Clean what landlords check most: the kitchen, the bathrooms, the inside of every empty cabinet and drawer, reachable surfaces, and wall scuffs. Then the refrigerator and the oven, which are separate lines rather than part of a base clean. Then photograph all of it before you hand back the keys.
That is the honest shape of it: the list is the part you control, and the deposit decision itself always rests with your landlord. What follows is the scope JAS publishes for a move-out — 38 items on an empty property — plus what Miami adds.
First: ask for the list you will be graded against
Before you buy a single sponge, ask your landlord or property manager for the move-out checklist in writing. Some leases here already carry one: our move-out cleaning in Miami page notes that in Doral, corporate leases often come with a formal inspection checklist we can clean against. If yours exists, it beats every generic list on the internet — including this one.
If none exists, the next best reference is your own move-in photos — the only version of the starting condition that does not depend on memory.
The 38-item version, in order
The published scope is worth reading, because it says what is included and what is not in the same breath: move-out cleaning covers an empty property from kitchen through common areas — surfaces, sink, cabinet and appliance exteriors, microwave inside and outside, bathrooms, empty cabinet, drawer, closet and shelf interiors, doors, handles, switches, baseboards, cobwebs, and floors. Refrigerator, oven, and window services are quoted separately. The service page is the canonical source; below is a reading order.
- Kitchen · Surfaces, sink, cabinet and appliance exteriors, microwave inside and outside
- Bathrooms · Complete bathrooms
- Everything that opens · Empty cabinet, drawer, closet and shelf interiors, included when reachable
- Edges and touch points · Doors, handles, switches, baseboards, cobwebs
- Floors · Floors vacuumed and mopped
- The record · 38 items + full photo archive PDF, with a CleanCheck report on eligible completed visits
The separate lines — decide them early, not on the day
A few things sit outside that list on purpose, and the move-out page prices them in the open: empty refrigerator $65 · inside oven $65 · oven + refrigerator bundle $115 · interior windows from $10 per pane · trash/junk removal by separate quote. Range-priced work, occupied properties, and extreme residue require review.
Choose them on the booking form instead of discovering them at the walkthrough. If your lease names the oven, adding the line is the cheap version of that conversation. And trash or furniture nobody is taking is removal by separate quote.
“You can only defend the work that was on somebody’s list. Everything else is a memory.”
What counts as a repair, not a clean
This is where internet checklists quietly overpromise. Spot-cleaning of wall scuffs is on the JAS list. Patching nail holes, touching up paint, replacing a cracked switch plate, a broken blind slat, or a dead bulb is not cleaning, and no cleaning visit becomes a paint job. Budget or negotiate those separately.
Two more boundaries the page states plainly. Areas behind or beneath appliances are cleaned only when safely accessible without moving installed or heavy appliances — so if your checklist says “behind the range”, raise it before the visit, not during. And JAS reserves the right to refuse service in cases of unsafe conditions (mold, infestation, biohazard): if that is what you are looking at, it is not a cleaning problem.
What Miami adds to the list
A national checklist assumes a dry climate and a sealed box. Miami-Dade is neither, and four things show up here that a generic list never names.
The shower glass
Hard-water buildup on glass and tile is published on the move-out page as a condition factor — the polite way of saying the shower is where the hours go. It does not come off in one pass. Start there, early enough that a second pass still fits.
Tracks, screens and the balcony
If you lived anywhere near the water, sliding-door tracks and screens hold salt and sand a vacuum alone does not lift. Tracks are easy to overlook and easy to inspect. So is the balcony: it is floor area even without a ceiling.
The A/C returns and vents
The A/C here runs essentially year-round, so the return grille and the vent covers collect dust with no off-season. Wiping the return grille is a ten-minute job that changes how the whole unit reads.
The season, and the humidity
Hurricane season runs June through November. If your move lands inside it, expect two things: shutter and impact-window tracks carry fine grit, and a unit that sits closed between tenants collects exactly that dust. Year-round pollen does the rest — “Miami pollen, hurricane dust” are the two seasonal-reset triggers our service page names. If the lease allows it, leave the A/C at a sensible setting until handoff: a closed, humid unit does not hold a clean.
In a building, the building is on the list
In a Brickell or Miami Beach tower the schedule is not entirely yours: most associations require a reserved freight elevator and a firm move-out window. Many run a vendor file too — a certificate of insurance naming the association, quiet hours, a loading-dock slot. JAS carries $2,000,000 general liability coverage with every cleaner background-checked, and most certificates are returned within 2 business hours. Ask the week before.
Sequence matters more than effort
The JAS answer fits in one sentence: if your movers finish in the morning, schedule the clean for after the last box is out and before your final walkthrough. An empty unit is what makes the published price the price — and what makes the photos usable: nothing in frame but the unit.
Two dates to respect. Booking needs at least 24–48 hours of lead time, and end-of-month dates fill first because most leases turn over then. And if the unit will not be empty, say so on the form: a scope confirmation is slower than an instant total, and much faster than an argument on handoff day.
Proof is the other half of the job
The cleaning is what you did; the photo archive is what you can show. A move-out visit ends with 38 items and a full photo archive PDF, and eligible completed visits include a CleanCheck photo report built to forward — one tap to your landlord. Send it on handoff day, not three weeks later.
None of that decides the outcome. The deposit decision itself always rests with your landlord. What changes is whether your side of the story has dated photographs in it. What a report contains is in what’s in a CleanCheck Report; if you are pricing the visit rather than scoping it, the table lives in how much move-out cleaning costs.
Quick answers
If I hire a move-out clean, is there anything left for me to do?
Emptying the unit, and two decisions. The published scope is a clean of an empty property: appliance interiors are separate add-ons, junk removal is a separate quote, and repairs are not cleaning. Clear the place, decide about the refrigerator and the oven, and the checklist covers the rest.
Is paying extra for the oven and refrigerator worth it?
Treat it as a decision, not a default. The move-out page prices inside oven at $65, an empty refrigerator at $65, and the oven + refrigerator bundle at $115. If your lease or checklist names either appliance, choosing that line is the version of the conversation you control.
The unit will still have furniture in it. Does that change anything?
Yes, and the booking form says so on screen: occupied or furnished properties require scope and price confirmation. We work around the furniture and clean what is safely accessible; whatever it blocks is quoted separately. A published starting price assumes an empty unit.
Will a professional clean guarantee I get the whole deposit back?
No, and nobody honest will say otherwise. A move-out clean addresses the items landlords check most and ends with a dated photo archive you can forward at handoff. The deposit decision itself always rests with your landlord.
The short version
Kitchen and bathrooms first; then every empty cabinet, drawer, closet and shelf interior; then doors, switches, baseboards and floors. Decide deliberately about the refrigerator, the oven and the windows — separate lines, all three. Do the Miami items: shower glass, tracks and screens, the A/C return. Clean after the last box and before the walkthrough, and send the photos the same day.
Part of the JAS operating playbook — written to publish the scope most of the trade leaves at “we’ll make it spotless”.