Collecting the keys to a new condo is a great feeling. Discovering, two weeks after moving in, that the previous occupants' hair is still in the bathroom drain is not. Whether your unit is brand new from the developer or previously lived in, cleaning it before the furniture arrives is dramatically easier than after — every surface is reachable, and dust has nowhere to hide.
Here's the checklist our crews use on move-in jobs, adapted for doing it yourself.
Start With the Air and Water
Before anything else, run every tap for two to three minutes to flush stagnant water from the pipes, and run the air-conditioning on fan mode with windows open. New units often carry construction dust in the ducting; older units carry whatever the previous owner's filters trapped. If the aircon smells musty, book a chemical service before move-in day — it's far messier once your furniture is underneath.
Kitchen: Trust Nothing
- Wipe cabinet interiors before your dishes go in. Developer units often have sawdust and silicone smears inside; lived-in units have crumbs and oil film.
- Degrease the extractor hood and check its filter — this is the single most-skipped item we find.
- Clean the sink trap and pour a kettle of hot water down the drain.
- If appliances were left behind, clean the refrigerator seals and run the washing machine empty on its hottest cycle.
Bathrooms: The Previous Owner Lives On
Bathrooms deserve the harshest treatment of the whole move-in clean. Descale the showerhead in a bag of diluted acid-based cleaner, scrub the tile grout, pull out and rinse the floor trap, and disinfect the toilet inside and out — including the often-forgotten hinges of the seat. If the shower screen has permanent-looking water stains, a cerium-oxide polish can usually rescue it.
The Five Spots Everyone Misses
- Window tracks. They collect construction grit that jams rollers over time. Vacuum first, then wipe.
- Top of kitchen cabinets. Out of sight, coated in sticky dust. Clean once now, then lay old newspaper up there and simply replace it yearly.
- Behind the toilet. Awkward to reach, always grimy, easiest to do before your bathroom shelving goes in.
- Balcony drainage holes. Blocked ones cause the flooding complaints we hear every monsoon season.
- Door tops and frames. Run a damp cloth over every door's top edge — you'll only need to see the cloth once to believe us.
When to Call Professionals Instead
A studio or one-bedroom unit is a realistic weekend project for two people. Anything larger, anything post-renovation, or any unit where the previous occupancy is best not thought about too hard — that's where a professional move-in clean pays for itself. Our crews handle it in a day with equipment you won't want to buy for one use.
Planning a move in the Klang Valley? Get a fixed move-in cleaning quote from our coordinators, or read more about our deep cleaning service.