A move-in guide for new Charlotte residents: where the tap water comes from, how trash, recycling and bulky pickup work, and what to clean before the first box is unpacked.
Roughly one Charlotte resident in six moved into their current home within the last year, so if you just arrived, you have plenty of company. With about half of the city's homes rented, many of those moves are simply one lease to the next.
Whatever brought you, the first week in a new home goes better with a few basics in place. This guide covers water, trash and recycling in Charlotte, and how to clean a home before you move your things in.
Charlotte Water draws from Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake and treats the water at its Franklin, Vest and Dukes plants. It pumps an average of 125 million gallons a day to roughly 1.5 million people across its Mecklenburg County service area.
The water is soft. The monthly mineral analysis from the Franklin plant lists total hardness at 38 parts per million, and the U.S. Geological Survey classifies anything under 60 as soft. You will not need a water softener for city water, and fixtures will not crust over the way they do in hard water cities.
Charlotte Water adds chlorine as a disinfectant, which some people notice as a faint smell. The utility also reports that its Lead Free CLT inventory has found zero lead pipes in its network, and it is replacing the remaining galvanized steel lines. If you live in Concord, Kannapolis, Mooresville or another town, your water comes from a different utility, so check that town's report.
Each Charlotte household has a set garbage day. Recycling goes out every other week on either a green or an orange week, so find out which week your street is on before you put out your first pile of moving boxes.
Yard waste is collected weekly on garbage day. It must go in paper bags or containers that weigh no more than 75 pounds, and limbs must be shorter than 4 feet and less than 6 inches across.
Bulky items such as furniture and appliances are picked up only if you schedule them ahead, online, by calling 311 or in the CLT+ app. If the last tenant or owner left something behind, book the pickup early.
An empty home is the easiest one to clean. Before the movers arrive, focus on the places that will be hard to reach later: inside kitchen cabinets and drawers, inside the oven and refrigerator, closet shelves, bathroom vanities and the floors where furniture will sit.
A Moving Clean covers all of that, plus hand washed baseboards, wiped fans, fixtures and vents, cleaned window tracks and treated shower glass. If you want to do it yourself, start at the top of each room and finish with floors, and run the bathroom fans to dry everything out.
About 47.7 percent of Charlotte housing was built in 2000 or later, so many homes are fairly new. Older homes are common too, with about 26.3 percent built before 1980. Either way, expect two local guests: red Piedmont clay at the entry, which NC State Extension describes as typical of the region's soils, and pollen on sills and screens for much of the year.
Put mats at every door from the first day, and make a note to wipe screens and sills during the spring tree pollen season, which peaks in April. The seasonal cleaning calendar lays out the rest of the year.
The questions Charlotte homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Charlotte 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.
