A first-week guide for people moving to Alpharetta and its neighbors: which water system serves your address, who picks up trash, and how to clean an empty house before the boxes arrive.
The towns around Alpharetta look alike from Georgia 400, but they run their homes differently. Your water might come from the Chattahoochee, from Big Creek or from Lake Lanier, depending on the address. Your trash might be a city service or a private contract you sign yourself. Knowing which applies saves a frustrating first week.
This guide is for anyone who has just bought or rented in the area. It covers the utilities that touch cleaning, then walks through cleaning an empty house before move-in day.
Most homes in Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton and Roswell drink Fulton County water. The county draws it from the Chattahoochee River and treats it at the Tom Lowe Atlanta-Fulton County Water Treatment Plant in Johns Creek. The system serves more than 315,000 people, and the county reports that its 2025 test results met every state and federal health-based standard.
Fulton disinfects with chlorine, and the highest level it measured in the distribution system in 2025 was 1.99 parts per million, under the limit of 4. If the tap smells faintly of chlorine in your first days, that is the reason.
Roswell is split. The city's own utility serves about 18,500 residents from a plant on Big Creek, and the other 80 percent of the city gets Fulton County water. The Roswell utility describes its water as soft, with low mineral levels, and notes that some residents notice an earthy taste in warm months from natural algae in surface water.
Farther north, the City of Cumming pumps raw water from Lake Lanier and treats it at its plant on Dahlonega Highway, and most of Forsyth County's water also comes from the lake.
Garbage service is one of the biggest differences between the towns, and it matters on move-in week when the boxes pile up.
In Roswell, the city's Solid Waste Division provides weekly curbside garbage collection and picks up large items at the curb for a fee. In Johns Creek, residents contract with private waste haulers, and the city sets a minimum service level that includes bulk waste pickup once a month. Ask your hauler when that bulk day falls before you break down the moving boxes.
In Alpharetta, Milton and Cumming, ask your seller, landlord or HOA which hauler serves the street and set up service before moving day.
An empty house is the easiest house you will ever clean. Once furniture and boxes come in, the inside of cabinets, the floor under the refrigerator and the closet shelves become hard to reach for years. A Moving Clean before the truck arrives covers everything in a deep clean plus inside the oven, refrigerator, kitchen cabinets and drawers and bathroom vanities.
This matters in Alpharetta in particular because so much of the housing is resale. About 57 percent of homes were built between 1980 and 1999, so a house that looks fine on a showing may carry decades of grime inside cabinets and along baseboards. Even newer homes, about 16 percent built in 2010 or later, collect construction dust in vents and tracks.
Work through these in roughly this order:
If you are new to the Atlanta area, the first spring can be a surprise. Tree pollen peaks in late March, and in 2025 the certified count reached 11,159 grains per cubic meter. The yellow layer on cars and porches is normal. The allergy and pollen guide explains how to keep it out of the house, and the seasonal calendar lays out the rest of the year.
The questions Alpharetta homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Alpharetta and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
