What a deep clean should cover before you move into a new home

There is a short window in every move when a house is as clean as it will ever be able to get. It opens when the last owner or tenant leaves and closes when the first moving box comes through the door. During that window the floors are bare, the cabinets are empty and you can reach every wall. After it closes, you'll be cleaning around furniture for years. If you're buying or renting in Irvine or elsewhere in Orange County, a deep clean before move-in is one of the few jobs that really is easier now than later.

A deep clean is not a longer version of your weekly tidy. It's a different job with a different scope, and it follows an order. Here's what it should cover and why the order matters.

Start with a walk-through, not a mop

Before anyone picks up a cloth, walk every room with the lights on and the blinds open. Look for the things that photographs hide: sticky film inside the pantry, scuffs low on the walls, dust on top of door frames, grease on the range hood, water stains around the base of the toilets. Make a short list by room. This takes ten minutes and keeps the whole job from turning into a guessing game.

Open every closet, cabinet and drawer while you're at it. A previous household leaves things behind, and you want to know about a forgotten shelf liner or a cracked drawer before you start scrubbing.

Work from the ceiling down

Dust falls, so the high places go first. That means ceiling fans, light fixtures, air vents and the tops of door frames and window trim. Wipe them, and let whatever drops land on the floor, because the floor is the last thing you'll clean. If you vacuum first and dust second, you'll be vacuuming twice.

Windows come next. Clean the glass, but don't skip the tracks and sills, which collect a gray paste of dust and old moisture. A small brush and a damp cloth get most of it out. In an empty room you can lift the blinds and wipe each slat without a couch in the way.

Inside every cabinet, drawer and closet

This is the part that most people only get to once. Empty cabinets let you wipe the shelves, the corners and the underside of the shelf above. Pantry shelves collect crumbs and sticky rings. Bathroom vanities collect dust and the odd soap residue. Drawers should come out entirely if they can, so the tracks underneath get wiped as well.

Closets deserve the same treatment: the shelf, the rod, the walls and the floor right up to the baseboard. A closet is the one room where every surface is within arm's reach, and it's the easiest to do properly while it's empty.

Kitchen and bathrooms get the slowest pass

In the kitchen, the inside of the oven, microwave and dishwasher are the usual neglected spots. If the refrigerator is staying, empty it, wipe the shelves and the door seals, and check the drip area underneath. Then wipe the cabinet fronts, the backsplash, the range hood and the sink, in that order.

In the bathrooms, focus on the places that hold on to buildup: grout lines, the base of the toilet, the edge of the tub, faucet bases and drain rims. Hard water leaves a film on glass and chrome that a quick wipe won't touch. Give those spots a little dwell time with a mild cleaner, then rinse and dry.

Baseboards, doors and the small touches

Baseboards are where a pre-move-in clean shows or fails. They hold the dust that settled off every surface above them. Wipe the tops, then the faces, then the corners. Next, doors, door handles and light switch plates, which are the most touched surfaces in any home and rarely get cleaned in a rush.

Floors go last, always

Vacuum first, including corners and the edge along the baseboards, then mop or use the right cleaner for the surface. Hardwood, tile and carpet all need different treatment, so check what you have before you start. Mop your way out of the room toward the door so you aren't walking on what you just cleaned.

What the finished job looks like

One customer, Astrid F.M., put it plainly in her Google review: “We needed a deep clean for our new home.” She went on to say, “Our new place was absolutely spotless.” That's the standard to aim for. Not a house that looks clean from the doorway, but one where you can open any drawer, kneel in any closet and run a finger along any baseboard without finding someone else's leftovers.

If you'd rather hand the work off, Claudia’s Cleaning Services in Irvine takes calls at (714) 296-6018, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tell them your move-in date and which rooms worry you most, and book the cleaning for the day before your furniture arrives, not the day after.