Moving Into a New Home? Here's Why You Should Clean It Before You Unpack

Even a 'professionally cleaned' property handed over by an estate agent often isn't clean where it counts. Here's what to tackle before your boxes go down — and why it's easier now than ever again.

Most people's first instinct when they get the keys to a new home is to start bringing in furniture. But there's a strong case for doing the opposite — cleaning the whole property before a single box crosses the threshold. An empty property is the only time you'll ever have completely unobstructed access to every floor, wall, and cupboard. Once the sofa is in, half those surfaces become awkward or impossible to reach properly. This is your window, and it doesn't come back.

Why 'Professionally Cleaned' Often Isn't

When a rental or sale property is described as 'professionally cleaned', it means it was cleaned to a basic handover standard — not necessarily to the standard you'd expect in your own home. Vacancies have tight turnarounds between tenants, and the cleaning brief is to get the property looking acceptable on a viewing, not to reach the back of every cupboard, descale every fitting, and clean behind every appliance. It's common to move into a property and find greasy oven racks, limescale-coated taps, and dusty shelves inside wardrobes.

What to Prioritise When the Property Is Empty

These are the areas that are genuinely easier — or only possible — to clean properly before furniture arrives:

• Floors: vacuum and mop every corner, including along the skirting boards and in the centres of rooms — areas that will be under sofas and beds within hours
• Inside kitchen cupboards: wipe every shelf, corner, and hinge before any of your crockery goes in
• Oven and appliances: deep clean before your first meal, not after months of your own cooking
• Bathroom: descale everything — taps, showerheads, tiles, and the toilet — before you start using it
• Windows: clean inside and out while every sill and frame is accessible
• Wardrobes and storage: wipe inside before your clothes go in
• Walls and skirting: wipe marks and dust while the rooms are empty and well-lit

The Empty Property Advantage

There are surfaces in your home that will never be as easy to clean as they are right now — before you move in. Once the beds, sofas, wardrobes, and appliances are in place, reaching them requires moving furniture, and most people never get around to it. Here's what becomes difficult or impossible once furniture arrives:

• Under and behind large appliances (washing machine, fridge, dishwasher)
• The edges and corners of every room floor
• Behind radiators
• High surfaces and the tops of built-in wardrobes
• Inside window frames and the tracks on sliding doors
• Wall areas behind where beds and sofas will stand

A Practical Move-In Cleaning Order

1. 1Start with the highest surfaces and work down — dust falls downward
2. 2Kitchen first: oven, inside cupboards, fridge, and appliances before you unpack kitchenware
3. 3Bathroom: full descale and sanitise before first use
4. 4Floors last: vacuum and mop after everything else has been done — dust and debris from cleaning settles on the floor
5. 5Windows: do these before curtain poles and blinds go up if possible

Should You DIY or Book a Professional?

Moving is already one of the most exhausting things you'll do — and it's concentrated into a very short window. A professional move-in clean lets you hand the keys to a team in the morning and arrive to a property that's genuinely ready, not just surface-clean. For a new home in London, the cost of a professional deep clean (typically £130–£340 depending on size) is small relative to the cost of the move itself, and it's the one thing that makes every subsequent day in the property better.

It's also worth considering that a move-in clean on an empty property takes significantly less time than the same clean with furniture in — which is why the cost is often lower, and why it's better value than trying to arrange a deep clean six months in.

Checklist: What a Good Move-In Clean Covers

• Full oven deep clean — inside, racks, grill, and glass door
• Inside every kitchen cupboard and drawer
• Inside the fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine drum
• Full bathroom descale: taps, showerheads, toilet, and all chrome
• Scrub grout and clean tiles throughout
• Vacuum and mop all floors including edges
• Wipe all skirting boards, door frames, and light switches
• Clean inside all windows
• Wipe all surfaces including tops of units and inside wardrobes