Moving Into A Furnished Apartment: Cleaning Somebody Else's Things

Cleaning and inventory are the same walk

In an unfurnished apartment you clean surfaces and note the ones that are damaged. In a furnished one every object is also a line on somebody's list, and a mark you did not record on day one is a mark that becomes yours at the end.

So do them together. Phone in one hand, cloth in the other, room by room. It takes barely longer than cleaning alone and it produces the record that matters more than the cleaning does.

The mattress, first and properly

You are about to spend a third of your life on it, so it comes before the windows. Strip it completely, vacuum the whole surface including the sides and the seams, and check both faces for staining, tears, and any sign of pests along the piping and under the label.

Then a mattress protector, immediately, before the first night. It is the cheapest item on this page and it protects both you and your deposit. If the mattress has staining, an odor that does not air out, or damage, photograph it and send it the same day rather than sleeping on it and raising it later.

Upholstery and soft furnishings

• Vacuum the sofa and chairs including under the cushions and along the seams.
• Check for odor by pressing a palm into the fabric and smelling it, which tells you more than standing in the room.
• Wash or air anything removable: cushion covers, throws, curtains where the fixings allow.
• Photograph existing marks before you use anything, especially on light fabric.
• Do not treat a stain on furniture that is not yours with anything aggressive. A cleaning attempt that lightens a patch is worse for you than the stain was.

That last point is the one people get wrong. On someone else's sofa, a stain you did not make is their problem and a bleached ring is yours.

The kitchen you inherited

Furnished usually means equipped, and that means somebody else's pans, utensils, and crockery. Run everything through a hot dishwasher cycle or wash it before use, and check the things that are usually skipped: the inside of the kettle, the toaster tray, the blender seal, the cutting boards.

Anything scratched, warped, or genuinely unpleasant is worth raising rather than quietly using. Non-stick pans with the coating gone are the most common example, and most landlords replace them without argument when asked at move-in.

What is not yours to change

• Refinishing, oiling, or sanding wooden furniture.
• Machine washing anything not marked as washable, including covers that look removable.
• Steam cleaning upholstery or mattresses without asking.
• Moving heavy pieces to another room without checking, since the inventory may record locations.
• Disposing of anything, including items you find unusable. Store them and report them instead.

The inventory conversation, done early

Ask for the inventory list on day one, then walk it item by item. Note anything missing, anything present that is not listed, and the condition of each significant piece. Send your version back in writing within the first days.

This is dull and it takes half an hour, and it is the difference between a straightforward end of tenancy and an argument about a sofa arm that was already worn when you arrived.

If the furniture is old enough that surfaces need more than a wipe, the deep apartment cleaning version reaches upholstery, mattress vacuuming, and behind the pieces, and the move-in clean covers the rest of the unit while you are doing the inventory walk.