Move-Out Cleaning Guide to Sell Your Home

Cleaning Tips to Sell Your Home Faster

May 15, 2025

How to Properly Clean Your Home Before Selling

If you're selling your home soon or even just considering it, it's important to make a great first impression on potential buyers. A flawlessly clean home often results in faster offers and a higher total selling price. People shopping for homes love to see a house so clean that they feel like they're in a museum.

Let's look at a few move-out cleaning tips that you can use to make your house look as beautiful and perfect as possible before you put it on the market.

Making a Great First Impression

In the same way as meeting a new person for the first time, first impressions are also very important for potential buyers looking inside a prospective home. The first thing you'll want to do is to remove any clutter and personal items that might be lying around, as this creates a much more spacious look.

Trim, walls, floors, and corners should be cleaned top to bottom for a spotless look. This includes easy-to-overlook areas like baseboards, light switches, and fan blades.

This is important because it makes the home more attractive to potential buyers. Seeing someone else's hand cream and dusty fan blades will shatter the illusion and make buyers feel like they're in a house someone else already lives in, instead of their dream home. They'll also get the feeling that the home was truly cared for and ready to live in, instead of feeling like it's a "fixer-upper."

Focus on Kitchens and Bathrooms

For potential homebuyers, kitchens and bathrooms can often make or break a deal. They won't like seeing years of cooking residue behind the stove or dirty bathroom faucets. You'll want to thoroughly scrub toilets, countertops, fixtures, showers, and tubs.

All kitchen appliances should be thoroughly degreased. Soap scum, mildew, and grime should be completely removed. This is a big priority because these are the locations that buyers will not only use every day, but their guests are guaranteed to see as well.

Refresh Floors and Carpets

Dull floors, dirty carpets, and unpleasant odours can make your home feel old, leading potential buyers to feel like they might have to replace it, making them less inclined to purchase or put in an offer. Shampooing or steam cleaning carpets, polishing hardwood surfaces, removing stains, and deodorizing flooring will make the floors look good and stand out.

Eliminate Odours and Freshen the Air

Speaking of odours, the house should smell clean and fresh before buyers come to visit. Trash bins, areas heavily used by pets, and disposals should be kept away from main areas. You'll also want to get some help identifying any smells, as your nose might not notice smells to which your body has become accustomed.

If you have a showing coming up, consider using cleaners with plenty of fragrance or, for an added touch, consider baking cookies that you can serve to your visitors. For many potential buyers or visitors, bad smells can be an instant turn-off, cause bad vibes, and lead to them rejecting an otherwise ideal house, especially if the smell is so bad they think they'll never be able to get it out.

Clean Out Closets and Storage Areas

Next, check your closets and storage areas, like cabinets and dressers. Potential buyers want to know how much space they'd have, and it can be difficult to tell if you still have spatulas in the kitchen or boxes piled in the closet. Worse, overly stuffed storage areas make everything look smaller, cramped, and crowded.

If you must have some items stored in these areas, they should be minimal and well-organized. These spaces make your home look more functional, and the buyer will often have their own ideas as to how they should be used. Seeing too many items might change their perception and make them hesitant.

Let Natural Light Come Through

After that, you'll want to make sure that the maximum possible amount of natural light can be seen during the homebuyer's visit. All windows should be cleaned (especially if you have little ones who love leaving fingerprints behind), blinds should be dusted, mirrors should be polished, curtains should be opened, and window sills should be clean and free of dirt or dust.

In addition to looking great, bright spaces can boost a potential buyer's mood, while also highlighting your home's best features and natural beauty.

Keep Up with the House Cleaning

After a major deep clean, you'll still want to stay vigilant in case an unexpected buyer arrives. Carpets should be vacuumed, surfaces wiped, and rooms should be decluttered every day. When possible, use only the rooms in your house that are necessary to avoid spreading dirt, dust, and debris. That way, you'll always be ready if a potential buyer requests a last-minute showing.

Hire a Professional Move-Out Cleaning Service

It's always a good idea to consider hiring a professional move-out cleaning service. Many cleaning companies offer this valuable service. Through their years of experience, they know where the hidden dirt and grime tend to settle, they know the best tricks for deodorizing carpets and scrubbing grout, and many realtors will highly recommend it before listing and for your final "broom clean" before closing.

A home cleaned by professionals can boost your home's value and help it to sell faster. Perhaps more importantly, though, it can help reduce the burden on you and your family while you're trying to sell your house. Instead of worrying about cleaning, let the professionals handle it, and you can focus on other projects that will help get your home sold faster.

Final Thoughts

A proper cleaning doesn’t just make your home look great, it gives buyers one less reason to say no and every reason to say yes. A clean, beautiful home tends to sell faster and for more money than those that need a little bit of extra work. They're also great for giving your home a little extra pizzazz and helping it stand out in pictures, especially ones you post online. In the end, a deep clean is one of the simplest ways to sell your home.

Get Your Home Market Ready with a Professional Cleaning Company

If you can't keep up with your cleaning or would rather spend your time focused on selling your home, Luxoclean can help. Our pre-listing and move-out cleaning services are specifically designed to help you sell your home stress-free by making it look just as beautiful as it did the day you moved in. Call us or visit our Book Now page to schedule a move-out cleaning appointment today!