An empty apartment hides nothing. Once the furniture is gone, every dust line, crumb, and scuff is on display, and that's exactly how a landlord will see it at the final walkthrough.
Start inside. Landlords open cabinets, drawers, closets, the refrigerator, the oven, and the microwave. Wipe every shelf, clear crumbs from drawer corners, and clean appliances inside and out, including the seals on the fridge door.
Bathrooms come next: toilet base and behind it, tub and shower walls, grout, the mirror, and the inside of the vanity. Then floors, baseboards, stairs, and window sills and tracks, which collect more dirt than most people expect.
Timing matters too. Schedule the clean for after the movers leave and before the keys are due, so nothing gets tracked back in. If you're short on time, a professional move-out clean covers all of this in one visit, and in South Portland and Greater Portland, we can plan it around your lease date.