Move In Cleaning NYC: What's Included & When to Book It

September is the busiest lease-turnover month in New York City, and most of the apartments changing hands were handed back "broom-swept" — which is a legal condition, not a clean one. A professional move in cleaning NYC renters book before the boxes arrive is a full deep clean of an empty apartment: inside the oven and fridge, inside every cabinet and drawer, a real bathroom disinfection, and floors that get mopped before a single piece of furniture lands on them. Superb Maids NYC prices it the same honest way as every service we offer, and the empty-apartment window is the one time it can be done properly. Here is what a move-in clean covers, when to schedule it, and how long it takes for a typical NYC apartment.

What does "broom-swept" actually leave behind?

Broom-swept means the previous tenant removed their belongings and ran a broom over the floors — nothing more. It is the standard most NYC leases require at move-out, and it is what your landlord means when the apartment is described as "ready." It does not mean the oven was degreased, the fridge shelves were washed, the tub grout was scrubbed, or the cabinet interiors were wiped down after two or three years of someone else's cooking.

Walk through a broom-swept apartment with a flashlight and you will usually find the same list: a film of grease on the range hood and the cabinet doors nearest the stove, crumbs and sticky rings inside kitchen drawers, dust on top of the fridge and along every baseboard, hair and soap scum in the bathroom, and dark marks on the floor where furniture sat. None of that is a lease violation. All of it is what you will be living with unless someone cleans it — and once your own furniture is in place, half of it becomes impossible to reach.

If you have just come from the other side of a move, our guide to move-out cleaning costs and the deposit checklist explains what landlords look for at the walkthrough. A move-in clean is the mirror image: it is done for you, not for the person inspecting the apartment.

What does move in cleaning NYC include?

A move-in clean is a top-to-bottom deep clean of an empty apartment. Because there is no furniture, nothing is worked around — every surface, every interior, and every floor is reachable, and our team cleans all of them. This is the scope on our move-in and move-out cleaning service page, room by room:

Kitchen

• Inside and outside of the oven, fridge, and microwave — shelves, drawers, and door seals included
• Inside every cabinet, drawer, and pantry shelf, wiped and dried before your dishes go in
• Stovetop, range hood, backsplash, and countertops degreased
• Sink and faucet scrubbed and disinfected

Bathroom

• Full disinfection of the toilet, tub, shower, sink, and tile — including grout lines and the shower door track
• Inside the medicine cabinet and vanity
• Mirrors, fixtures, and the exhaust vent cover

Bedrooms, living areas, and closets

• Inside every closet — shelves, rods, and the floor underneath
• Baseboards, door frames, doors, light switches, and outlet covers
• Interior windows, window sills, and mirrors
• Vents, ceiling fans, radiators, and all reachable surfaces dusted

Floors — done last, after everything above

• Vacuumed and mopped edge to edge, including under radiators and inside closets, so the floor is clean before it is covered

Add-ons like carpet deodorizing or extra sanitization can be requested when you book. If you want to compare this to what a standard deep clean covers in a lived-in home, see our deep cleaning service page — the difference is that a move-in clean assumes an empty apartment and works inside everything.

Why is it worth cleaning before you unpack?

Because it is the cheapest and most effective clean your apartment will ever get. Three reasons:

1. Access. Once your bed is against the wall and the sofa is in the living room, the floor under them, the baseboards behind them, and the radiator beside them are off-limits for years. Empty, they take minutes.
2. Speed. There is nothing to move, lift, or work around. A cleaner in an empty apartment covers far more in an hour than in a furnished one, so the same job costs fewer hours.
3. A genuine reset. Cabinets and drawers are the one thing you cannot practically clean later without emptying them again. Cleaning them now means your dishes, food, and clothes go into surfaces you know are clean — not surfaces the last tenant's cutlery lived in.

There is also a health argument: dust, pet dander, and cooking residue from a previous household are concentrated in exactly the places a broom-swept apartment does not touch — inside cabinets, on top of the fridge, in the bathroom vent, along baseboards. A move-in clean removes it once, before you start breathing it with the windows closed for fall.

When should you schedule a move-in cleaning?

After you have the keys and before the movers arrive — ideally the day before your move-in date, or the morning of if your movers come in the afternoon. That gap is the whole point: the apartment must be empty for the clean to reach everything, and it needs a couple of hours to dry before boxes and furniture go on the floor.

In practice, in NYC that means:

• Get your key date in writing first. Many buildings only release keys on the lease start date, so a September 1 lease often means a September 1 clean and a September 2 move.
• Book early in the month if you can. Late August and the first week of September are the busiest days of the year for move cleaning in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, and morning slots go first.
• If the previous tenant is still moving out, wait. A clean done around someone else's boxes is not a move-in clean. If the timeline slips, tell us and we will move the appointment — a clean day later is better than a partial clean on time.

If the movers beat the cleaners, the clean can still happen — but it becomes a standard deep clean that works around your things, and the inside-cabinet and under-furniture work is what gets lost.

How long does a move-in clean take, and what does it cost?

Move-in cleaning starts at $60 per hour per cleaner, and the total is hours multiplied by the number of cleaners on the job. An empty apartment goes faster than a furnished one, so typical times look like this — with the actual figure depending on the apartment's condition at handover:

• Studio or small one-bedroom: about 3 to 4 hours with one cleaner, or 2 hours with two
• One-bedroom: about 4 to 5 hours with one cleaner, or 2 to 3 hours with two
• Two-bedroom: about 5 to 7 hours with one cleaner, or 3 to 4 hours with two
• Three-bedroom or larger: usually a two- or three-cleaner job, 4 or more hours

Two things move those numbers: how the last tenant left the kitchen and bathroom, and whether you add extras like carpet deodorizing. When you book, a manager talks through the apartment with you — size, condition, and add-ons — and gives you a suggested time frame before anyone is scheduled, so there is no surprise on the day. Every cleaner is insured and background-checked, we use eco-friendly products, and the work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee: if something on the checklist was missed, tell us and we make it right.

How do you get a move-in clean booked before moving day?

Pick your move-in date, confirm when you will have the keys, and book your move-in cleaning online for the day before the furniture arrives. Tell us the apartment size and anything you already know about its condition, and we will confirm the crew size and time frame with you before the appointment.

Unpacking into a clean apartment is a small thing that changes how a new home feels from the first night. Simple, honest clean — done once, done right, before the boxes come in.

By The Superb Maids NYC Team