With Fort Campbell next door and a steady flow of people moving between Clarksville and Nashville, we do a lot of move-out cleans. Most deposit deductions we hear about come down to a handful of places that renters forget because they never looked at them while living there. This is the list we work from.
Kitchen first, because it is where inspections start. Inside the oven, including the door glass and the racks. Inside the refrigerator and freezer, with the drawers pulled. Under the burners or around the glass cooktop. Inside every cabinet and drawer, which means wiping the shelves, not just emptying them. The range hood filter. The dishwasher door edge and filter.
Bathrooms next. Grout and caulk lines in the shower, the overflow drain in the tub, the base of the toilet where the floor meets porcelain, the exhaust fan cover, and the inside of the vanity. A bathroom can look clean from the doorway and still fail an inspection at knee height.
Then the whole-house items: baseboards in every room, door frames and the tops of doors, switch plates and outlet covers, window sills and tracks, blinds, closet shelves, and light fixtures with dead bugs in them. Nail holes and wall scuffs are a separate conversation with your landlord, but a clean wall makes the remaining marks look like normal wear instead of neglect.
Finally, floors last, edge to edge, after everything else is done so you are not re-cleaning. Vacuum carpets slowly, including closets. Mop hard floors and let them dry before the walkthrough. If this sounds like a full day, it is. That is why most of our move-out clients book us for the morning of the key handoff and spend the day on the move instead.