You’ve got the keys, the truck arrives tomorrow, and you’re standing in an empty lounge room looking at a skirting board that clearly hasn’t been touched in years.
Clean before you unpack, and work in one order: top to bottom, dry before wet, floors last, kitchen and bathroom get the most time. Budget half a day for a two-bedroom unit and a full day for a three or four-bedroom house. But before you touch anything, walk through with your phone and photograph every room, because an empty house is the only chance you’ll get to record its real condition.
That last point matters more than the scrubbing, and if you’re renting in Victoria it has legal weight. More on that below.
Why should you clean a new home before moving in?
Because you will never again have this level of access.
Once the furniture lands, the space behind the fridge, under the oven, inside the wardrobes and along the top of every cupboard is gone for the length of your lease or your ownership. An empty house takes a fraction of the time a furnished one does, and you can reach everything.
There’s a second reason that’s easy to miss. Cleaning a house is the most thorough inspection you’ll ever give it. You’ll find the loose door handle, the tap that drips, the window that won’t latch, the patch of mould in the corner of the ensuite. Finding those in week one is very different from finding them in month eight.
What should you clean first in a new home?
Work in this order and you won’t clean anything twice.
- Ceilings and high corners. Cobwebs, ceiling fans, light fittings, the tops of doorframes and wardrobes. Everything you dislodge falls, so this goes first.
- Walls, switches and doors. Light switches, door handles and the area around them collect the most contact grime in any house. Skirting boards last in this pass.
- Kitchen. Inside and on top of every cupboard and drawer, the rangehood, the oven, behind and under the fridge and oven if you can move them safely, benchtops, splashback, sink.
- Bathroom and laundry. Shower, screen, grout, bath, toilet inside and out, vanity, cupboards, exhaust fan. Take the drain grates out and clear them.
- Windows, sills and tracks. Sills and tracks hold more than the glass does.
- Floors, last. Vacuum everything, then mop. Carpets are worth a professional steam clean before your furniture goes down, for the same reason as everything else here: access.
If you’re moving into the northern suburbs and would rather hand the whole thing over, our cleaners in Heidelberg do exactly this job as a pre-move deep clean, in an empty house, in one visit.
Do renters in Victoria need to clean before moving in?
Often not as much as they assume, and this is the part almost no moving-in guide tells you.
Under section 65 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic), the rental provider must ensure that on the day you’re due to move in, the property is vacant and in a reasonably clean condition. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s Guideline 2 spells out the consequence: a renter is not required to enter into occupation of premises that don’t meet those conditions.
So if you arrive to a genuinely dirty property, cleaning it yourself without a word is the worst option available to you. Photograph it and raise it in writing first.
Then there’s the document that decides every bond dispute. Your rental provider should give you a condition report before you move in. Under section 35 of the Act, you have 5 business days from the move-in date to complete it from your point of view, add your own comments, sign it and return a copy. If you were never given one, you can fill in the Consumer Affairs Victoria template yourself within the same window.
Three practical rules follow from that:
- Photograph before you clean. Dated photos of the shower grout, the oven, the carpet stains and the walls are your evidence. Clean first and you’ve erased it.
- Write down every defect, not just the dirty parts. The renter’s comments section is where you record the cracked tile and the mouldy window seal.
- Keep your copy. At the end of the tenancy, the comparison runs entry report versus exit condition. You can’t be asked to leave a property cleaner than you found it.
Beaurex Cleaning’s end of lease cleaning is built around that same standard, which is why we tell renters to document the property on day one rather than day one thousand.
Which cleaning products are safe for a move-in clean?
Most of a move-in clean is warm water, dishwashing liquid and a microfibre cloth. The trouble starts when people mix things.
| Product or method | Verdict | Why |
| Warm water, dishwashing liquid, microfibre | Safe, and does most of the work | Handles dust, grease and general grime on nearly every surface |
| Bicarb soda as a dry scrub | Safe and effective | Sprinkle on a damp surface, scrub, wipe off. The mild abrasion and the alkalinity do the cutting |
| Diluted white vinegar, used on its own | Safe on most surfaces | Good on mineral deposits and glass. Avoid on natural stone, which acid can etch |
| Bicarb and vinegar premixed in a spray bottle | Avoid | They neutralise each other, leaving water and a salt. Sealing the reaction in a bottle also builds pressure: one tablespoon of bicarb can release over five litres of carbon dioxide |
| Bleach plus vinegar or any acidic cleaner | Never | Releases chlorine gas |
| Bleach plus ammonia, found in some glass cleaners | Never | Releases chloramine gas |
| Caustic oven cleaner | Use with care | Usually sodium hydroxide based, which causes severe burns. Gloves, eye protection, open windows, follow the label |
| Flea bombs and total release foggers | Avoid | Propellants are typically flammable, and the mist doesn’t reach the carpet fibres and crevices where flea eggs and larvae actually sit |
The rule that matters most
Use one product at a time, rinse between products, and ventilate. Washington State Department of Health lists vinegar, toilet cleaners, drain cleaners and rust removers among the acidic products that release chlorine gas when they meet bleach. In an empty house with the windows shut, that’s a small room and a big dose.
