If you have orders in hand, you already know how fast the timeline compresses. The packers show up, the house empties out, and suddenly you are standing in a bare living room at 9 p.m. with a bucket and a sponge, trying to get the baseboards right before the walkthrough.
San Antonio sees more of this than almost anywhere in the country. With JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, JBSA-Randolph, and JBSA-Lackland all in the area, thousands of families rotate in and out of the region every year. We have cleaned a lot of those homes. Here is what we have learned about making the process go smoothly.
Why PCS cleaning is different from a regular house cleaning
A standard recurring clean keeps a lived-in home comfortable. A move-out clean is a different job entirely, because someone is going to inspect it.
Property managers, landlords, and housing offices work off a checklist. They open the oven. They pull out the refrigerator drawers. They run a finger along the top of the door frame and check the blinds slat by slat. Areas that never get attention during normal life become the whole point of the visit.
That means a move-out clean goes deeper and covers more surface area than anything you would do on a Saturday morning. It is detail work, and it takes time that most families do not have during a move.
What our move-in / move-out clean covers
This is a make-ready service, performed on an empty home. Here is the full scope:
Kitchen
- Refrigerator, stove, oven, and dishwasher cleaned inside and out
- Microwave cleaned inside and out
- Hood vent cleaned
- Cabinet and drawer interiors and exteriors
- Countertops, sinks, and faucets
- Washer and dryer exteriors, if they are staying with the home
Bathrooms
- Showers, bathtubs, sinks, and toilets
- Cabinet and drawer interiors and exteriors
- Mirrors and glass surfaces
- Counters and faucets
Throughout the home
- Cobwebs removed from all ceilings
- Ceiling fans, light fixtures, shelving, and vents dusted
- Light switches wiped down
- Baseboards dusted
- Door frames dusted
- Reachable interior windowsills, panes, and blinds
- Floors swept, vacuumed, and mopped
- All trash bins emptied
A few things worth knowing up front
We would rather tell you this now than have it come up at the walkthrough.
Appliances stay in place. We clean the interiors and exteriors of all major appliances, but we do not pull them out from the wall. That is a deliberate call to protect gas, electric, and water connections, and to avoid damaging flooring.
We do not wipe walls or doors. Dusting door frames is included. Wiping painted surfaces risks marking or removing paint, so we leave those alone.
Windows are cleaned closed. We clean reachable interior windowsills, panes, and blinds without opening the windows or clearing the tracks. Same reasoning: avoiding damage.
Reachable means floor or step stool. For crew safety, we do not use six-foot ladders. Anything beyond step-stool height is outside the standard scope.
Grout cleaning is a specialty service. Showers, tubs, sinks, and toilets are cleaned as part of the s service. If there is significant hard water, calcium, or mold buildup, that requires a specialty treatment and gets quoted separately. Tell us when you book so we can plan for it.
If your property manager hands you a checklist with something outside this scope, send it to us before your appointment. We would rather adjust the quote than have you find out after the fact.
Timing your clean around a PCS
The single most common mistake we see is booking too late.
Here is the sequence that works:
- As soon as you have a firm move date, call and get on the schedule. During peak PCS season, roughly May through August, weekend and same-week slots fill fast. Booking early costs you nothing and holds your spot.
- Schedule the clean after the movers are done and before your walkthrough. Give yourself at least a day of buffer. If the packers run long, you do not want the cleaning crew and the moving truck fighting over the driveway.
- Do your final walkthrough after we finish. Walk it yourself first, with the checklist in hand, so nothing is a surprise when the inspector arrives.
If your dates shift, and they often do, call us. We will move you on the schedule.
Moving in is worth cleaning too
Most families focus on the move-out and skip the move-in. We understand the logic, since the home is supposed to be clean when you get the keys. In practice, it often is not.
A move-in clean gets you a home that has actually been sanitized before your kids are crawling on the floor and your dishes are going into the cabinets. Bathrooms and kitchens are the priority, and it is far easier to do the work when the house is empty than after your furniture is in place.
It is also the cheapest peace of mind you will buy during the whole move.
Areas we serve
We cover San Antonio and the surrounding communities, including:
Converse, Schertz, Cibolo, Universal City, Live Oak, Selma, New Braunfels, Boerne, Helotes, Leon Valley, Alamo Heights, Stone Oak, Bulverde, Garden Ridge, Marion, and the greater Bexar, Guadalupe, Comal, and Kendall county areas.
If you are stationed at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, JBSA-Randolph, or JBSA-Lackland, you are well within our service area.
Why families call us
We know the standard. We clean to what inspectors actually look for, not a general idea of clean.
Insured and background-checked. Every person who enters your home has been vetted.
Same-week and weekend availability. PCS timelines do not respect business hours, so we work around yours.
Straightforward pricing. You get a quote before we start. No surprise line items after the fact.
Ready to book?
Give us a call and tell us your move date. We will get you on the schedule and walk you through exactly what is included, so you can spend your last week in San Antonio doing something other than scrubbing an oven.
Alpha Elite Service Property Care Excellence Serving San Antonio and surrounding areas
