nails, paints, and other hazardous chemicals. Not to mention the thick coat of dust covering all possible surfaces turning the whole affair into a not-very-healthy challenge.

• Ensure you use thick rubber gloves, protective glasses, and a respirator mask to secure your hands, eyes, and lungs while cleaning. The post-construction site can expose you to sharp objects, toxic fumes, and excess dust.
• Dispose of large construction debris such as concrete chunks, glass, window frames, flooring or insulation leftovers, steel, packaging, paints, and other trash responsibly. Find a construction debris removal service that will take care of the junk, or order a professional post-construction cleaning in NYC that will have you covered in both cleaning and debris removal.
• Now that the surfaces are cleared of construction mess, it is time to deal with dust. During construction, the dust gets literally in all nooks and crannies. Use a powerful vacuum cleaner to collect as much dust as possible, paying extra attention to hidden surfaces. Mop the floors and wipe other surfaces with a wet microfiber cloth to trap the remaining dust. The ladies from the move-in and move-out cleaning services in NYC recommend repeating the whole dusting procedure in a couple of days (just before the move-in day). The point is that dust you disturbed during the first cleaning gets in the air and needs some time to settle and become visible again.

How to clean an established house before moving in?

If you move into a home with a tenant history, you should take time to deep clean it of all the old grime and dirt to make it really YOURS. It is comforting if the previous tenants ordered the move-out cleaning, but if cleaning is on you, here is what you should focus on.

Repair or replace damaged items

A move-in day is a stressful event on its own, so there is no need to make it even more nerve-racking by dashing to the nearest home improvement supermarket to buy LED bulbs or a drain cleaning kit.

Before your move-in day, make time for an in-depth inspection of the new home to make a list of what needs to be replaced or repaired. This simple preparational step will guarantee a seamless moving-in and peace of mind during your first days in the new place.

Deep clean your new bathrooms

The bathroom is where humidity, close contact with human bodies, and high temperature create a perfect hotbed of infection. So if you don’t know for sure who lived in this house before and their cleaning habits, it is better to play safe and deep clean the bathrooms to avoid getting infected.

• Use bleach-based cleaning supplies to both clean and properly disinfect the problem areas in your bathroom, such as toilet bowls, bathtubs, faucets, door handles, tiles, and, especially, the shower floor. Apply the product on a wet surface using a sponge and let it work for half an hour to dissolve the build-up and kill the germs. Then scrub the surfaces with a brush or abrasive side of a sponge and rinse with running water.
• Replace the old shower curtain. Even though it seems counterintuitive, the shower curtain can be home to 60 times more bacteria than the item most of us blame as the dirtiest — the toilet seat.

Reset your kitchen

• Wipe the counters using an anti-bacterial spray cleaner to kill the germs. After that, clean the sink, stovetop, oven, cooker hood, and tiles with a kitchen cleaner to degrease these surfaces and remove any old mess and burned or stuck food.
• Empty your kitchen cabinets and get rid of useless or broken utensils or containers. Clean the cabinets with an all-purpose cleaner.
• Clean the kitchen appliances inside and outside to remove all old grime and foul odors.

Now that the dirtiest places are treated, move on to dusting the surfaces (preferably with a wet microfiber cloth) and mopping the floors. Replace the doormat with a new one. On your move-in day, it will meet you first, inviting you into a beautiful and tidy place you can now call HOME.