What cleaning checklist should you follow before moving in, in Marrakech?

This is the only non-negotiable rule on this page, and the one most often broken because the van is waiting downstairs.

A home washed and still damp when the boxes arrive means:

• footprint marks on a floor that hasn't finished drying, which become permanent marks on porous tile or polished concrete;
• rings under furniture set down on a still-damp area;
• odours that set in when a cupboard is closed on a poorly dried back panel;
• and above all the impossibility of a redo: the furniture is in place for ten years.

The logical order is therefore fixed: clean top to bottom — ceilings, light fittings, tops of cupboards, walls, worktops, floors last — and from the dirtiest room to the cleanest, so as not to carry dirt back through. The floor of each room is always the very last thing done in it.

Allow at least one full day between the end of the clean and the van's arrival. Two if the home has traditional floors or if the intervention finishes in the evening. This is the point we discuss first on a post-construction clean for an apartment.

Cleaning an empty home rarely fails on method. It fails on logistics, and always for the same reasons.

The three essentials

• Water connected at the meter. Without water, no clean is possible, and a home left empty for several months has often had it cut off. Have it reactivated several days in advance.
• Electricity connected. For lighting — an empty home with no light cannot be checked properly —, for machines, and to test whatever needs testing.
• Clear access: keys in hand, entry code, lift authorised, parking space if the home is in the city centre or the medina.

Four points to settle in advance

• the wastewater outlet and where to take rubbish out;
• the state of the water tank, if the home has one: a tank left uncleaned for years shows up at the first draw, and is a job for a firm equipped for confined spaces;
• whether rubble is present and any remains of works, which completely changes the nature of the intervention — and which must be removed before we arrive: we do not clear out;
• the type of floor, which decides the products and rules out certain families.

A home where works have just finished doesn't fall under this checklist but under post-construction cleaning: laitance, cutting dust and glue residue are a different trade.

This is the longest room, and the one where the previous occupant leaves the most invisible traces for a viewing.

1. The top of wall units and the extractor hood. Nobody looks up that high, and that's where grease and dust form a sticky film. Always first: everything done afterwards would fall back onto it.
2. The extractor hood, its filters and the accessible duct. A saturated filter releases the previous occupant's smell into your living room from the first cooking session.
3. Inside the wall and base units, doors open, including the back panel, hinges and drawer runners. Wiped dry, never closed damp.
4. The oven, hob and microwave, if left behind. The oven is a job in its own right: degreasing with dwell time, never dry.
5. The fridge, defrosted, washed, and left with the door ajar until move-in.
6. The sink, its plug, its trap and the surrounding seal. The trap is a kitchen's number-one odour point once occupied.
7. The splashback and worktop, joints included.
8. The floor, skirtings and thresholds, last.

One check not to skip along the way: behind and under the fridge and base units, with a torch. That's where signs of a cockroach population left by the previous occupant are found, and it is a thousand times better to know now than in six weeks — the signs to look for are simple to spot.

The rule differs here: some elements can't be recovered, and trying to save them wastes time.

What gets cleaned and disinfected

• the WC pan, seat, cistern, the back and base of the pan — often forgotten;
• the shower or bath, plug, tray, panels and their profiles;
• the basin, its column, taps and aerator;
• wall tiling and the grout, brushed, line by line;
• the ventilation grille, removed and washed;
• the towel radiator and its fixings.

What gets replaced, not cleaned

• silicone sealant blackened in depth. Once black is set into the mass, the mould is below the surface: no product removes it durably. The seal is cut out and redone, and that's a plumber's job;
• the WC seat, which costs less to replace than an hour of scrubbing;
• a scaled shower hose and head, where the water is hard;
• a clogged tap aerator.

Disinfection comes after cleaning, never instead of it: a disinfectant applied to an unclean surface never reaches the substrate: clean, rinse, then disinfect.

These are the fastest rooms, provided the order is respected. Everything below happens before touching the floor.

