You have the keys. The rooms are empty. And somebody else clearly lived here before you. Maybe it's a little dusty. Maybe the bathroom is a lot. Either way, it isn't a reflection on you, and it isn't a reason to feel bad about the place. It's just the step that comes before unpacking.

Here's the good news: an empty apartment is the easiest it will ever be to clean. No furniture to move, no boxes in the way. One afternoon, done in the right order, gets you somewhere you can actually put your things down.

What you actually need

You don't need a cabinet full of products. For a first pass, this is plenty:

  • Rubber gloves. Especially for the bathroom. Don't skip these.
  • An all-purpose cleaner or plain dish soap. Dish soap and warm water handles more than people expect.
  • A scrub sponge and a few cloths. Old t-shirts work fine as cloths.
  • A bucket. A big pot or mixing bowl will do in a pinch.
  • Trash bags. You will fill at least one with whatever got left behind.
  • Something for the floors. A broom and a mop for hard floors, or a vacuum for carpet.

One safety note: never mix cleaners, especially bleach with anything containing ammonia or acids. Use one product at a time, rinse between them, and keep a window open.

The order that saves you from doing it twice

The rule is simple: top to bottom, dirtiest rooms first, floors last. Dust and drips fall down. If you mop first and then wipe the counters, you'll be mopping again. So go in this order.

1. Walk through and open everything up

Open the windows. Turn on any fans. Take out whatever the last tenant left: old hangers, a forgotten shower curtain, takeout menus in a drawer. If you're renting, this is also a good moment to take a few photos of any damage or stains that were already there, so you have a record before your things move in.

2. The bathroom

Start here, because it usually needs the most time and the cleaner works better if it sits. Spray or soap the shower, tub, sink, and inside of the toilet bowl, then leave it for a few minutes while you do something else.

When you come back, work clean to dirty:

  1. Mirror and any shelves or cabinet insides.
  2. Sink and faucet.
  3. Shower or tub. Scrub, then rinse well.
  4. Toilet: bowl first, then the seat and lid, then the outside, and the base last.

Use a separate cloth for the toilet and don't use it anywhere else. If the bathroom is yours and completely bare, The Bathroom kit covers the basics to shower tonight and have somewhere to set things down once it's clean.

3. The kitchen

Wipe the insides of every cabinet and drawer before anything goes in them. Crumbs and old spills hide in corners. Then the fridge: take out any shelves that come out, wash them in the sink, and wipe the inside walls. Leave the door open a bit afterward to air it out.

Wipe down the stovetop and the counters last, since they'll catch whatever falls while you do the cabinets above. The inside of the oven can wait. If it's bad, that's a separate project for another weekend, not a reason to stop unpacking.

4. Everything else, high to low

Now go room by room with a damp cloth. Start up high: tops of door frames, light switches, door handles, window sills. Then work down to the baseboards. You don't need to scrub every wall. Just the spots people touch and the places dust settles.

Floors, last

Everything above you is done now, so whatever fell has landed. This is when the floors get their turn.

Hard floors

Dry first, then wet. Sweep or vacuum everything up before any water touches the floor, or you'll just be pushing grit around as mud. Then mop with warm water and a little cleaner or dish soap.

Start in the corner farthest from the door and work backward toward it, so you don't trap yourself or walk across the wet part. Change the water when it turns gray. On wood or laminate, keep the mop damp rather than soaking, and don't let water sit.

If you're starting with nothing at all, Getting It Clean is built for exactly this: one afternoon, one pass, clean enough to unpack into.

Carpet

Carpet is mostly about vacuuming, done slowly. Go over each area more than once, in different directions, so you lift what's down in the fibers. Edges and corners collect the most, so give them extra attention.

For spots, blot rather than scrub. A little dish soap in warm water on a cloth, pressed into the stain, then blotted with a clean damp cloth to rinse. Scrubbing can spread a stain and rough up the carpet. Try to keep it from getting soaked.

If the carpet smells stale, sprinkling baking soda, leaving it a while, and vacuuming it up can help with mild odors. If it's beyond that, ask your landlord whether the carpet was professionally cleaned before you moved in. Some stores also rent carpet cleaning machines if you decide it's worth it later.

No vacuum yet? Ask a neighbor or the building, or do a careful pass by hand on the worst spots and come back to it. Carpet you can live on for a week is better than carpet you never get to.

If the floors are carpet and you have nothing to clean them with, the carpet version of Getting It Clean covers what carpet needs besides a vacuum: something for the marks, something for the hair, and the cleaning basics for everything that is not the floor.

What to skip

  • Specialty products for every surface. One general cleaner covers most of it.
  • Deep cleaning the oven, the grout, or the windows on day one.
  • Making it perfect. The goal is clean enough that you're comfortable putting your things away.

Then stop

When the bathroom is usable, the cabinets are wiped, and the floors are done, you're finished for today. Open the first box. The rest of the cleaning can happen the normal way, a little at a time, in a place that's already yours.