Scheduling a Move-Out Cleaning
If you ever had to move before, you know just how dreadful it is. First you need to find a place to live; and in this housing market that is no easy feat. Then you have to call a moving company or rent a U-Haul truck to move your items. Next you have need to box up all your life’s belongings from your couch to your collectible X-Men figurines and load them into the Uhaul. Drive your Uhaul to your new dwelling and unpack all of them items one by one. Now if that didn’t give you anxiety, let me help. NOW YOU HAVE TO CLEAN YOUR ENTIRE HOME!!! That’s right! Everything in the house inside and outside, top to bottom. That’s not what most people want to think of doing after breaking your back trying to move all their things from one place to another. If you’re renting, then most likely you’re trying to clean your home to perfection to receive your deposit back. And if you own the home and just want to do the next owner a solid by cleaning up after yourself, you still need to put forth significant effort to make it look half-way presentable. And you’re supposed to do this after being dog-tired from moving your whole life? If you’re like most people, you will want to hire a professional that will do the deep cleaning for you and there are some good reasons for that.
1) Studies have shown that renters receive more of their deposit back from hiring a professional cleaning service than doing it themselves.
2) You’re absolutely exhausted from the moving experience that you don’t want to do it.
3) Your landlord/property manager wants a receipt from a cleaning company to prove that the cleaning has been professionally completed.
Now that we’ve established why one might want to hire a professional house cleaning company to complete their move-out cleaning let’s talk about scheduling the service. Often when a customer calls to schedule a move-out cleaning I ask some very important questions to make sure everything goes smoothly. Firstly, I ask when all of the items will be out of the home. And when I say all, I mean 100% empty: not a fork, a old tennis racket, a bag of clothes to be donated to the goodwill, 100% EMPTY. Then I ask if any other services are planned in the home that we need to be aware of such as: Tenting for pest control, carpet cleaners, window cleaners, grout cleaners, wood refinishers, etc. It is best to schedule your move-out cleaning when the home will no longer be entered by anyone for any particular reason. That way you can ensure that when you hand the keys over, you know the house will be completely cleaned. Next, and this one is important, is you need to know who is responsible for giving you your deposit back if you’re a renter. Is it the landlord, property manager, friend of the owner, etc. This is the person that decides if they give you all your deposit back, partial refund or nothing at all. This is the person that needs to be at the property when the move-out cleaning is completed to do a thorough walk-through with the cleaners to ensure it’s to their satisfaction. Often the renter will do a walk through with the cleaners and according to the renter’s standards, the property looks great and they’re confident they will get their full refund. But when the property manager sees the property, they interpret it differently.
Last but not least, the cleaners cannot clean if they cannot see and then cannot clean effectively if there’s no water. Please ensure that all utilities will be turned on when the cleaners come to do the move-out cleaning.
