Move-Out Cleaning Yourself: How to Pass the Inspection
Doing the move-out cleaning yourself? Don't do it blind.
An end-of-tenancy clean is not ordinary cleaning. It is judged by a person standing in the flat with a list, looking for reasons to keep part of your deposit. This page is what we would tell you if you called us: what actually gets checked, what belongs on which surface, and what quietly costs people their deposit.
Get guided through it — DKK 499 Free: check your lease firstTwo things decide whether you get your deposit back: what your own lease requires, and whether the flat survives the inspection. You can do the cleaning yourself and pass — thousands of people do. What loses deposits is not effort. It is using the wrong product on the wrong surface, and finding out on inspection day.
What actually gets checked at the move-out inspection
The inspector is not looking at how tidy the flat is. They walk a route and check the same places every time, because those are the places people skip. Here is that route, room by room.
Kitchen
Inside and behind the oven, the grill element, the oven door glass, the extractor filter and hood, the fridge and freezer inside and underneath, the seals, cupboards emptied and wiped inside, the worktop edges, and the floor under and behind every appliance that can be pulled out.
Bathroom
Limescale on glass, taps and shower head, the grout and the silicone joints, behind and under the toilet, the drain and its cover, the extractor vent, mirror and cabinet, and the tile line where the wall meets the floor.
Floors, skirting and doors
Skirting boards and door frames — the single most skipped item in Danish flats. Also door tops, handles, light switches, sockets and radiators, including behind them.
Windows and frames
Glass inside and out where reachable, the frames, the rebate the window closes into, the window sills, and the handles. Window cleaning is often written into the lease separately — check yours.
Storage, balcony, basement
Emptied and swept, including the basement or attic storage unit that belongs to the flat. Anything you leave behind can be removed at your expense.
The things people never think of
Behind the fridge and under the washing machine, the top of the kitchen cupboards, the inside of the dishwasher filter, ventilation grilles, and the rawlplug holes and hooks you put up years ago.
Which product belongs on which surface
This is where a day of honest work turns into a bill. The product that saves you an hour on one surface permanently ruins another. Nothing below is a brand — these are product types, so you can buy them in any Danish supermarket.
| Surface | What works | What damages it |
|---|---|---|
| Shower glass, tiles, taps | An acidic descaler, left to sit — time does the work, not force | Scouring pads and abrasive powder: they scratch chrome and etch glass permanently |
| Natural stone (marble, granite worktops, stone sills) | pH-neutral cleaner only | Any acidic descaler or vinegar — it etches stone within minutes, and it does not come back |
| Acrylic shower tray or bath | A soft cloth and a mild cream cleaner | Abrasives and scouring pads leave a permanent milky patch |
| Enamel (older bath, oven interior) | Tolerates a gentle abrasive and a firmer hand | Steel wool, which leaves rust marks in the enamel |
| Oven interior | Oven cleaner, left the full contact time, then rinsed thoroughly | Never on a self-cleaning (catalytic or pyrolytic) coating, on the door seal, or on aluminium trays |
| Silicone joints with mould | A chlorine-based mould remover, contact time, ventilate | Never in the same room or session as an acidic descaler — see the warning below |
| Wooden or laminate floors | A well-wrung mop and floor soap for the material | Standing water, and any strong alkaline cleaner, which lifts the finish |
| Painted walls and skirting | A barely damp cloth, worked gently | Magic-eraser sponges and degreasers: they rub the paint off and turn a mark into a repaint |
The one that sends people to hospital
Never mix chlorine-based products with acidic descalers, and never use them one straight after the other in a closed bathroom. Together they release chlorine gas. The same goes for chlorine and ammonia-based cleaners. This happens in real flats every year, to people who were simply trying to get mould out of the silicone. Work with the window open, wear gloves, and finish one product completely — rinsed away — before the next one comes out.
The order of work that saves you a whole day
Most people lose hours not to dirt but to sequence. This is the order our own teams work in.
- Start defrosting the freezer first. It needs hours, not minutes. Started late in the day, it is the reason people hand the keys over the deadline.
- Put the oven cleaner on and walk away. Do the bathroom while it works. Standing there scrubbing is the slowest possible way to clean an oven.
- Limescale needs time, not force. A wet cloth laid around the tap does more in twenty minutes than you do in five with a sponge — and it does not scratch the chrome.
- Top to bottom, dry before wet. If you vacuum the skirting after washing the floor, you have just cleaned the floor twice.
- Move everything that moves. Behind the fridge and under the washing machine is the first place an inspector looks, precisely because most people skip it.
- Windows last, and never in direct sun. Sunlight dries the glass before you can pull the squeegee through, and streaks are what gets noticed.
Your lease decides what counts as your job
Cleaning and redecoration are two different obligations, and confusing them is expensive in both directions. Painting, wallpaper and floor treatment are redecoration; they follow different rules from cleaning, and on most modern Danish leases a landlord can only require normal redecoration. Our full guide walks through the rules, the deadlines and the deductions a landlord may and may not make: Moving out in Denmark — protecting your deposit.
There is also a detail many tenants miss: if you do the cleaning yourself and the result is judged not up to standard, the landlord can have it redone professionally at your expense. A half-finished job can end up costing you twice. That is not a reason to hire someone — it is a reason to know exactly what your own lease asks for before you start.
Our free lease check reads your contract on the spot and shows the requirements on screen. Nothing is stored — here is exactly what happens to your data.
The Move-Out Package — DKK 499
We read your lease and your landlord's own handover list, and turn them into the requirement list they will actually check — as a PDF. Every item comes with the method: the order, the type of product, the tool that makes it fast, and the mistake that ruins it. Plus a short shopping list of what your home needs.
Stuck on the limescale or the burnt-on grease? Send a photo from your account and a person tells you what to buy, how long to leave it, and what to keep away from that surface — answered the same day, for as long as you are working through the list.
See what's included — DKK 499 How your account works
Booking a move-out cleaning with us instead? Then the whole package is included free — you don't add anything to the basket. See move-out cleaning →
Frequently asked questions
Am I allowed to do the move-out cleaning myself?
Yes. No Danish law requires you to hire a professional. What the lease requires is a standard, not a receipt. But if the result is not up to that standard, the landlord may have it redone at your cost, so the standard is the thing to be sure about before you start.
How long does it take to do it yourself?
As a rough guide, a professional two-person team is scheduled for about 2.5–3 hours on a flat up to 49 m², and 4.5–5 hours up to 110 m². On your own, without the equipment and doing each thing for the first time, plan on considerably longer — and start the oven and the freezer the day before.
What if the landlord rejects my cleaning?
Photograph everything, room by room, before the inspection, and date the photos. Never sign a handover report you disagree with — your signature can be treated as accepting the claims. If you cannot reach agreement, the rent tribunal (Huslejenævnet) in your municipality is where the dispute goes.
Do I have to clean the windows?
It depends on your lease and your landlord's handover list. It is frequently listed separately, and it is one of the most common items people miss because it is not thought of as cleaning.
What does it cost to have it done instead?
It depends on the size and condition of the home. See move-out cleaning in Copenhagen for what is included and the recommended hours by size.
Home Clean Service ApS · CVR 46336720 · Copenhagen · +45 91 62 83 99 · support@homecleancph.com. We are a cleaning company, not legal advisers. This page is general information about cleaning standards, not legal advice; if a clause in your lease needs a legal opinion, have it checked by Lejernes Landsorganisation or a lawyer.
