Moving Into a Vancouver Apartment? Clean These 10 Things First

The first forty-eight hours in a new rental decide two things: how the suite smells for the next year, and whether you can prove what it looked like when you got the keys. Clean in the order below and you only touch each surface once, before the furniture makes half of them unreachable.

Why the first two days matter more than the rest of the month

Moving day is the only time the suite is empty. After that, the inside of the cabinets, the baseboards behind the bed and the carpet under the couch are effectively gone until you move out again. Anything you skip now you live with.

There is also a paperwork deadline. In BC the landlord and tenant walk through the unit together at the start of the tenancy and record its condition, and you should receive a copy of that report. If you add the cleaning issues in writing in the first day or two, they are part of the record. If you mention them in March, they are a conversation.

The ten things to clean first, in order

1. Inside the toilet. Hinge caps, base bolts and under the rim. First fixture used on day one.
2. The shower, tub and silicone line. Grout and the bead at the tub edge hold water, and water holds everything else.
3. The kitchen sink and tap aerator. Unscrew the aerator: grit and scale from the water supply, not from the tenant.
4. The fridge, inside and in the door fold. Cold air carries smell, and a fridge that smells will make the whole kitchen smell.
5. Inside every kitchen cabinet, top shelf first. Steam carries cooking grease upward, so the highest shelf is usually the worst.
6. The range hood filter and the drip trays. A greasy filter drips back onto the stove every time you cook.
7. The washing machine gasket and detergent drawer, if the suite has its own machine. That fold is where a small suite’s musty smell starts.
8. Window tracks and the balcony door rail. Grit in a slider scratches the glass and the track, and a broom will not lift it.
9. The carpet, traffic lanes first. Entry, bedroom side of the bed, in front of the couch. Moving day presses soil into the pile.
10. Baseboards and door frames. Last, because everything above them has been dropping dust on them all day.

The three that almost everyone skips

The tap aerator

Wrap the aerator in a cloth, unscrew it by hand or with pliers, and soak it in vinegar for twenty minutes. What comes out is a black grit that has been screening your water. Screw it back on and run the tap cold for a minute before you fill the kettle.

The toilet hinge caps

They lift off with a fingernail or a flathead. Underneath is a steel plate, two bolts and whatever has run down the back of the bowl for years. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a bathroom that looks clean and one that is.

The fridge door gasket

Pull the rubber seal back gently and run a cloth through the fold, all the way around. That fold collects crumbs, spills and condensation, and it is the most common source of a sour smell in an otherwise clean kitchen. The room-by-room cleaning checklist covers the rest of the suite the same way, cupboard by cupboard.

Document the suite before you clean it

Photograph in daylight

Turn the lights on and open the blinds, then shoot wide, then close. Every wall, every appliance, the floor at the entry, inside the oven, the corner of the ceiling above the shower. Include something for scale in the wide shots. Email the set to yourself the same day so the timestamps are independent of your phone.

Put it in writing

Send one short email listing what you found and what you have cleaned. Keep it factual: “grout in the shower was discoloured, cleaned on the 3rd, photos attached”. Nothing about blame. If a deposit dispute comes up at the end of the tenancy, this is the file that answers it. For context, a landlord must return a deposit or file with the Residential Tenancy Branch within 15 days of receiving your forwarding address in writing, and can be ordered to pay double the deposit if they keep it without your consent or an order. Rules change, so confirm current details on the RTB website.

Strata buildings: elevators, bylaws and the loading bay

Book the elevator before you book the truck

Most Vancouver strata buildings require a booking for a move, and the window is often a weekday daytime slot with the elevator padded and the door frames protected. Ask the property manager for the move-in form when you sign, not the week you move, and confirm whether a damage deposit or a certificate of insurance is required for the booking. If you are moving on the first of the month, book early: everyone else is too.

The garbage room is not a dump

Cardboard goes out flattened, and the recycling room is usually locked outside set hours. Pile boxes in the hallway overnight and you will meet your new neighbours through a strata notice. Ask where the moving-day waste goes before the truck arrives, and keep the elevator lobby clear while you unload.

Carpet in a rental, and the Vancouver damp

Rain comes in on shoes and on the movers’ dollies, and it goes straight into the entry carpet. Vacuum the traffic lanes the day you arrive, before the grit works down to the base of the pile, and vacuum in two directions so the fibres stand back up.

Do not shampoo a rental carpet yourself before you have documented its condition. A wet pass can wick old stains to the surface and leave a ring that looks like damage you caused. If the suite has a musty bedroom closet, the cause is usually a shut window and a cold exterior wall, not the carpet. Air it out on a dry day and keep the closet door open. In smoke season, wipe the sills and the top of the fridge with a damp cloth, because fine particulate settles there and a dry dust just moves it around.

What it costs in Vancouver

A proper move-in clean is priced like a move-out clean, because it is the same job: $329 to $549 on possession day, about four hours for a one or two bedroom suite. That covers the ten items above, including the inside of the cabinets and appliances. A full home deep clean runs $349 to $549 if you would rather have the grout steamed and the tracks detailed.

If you only need the once-over, move-out and possession day cleaning is the right booking. If you would rather not repeat the work every spring, recurring cleaning starts at $119 for one bed, one bath and reaches $179 for four or more bedrooms at about two hours a visit. Flat rate, shown before booking, paid after the clean.

Frequently asked questions

The landlord said the suite was professionally cleaned. Do I still need to clean it?

Wipe-test one surface before you decide: the top of the fridge, or the cabinet above the kettle, with a white cloth. Cloth stays white, the suite was cleaned. Comes away yellow, that clean was for the showing.

How long does a move-in clean take?

About four hours for a one or two bedroom suite done properly, longer if the carpet needs extraction or the grout needs steam. Two people working top to bottom finish a one bedroom in roughly half that, which matters if the movers arrive the same day.

Should I clean before or after the condition inspection?

Inspect first, then clean. The inspection records what the suite was like when you received it, and a clean surface makes every remaining mark easier to photograph. Cleaning first hides the evidence.

Need it done before the keys change hands? Framework Property Care cleans apartments across Vancouver, flat-rate from $119, with a 48-hour re-clean guarantee on the agreed list. Book a cleaning or call 604-966-3882.

Once the unit is empty, the full before-you-move-in order covers what to clean, and in what sequence.