If someone swallows a cleaning product or gets it in their eyes, call the Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26, free and available 24 hours from anywhere in Australia. Call 000 if the person has collapsed, is struggling to breathe or is having a seizure.
What if the previous occupants had pets or the place has mould?
Both are worth handing to a professional rather than improvising.
For fleas, the DIY fogger is the popular answer and the wrong one.
The US Environmental Protection Agency warns that fogger propellants are typically flammable and improper use can cause fire or explosion, and pest authorities consistently find foggers rarely control crawling insects, because the mist settles on floors and benchtops instead of reaching the crevices and carpet depths where the eggs and larvae are.
You end up with pesticide residue on the surfaces you’re about to live on, and the fleas still there. A licensed pest controller is the better call.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to clean a house before moving in?
An empty two-bedroom unit is usually a half-day job for one person working methodically. A three or four-bedroom house is a full day. The kitchen and bathroom take the longest, so start early and don’t leave the oven until you’re tired.
Should I clean a brand new home before moving in?
Yes, though for different reasons. New builds carry construction dust, adhesive residue, paint flecks and grit trodden in by trades. It’s fine dust rather than grease, so it’s mostly vacuuming, damp-wiping and window tracks. After-builders cleaning is a service in its own right for exactly this reason.
Should I steam clean the carpets before moving in?
It’s the single best-value job on the list, because you’ll never have empty floors again. If you’re renting, check the entry condition report first: if the carpets were professionally cleaned before you moved in, that’s the standard you’ll be measured against when you leave.
Do I have to clean if the property was left dirty by the previous tenant?
In a Victorian rental, no. The property should be vacant and reasonably clean on the day you take occupation. Photograph it, note it on the condition report, and raise it in writing with the agent before you start scrubbing.
The ten minutes worth more than the four hours
Every guide to this topic treats move-in cleaning as a cleaning job. It’s really a survey.
The scrubbing gets you a fresh start, and it’s worth doing. But the photographs you take before the first cloth comes out are the thing you’ll still be relying on in two years, when someone asks whether that mark on the carpet was yours. Charge the phone, walk every room, and open every cupboard before you open a single box.
Reach out to Beaurex Cleaning for professional home cleaning services
Beaurex Cleaning is a locally owned, family-run cleaning company working across Melbourne suburbs. A pre-move deep clean in an empty house is one of the most useful jobs we do, because we can reach everything you won’t be able to reach again once the furniture arrives.
We offer regular home cleaning, deep and spring cleaning, end of lease cleaning, NDIS cleaning, after-builders cleaning, office and retail cleaning, medical and dental clinic cleaning, gyms and studios, restaurants and cafés, and apartment complexes.
Getting the keys soon? Get in touch at Beaurex Cleaning and we’ll clean it before your furniture lands.
Sources
- Consumer Affairs Victoria, Guideline 2 – Cleanliness (section 65: premises must be vacant and reasonably clean; renter not required to enter into occupation) — https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/library/publications/housing-and-accommodation/renting/guideline-2–cleanliness.docx
- Tenants Victoria, Condition reports (5 business days under section 35, renter’s comments, evidence value) — https://tenantsvic.org.au/explore-topics/starting-your-tenancy/condition-reports/
- Tenants Victoria, Consumer Affairs Victoria guidelines (reasonably clean, mould caused by building structure) — https://tenantsvic.org.au/explore-topics/issues-with-your-landlord/consumer-affairs-victoria-guidelines/
- Tenants Victoria, Repairs and maintenance (Private rental) (mould and damp as urgent repair) — https://tenantsvic.org.au/explore-topics/during-your-tenancy/repairs-and-maintenance/private-rental/
- The Conversation, Vinegar and baking soda: a cleaning hack or just a bunch of fizz? (neutralisation products; one tablespoon of bicarb releases over five litres of CO2) — https://theconversation.com/vinegar-and-baking-soda-a-cleaning-hack-or-just-a-bunch-of-fizz-225177
- Washington State Department of Health, Dangers of Mixing Bleach with Cleaners (chlorine gas from bleach and acids; chloramine from bleach and ammonia) — https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/contaminants/bleach-mixing-dangers
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Safety Precautions for Total Release Foggers (flammable propellants, fire and explosion risk) — https://www.epa.gov/safepestcontrol/safety-precautions-total-release-foggers
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Bug Bombs: Dangerous and Not Always Effective (foggers rarely effective on crawling insects that hide in crevices) — https://ucanr.edu/blog/pests-urban-landscape/article/bug-bombs-dangerous-and-not-always-effective
- Washington State Department of Health, Foggers (illness risks from fogger exposure) — https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/contaminants/pesticides/foggers
- ATSDR (US CDC), Sodium Hydroxide ToxFAQs (corrosivity of the active ingredient in caustic oven cleaners) — https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/ToxFAQs/ToxFAQsDetails.aspx?faqid=248&toxid=45
- NSW Poisons Information Centre (13 11 26, 24/7 nationwide) — https://www.poisonsinfo.nsw.gov.au/