A Turnover Cleaning Checklist for Chattanooga Landlords and Agents

A turnover clean has one goal: the next person to open the door should see a place nobody has lived in. That's true for a tenant touring a rental and for a buyer walking through a listing. Both are looking, with fresh eyes, at exactly the spots that regular living makes invisible. Here's how I'd walk through a unit, room by room, and what to have ready before anyone cleans.

Before the cleaner arrives

Cleaning only reaches what can be reached. Get these done first:

• Remove leftover belongings, large furniture and trash. Hauling and disposal aren't part of a cleaning service, so line up a hauler if you need one.
• Decide whether the refrigerator, range and cabinets need attention. Those interiors and exteriors are priced separately because their condition varies so much.
• Make a short list of repairs you're planning, such as a stained ceiling tile or a cracked switch plate. Clean after the repairs, not before.

The order of work

Work top to bottom and dry before wet. Dust and debris fall, so you start with ceiling fans, light fixtures and light covers and finish with floors. Dry dusting and vacuuming come before any wet wiping, otherwise you're just turning dust into mud. Skip that order and you clean everything twice.

Kitchen

The kitchen is where buyers and tenants look hardest, and where a rushed clean gets caught. Start with the light fixture and fan overhead, then the tops of cabinets if they're reachable. Wipe the microwave inside and out, the counters, the backsplash and the sink. Leave time for the fridge, range and cabinet interiors if you've decided to include them. A range with baked-on spatter or a fridge with a lingering smell tells people more about the property than any amount of staging does.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms reward patience. Work from the top down: the fan cover, the light, the mirror, then the vanity, the tub or shower, the toilet and the floor, in that order. Hard water film and soap residue need dwell time, which is why a quick wipe leaves cloudy glass and dull fixtures. Check along the base of the tub and the edge where the floor meets the wall, since that's where grime hides.

Bedrooms and living areas

These rooms look easy and aren't. Everything depends on the details people notice on a walk-through: baseboards, window sills, the ceiling fan blades and the light covers. Baseboards and window sills are complimentary parts of a move-in or move-out clean from Critical Care Cleaning, along with ceiling fans, light fixtures and light covers on ceilings no higher than 8 feet. Those are exactly the surfaces that stop looking dirty to the people who live in a space and start looking dirty to everyone else.

Vacuum carpet thoroughly. If there's a stain or an odor, that's a carpet cleaning job and should be booked separately, since carpet cleaning other than vacuuming isn't part of the service.

A quick word on timing. The gap between one tenant leaving and the next one touring is short, and cleaning tends to be the last thing on the list, which is how it ends up rushed. If you can, book the clean as soon as the unit is empty and the repairs are finished, not the day before a showing. It leaves room to fix anything you find on the final walk, and it keeps a surprise from landing on the same afternoon as a prospective tenant or buyer.

Final pass

Do the last walk with the lights on and then again with them off, using daylight from the windows. Low sun at an angle shows streaks and smudges you will never see overhead. Check the corners of the floor, the inside of closet doors and the tracks of sliding doors. Then stand in the entry and look at the unit the way the next person will.

Windows, blinds, porches and patios aren't part of a contracted cleaning, so check them yourself or assign them to someone else. A pristine kitchen next to a grimy patio door still reads as a half-done job.

Scheduling the clean

Real estate and rental turnovers start at $450 per unit for units of 2,000 square feet or less. Larger units are arranged by phone or email. Consultations are free, and all cleaning products and equipment are supplied. You can reach me at (423) 596-7632 or through the contact page.

I spent years as a nurse cleaning everything from trauma bays to patient rooms. A vacant unit is a calmer job, but the standard doesn't change. I want the next person through the door to find nothing to complain about.