Move-In Cleaning in Gangnam, the Day Before Chuseok
A mother in northern Europe sent us a message. Her daughter had just moved into a flat in Gangnam and needed it cleaned before she started living in it β the ordinary thing any parent would want, from four thousand miles away.
The date was the problem. It was the day before Chuseok.
Why that date mattered
If you are new to Korea, this is the part nobody warns you about.
The country stops for the autumn holiday. Cleaning crews, movers, tradespeople, most small businesses β three or four days of nothing, and the days on either side are already taken by everyone who planned around it. Ring around the week before Chuseok or Seollal and you will hear the same answer from everybody.
There was nobody to send. So we went ourselves.
What we took
- A Miele C3 vacuum
- A KΓ€rcher steam cleaner
- Bleach (λ½μ€) and a set of detergents
- A bag of cloths, scourers and pads
The second of three passes in the bathroom Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
The flat was a 1.5-room studio β the sort of place a person moves into with two suitcases. Small enough to sound easy.
It took three hours.
The balcony was the surprise
The balcony was open to the outside rather than glazed in, which in Seoul means birds, and it was covered in droppings.
That is not unusual in a flat that has stood empty between tenants. It is also exactly the kind of thing that never appears in a listing, never comes up at the viewing, and is waiting for you on the day you arrive with your luggage. If your new place has an open balcony, look at it before you decide the flat is fine.
The bathroom, in three passes
One pass is not enough on a bathroom nobody has properly cleaned in a while. The order matters more than the effort.
- Detergent first. Lifts the film of soap and body oil off every surface, so that what comes next can actually reach the tile.
- Bleach second, left to sit on the grout and silicone rather than wiped straight off. Dwell time is the whole point; wiping it on and off achieves very little.
- Steam last, into the joints and around the fittings. It is a finish and a disinfection step at once, and it uses no chemical at all.
The steam brush, and the pad that does the grout Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
Lift the bidet seat off. Cleaning around one is not cleaning it, and the underside is where a previous tenantβs bathroom stops being polite about itself. Korean flats nearly all have an electric bidet seat, it unclips, and almost nobody does this.
Under the seat Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
Clipped back on afterwards Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
Floor last, once everything above it has been rinsed down. Doing the floor first means doing it twice.
Floor last Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
Three hours later Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
The window tracks tell the truth
Window tracks are the thing people forget, and the thing that shows. This is one cloth, after one pass along the track of a flat that had been described as ready to move into.
The track was white underneath. The screen above it got the same treatment Β· β @BalliBalliSeoul
We washed the insect screens too β λ°©μΆ©λ§ (bangchungmang), the mesh panels in the window frames. They are easy to ignore because you look through them rather than at them, but they hold a season of city dust, and every breath of air you let into the flat comes through one. On a screen that has not been washed, you can see the difference in the light afterwards.
If you are checking a flat before you accept it, run a finger along the window track. It takes two seconds and it tells you how the last clean was done β which tells you what else was skipped. The screens are the same test.
Two things worth taking from this
Book around the holidays, not into them. Chuseok and Seollal empty the trade calendar for most of a week, and the days either side go first. If your move lands near one, ask early β a fortnight ahead is not excessive, and the usual two or three days will not be enough.
A parent abroad can arrange this. The person who contacted us was not in Korea and does not read Korean. She sent an address and a date; we sent photographs when it was done; her daughter walked into a flat that was ready to live in. Nothing about that is unusual to ask for.
What this normally costs
We did this one ourselves because of the date. Most weeks it is a crew, and the pricing, the pyeong arithmetic and what should be included are all in move-in cleaning in Seoul β including the question to ask before anyone starts.
For the record, on the money: prices are quoted before VAT, and if the building has no free visitor parking, parking goes on the bill at what it actually cost.
Get it sorted
Send us the address, the date you get the keys, and the size of the place. We will tell you what it costs, book it, and send you photographs when it is finished β whether you are the one moving in, or the one worrying about it from another country.
And if the date you need is anywhere near a holiday, tell us now rather than that week.