Move-Out Cleaning Checklist for New Orleans Renters (Get Your Deposit Back)

Moving out of a rental in New Orleans comes with one deadline that matters more than the others: the day you hand back the keys. Whatever the unit looks like at that moment is what your landlord sees, photographs and compares against the condition you moved into. This is the checklist we work from on move-out cleans across the city, written so you can use it yourself, hand it to a helper, or send it to us with your estimate request.

First, read your lease and take photos

Before you touch a mop, pull out your lease. Most leases have a move-out section that says what "clean" means to that landlord: appliances inside and out, floors, blinds, light fixtures, sometimes a note about nail holes or a checklist attached as an addendum. That list is the standard you are cleaning to.

Then photograph everything, before you clean and again after. Wide shots of every room, close-ups of the oven, the refrigerator, the tub, the inside of closets, and any damage that was already there when you moved in. Date-stamped photos on your phone are the simplest record you can keep. If you filled out a move-in inspection form, find it too; it is the baseline your deposit is judged against.

What Louisiana's deposit rule means in plain terms

Louisiana law requires a landlord to return your security deposit, or send you an itemized list of deductions along with whatever balance is left, within 30 days after the lease ends and you move out. That itemized list is where cleaning shows up: an oven, a tub or a refrigerator that someone had to clean after you left can be listed and charged against the deposit.

That is the general rule, and you can verify it yourself. We clean homes, we do not give legal advice, so read your lease, keep your photos, and give your landlord a forwarding address in writing so the refund has somewhere to go. If there is a dispute, a tenant-rights organization or an attorney is the right place to take it.

The move-out cleaning checklist

Work top to bottom and finish with the floors so you are not walking over clean ground. Do it after the furniture and boxes are gone; cabinets, closets and baseboards can only be cleaned properly in an empty room.

Kitchen

• Inside the oven: racks out and scrubbed, the door glass, the drawer underneath.
• Inside the refrigerator and freezer: shelves, drawers, door seals and the top of the unit. Leave it running unless the lease says otherwise.
• The microwave and the dishwasher if they stay, inside and out, including the dishwasher filter at the bottom.
• Inside every cabinet and drawer, including the one under the sink, plus the cabinet fronts and handles.
• Counters, backsplash, sink and faucet; the stovetop with the grates or drip pans lifted out.

Bathrooms

• Toilet inside and out, including the base and the floor behind it.
• Tub or shower: tile and grout lines scrubbed, glass doors and their track, the drain cover.
• Sink, faucet, mirror, medicine cabinet inside and out, vanity drawers.
• Exhaust fan cover, towel bars, toilet paper holder, light fixture.

Bedrooms, closets and living areas

• Inside closets: shelves, rods, the floor and the corners where dust collects.
• Baseboards, doors and door frames, light switches and outlet covers, window sills.
• Ceiling fan blades and light fixtures you can reach from a step stool.
• Walls: spot-clean scuffs and fingerprints with a damp cloth. Test in a corner first, because flat paint can rub off.
• Nail holes: check the lease before patching; some landlords would rather do it themselves.

Floors, last

• Vacuum carpets and rugs edge to edge, closets included.
• Sweep and mop hard floors. Damp-mop wood rather than flooding it.
• Take out the trash and recycling, and make sure nothing is left in the outside bins on your last day.

Things renters forget

• The top of the refrigerator and the top of the kitchen cabinets.
• Air vents and the return grille, which hold a season's worth of dust.
• The tracks on sliding closet doors and patio doors.
• Burned-out light bulbs, replaced before the walk-through.
• The smoke detector and thermostat, left as the lease asks.
• Keys, fobs, mailbox keys and parking passes, counted and returned together.
• Utilities: keep the water and power on through the clean and the final walk-through.

When to do it yourself and when to book it

If the unit is small, you have a free day and the condition is already decent, the checklist above is a solid afternoon of work. Booking makes more sense when the move itself ate your time, the kitchen or bathrooms have heavy build-up, you are moving from out of town, or the key-return deadline is close. In New Orleans the end-of-month dates and the August and May turnovers around Tulane, Loyola and UNO fill the calendar first, so book a few days ahead when you can.

What a professional move-out clean covers

Our move-in and move-out cleaning is built around the empty home and includes:

• Inside all cabinets, drawers and closets
• Inside the oven, refrigerator and other appliances
• Bathrooms cleaned and sanitized top to bottom
• Baseboards, doors, switches and window sills
• Spot-cleaning walls and removing scuffs where possible
• Vacuuming and mopping all floors in the empty home

A few honest limits. The home should be empty: we do not remove furniture, boxes or anything left behind, and if some things will still be there, say so and we price the clean around them. We spot-clean scuffs but do not wash full walls, patch or paint. Garages and yards are not part of it, and we do not do work that needs a ladder taller than a step stool. Water and power need to be on. If your lease asks for something outside this list, send us the checklist with your estimate request and we will tell you plainly what is covered and what would be extra.

Every job gets a free written estimate based on the size of the home, its condition when the last occupant left, and what is still inside. The estimate is the price. If we arrive and the home is not as described, we show you photos and tell you the new price before doing anything more; nothing extra is done or charged without your approval. We take before and after photos of the areas we clean, which are useful to you for a move-out, and they stay private.

Booking a move-out clean in New Orleans and the metro

We serve New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Arabi, Chalmette, Gretna, Harvey, Marrero, Belle Chasse and St. Bernard Parish, every day from 9:00 AM to 8:30 PM. Request a free estimate on the booking page, or call or text (504) 355-9525 with your key-return date, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and whether the home will be empty. Weekend and end-of-month dates fill first.

Questions renters ask