• Ceiling and corners: cobwebs, damp marks, black spots around a vent.
• Light fittings, sockets, globes and ceiling fan blades. Ceiling fan blades carry a greasy deposit that falls the moment the fan is first switched on.
• Walls: furniture marks, fixing points, adhesives, sticky pads, hand marks around switches. Adhesives and sticky pads are removed with gentle heat, slowly, never scraped off paint.
• Joinery: doors, door edges, handles, skirtings, frames.
• Windows: glass, frames, tracks and channels. In a Marrakech home, a sliding patio door's track holds compacted sand that eventually jams the slide. In a post-construction clean, accessible windows are included. For a home that just needs freshening up, it's window cleaning: 75 MAD incl. VAT per window up to 2 m², 150 MAD incl. VAT per patio door up to 4 m², frames and tracks included, 400 MAD incl. VAT minimum call-out charge — four windows and one patio door come to 450 MAD incl. VAT.
• Sockets, switches, thermostats, detectors.
• Radiators and air conditioners: filters removed and washed, outdoor grille cleared.
• The floor, last, with the product suited to the covering and attention to corners, thresholds and skirtings.

If the home is furnished and the mattress stays, it is treated before anyone sleeps on it, not after — see treating a mattress.

This is the part put off until later that never happens, because it will be full within forty-eight hours.

What gets treated, storage unit by storage unit:

• the back, underside and top of each shelf, not just the visible face;
• battens, brackets and pegs, where dust settles;
• the rail, its supports and the track of a dressing room;
• the back of the utility cupboard — water heater, electrical panel, water inlet — which is almost always the dirtiest spot in the home;
• the cupboard under the sink, where you also look for a trace of damp or a slow leak;
• under the stairs and any blind storage, checked with a torch.

Three checks to make at the same time, because an empty cupboard won't be revisited:

1. a trace of damp at the back or base of the partitions;
2. a lingering smell after drying, a sign of a problem behind rather than on the surface;
3. an unsealed pipe penetration, which is an entry point for pests as much as a thermal bridge. A bead of sealant now costs three dirhams.

An empty home is the only moment everything can be checked. Here is the list, which has nothing to do with cleaning but is done during the same visit.

Water and plumbing

• water meter reading, noted and photographed;
• pressure at every tap, and flow at every outlet;
• checking for a slow leak: meter watched with all valves closed;
• water heater: switched on, safety checked, no seepage.

Electricity and safety

• electricity meter reading;
• test of every socket and every switch;
• checking the residual-current device at the test button;
• presence and condition of detectors, where fitted.

Openings and locks

• replacement or cylinder change of entrance locks, systematically, whatever the number of keys handed over;
• operation of every window, shutter and guard rail;
• condition of opening seals — in such a dusty city, a missing seal costs you every day.

Exteriors

• terrace drains and outlets cleared before the first rain;
• condition of outdoor floor joints, as explained in our article on terrace maintenance.

The real calendar, counted back from the furniture delivery date.

D-4 — access and utilities. Keys collected, water and electricity connected, meters read, locks changed. A quick check of the home to rule out surprises: rubble, tank, leak, damaged floor.

D-3 and D-2 — the clean. One day for a standard flat, two for a villa or a home in poor condition. Storage, kitchen, bathroom, living areas, glazing and floors are worked through in sequence.

D-1 — drying and finishing touches. The home stays closed and empty. This is the moment for spot corrections, redoing seals and minor repairs, and checking for no residual smell in cupboards.

Moving day. Dry floor, windows open, protection laid down along the passage points.

The price depends on the state of the home, and there are two cases.

• The home is fresh from building work: that's post-construction cleaning, at 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT on standard tiles and 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT on other floors, with a minimum of 2,000 MAD incl. VAT for a studio, 3,000 MAD incl. VAT for an apartment and 7,500 MAD incl. VAT for a villa or riad. A 90 m² apartment in standard tiles comes to 90 × 20 = 1,800 MAD, raised to the 3,000 MAD incl. VAT minimum.
• The home just needs freshening up: that's standard housekeeping by the day, at 800 MAD incl. VAT per day for an apartment and 1,200 MAD incl. VAT per day for a villa, 1 person included, plus 250 MAD incl. VAT per extra person per day. One day in an apartment with one extra person comes to 800 + 250 = 1,050 MAD incl. VAT.

A home left heavily soiled by the previous occupant fits neither: send us photos on WhatsApp for a tailored proposal. Prices are indicative, confirmed after photos or a visit. Describe the floor area, the number of rooms and the condition via our quick quotation page.