Move-Out Cleaning Checklist for Arizona Renters and Sellers

Read it first. Property managers in the Valley tend to be specific about the oven, the fridge, the blinds, the carpet and the patio, and some ask for things this list does not cover, like a particular way the keys are left. Pull the checklist out, mark what you can do yourself and what you want done for you, and set the clean for after the furniture is gone and before the walk-through. An empty house is the only kind that can be properly cleaned, and a house cleaned with boxes still in it gets dirty again when the boxes leave.

Get the utilities kept on through the walk-through. A clean with no water and no lights is a guess.

• Inside the oven. The floor of the oven, the racks, the door glass inside and out, the gasket. Baked-on drips are the single most flagged item on a move-out in our experience, because the inspector opens the door and it is the first thing they see.
• Inside the fridge and freezer. Shelves and drawers out and washed, the walls and door seals wiped, the drip area under the crisper. Leave it on unless told otherwise; a fridge turned off and shut grows mildew in an Arizona week.
• Stovetop and hood. Burners, grates or glass top, the drip pans, the underside of the hood and its filter.
• Cabinets and drawers. Empty, then wiped inside and out, including the top edge of the doors and the handles. Crumbs in the corners of a drawer get noticed.
• Counters, sink and backsplash. Sink scrubbed, the faucet descaled with a mild acid if the water has left white crust around the base, the backsplash wiped where grease has settled.
• Dishwasher. The inside of the door and the filter at the bottom.
• Microwave. Inside, the turntable, the door.
• Trash out, and the can washed.

• Toilet. Bowl, seat both sides, tank lid, the base where it meets the floor, and the floor behind it. The base and the back get skipped by people and never by inspectors.
• Shower and tub. Walls, floor, door or curtain rod, the drain cover. In the East Valley the glass and the fixtures carry hard water scale, and that needs a mild acid and dwell time, not a quick spray. Cloudy glass reads as dirty even when it is clean.
• Grout. Scrubbed, not mopped over. Dark grout lines on a light tile floor are the first thing a buyer's agent points at.
• Sink, counter, mirror, cabinet inside and out.
• Exhaust fan cover. Pull it and wipe the dust off; it is a gray felt by move-out.
• Towel bars, toilet paper holder, light fixture.

• Closets. Shelves wiped, the rod wiped, the floor vacuumed into the corners, the top shelf where the dust sits.
• Ceiling fans. Every blade, both sides, and the housing. A fan that ran all summer has a ridge of dust on each leading edge.
• Light fixtures and switch plates. Fixtures dusted or wiped, switch plates and door handles cleaned.
• Walls and doors. Scuffs and handprints wiped. Around the light switches, along the hallway at hip height, behind where the couch was.
• Baseboards. All of them, including behind where the furniture stood. This is where the desert dust layer shows up.
• Windows inside, sills and tracks. Glass on the inside, the sills, and the tracks of every slider dug out. Track grit is the most Arizona item on the list and among the most flagged.
• Blinds. Slat by slat, both sides. Vertical blinds on the patio door too.
• Doors, including the top edge. Run a cloth along the top of every door. It comes back black.

Floors go last in each room, after everything above them has been done, so the dust that comes down lands on a floor that has not been mopped yet. Vacuum every hard floor with a HEPA filter before mopping, and vacuum the carpet in two directions, edges with the crevice tool. Then mop the tile with clean water, changing it as it grays. Tile and grout in an Arizona house hold a fine film that a single mop pass smears; two passes, the second with fresh water, is what gets it. Do not forget the floor of the pantry and the laundry area, and pull the washer and dryer out if you can to get behind them.

• Garage. Swept out, cobwebs down from the corners, the water heater and the door track area clear, any shelving wiped.
• Patio. Swept, the door track cleaned, cobwebs off the ceiling and the light. Pool deck grit tracked to the door gets wiped from the threshold.
• Front entry. Door wiped inside and out, the threshold, the porch light, the doorbell. It is the first surface the inspector touches.
• Laundry. The lint trap emptied, the top and sides of the machines wiped, the floor behind them.

Walk the house the way the inspector will: start at the front door, open every cabinet and appliance, look up at every fan and fixture, look down at every baseboard, run a finger in one window track. Take photos of every room, every appliance interior and the floors, dated, before the keys go back. Then leave the utilities on, the blinds open, and the keys where the checklist says.

We do turnover cleans for landlords, and the same items get flagged every time: the inside of the oven, the top of the fridge, the window tracks, and the toilet base. If you would rather hand the whole list over, our rental turnover cleaning page covers how we work with property owners, and our Tempe page is a good place to start if you are turning over a rental near the campus. More on Arizona homes on the blog.