The first week in a new Columbus home: learning your water, your trash and bulk rules, which differ from city to suburb, and getting the house clean before the boxes come in.
Moving into a Columbus home means learning a new set of local systems at the same time as you unpack. The city and each suburb handle trash, bulk items and yard waste a little differently, and the water you drink depends on which treatment plant or utility serves your street.
This guide pulls the essentials together and explains why cleaning an empty house before move-in day is easier than cleaning around furniture later.
Columbus draws from the Scioto River, Big Walnut Creek and wells in the Scioto River Valley and treats it at three plants. Dublin Road water goes to the northwest and southwest, Hap Cremean to the Ohio State area and the north, and Parsons Avenue to the southeast. The city softens it with lime, and the 2025 averages ran from about 98 ppm at Hap Cremean to about 125 ppm at Dublin Road, so expect some spotting on glass and chrome.
Dublin, Upper Arlington and Grandview Heights are inside the Columbus water service area, and New Albany contracts with Columbus for its water and billing. Powell is the exception in this group: its water comes from Del-Co Water Company.
A house that sat empty can develop a sulfur smell at the sinks. Columbus Water & Power says a rotten egg odor usually comes from the drain trap or the faucet aerator, not the water itself, and cleaning them with chlorine bleach usually clears it. Run every tap and flush every toilet on the first day to refill the traps.
If the home is older, ask about the service line. Columbus started a Lead Service Line Replacement Program in 2024 with a goal of removing all public and private lead and galvanized lines in the city by 2040.
Moving brings boxes, old furniture and things the last owner left. Here is how the city handles it.
In Powell, Rumpke collects trash, recycling and yard waste every Tuesday, and bulk items go out the same day if you schedule with Rumpke 24 hours ahead. Upper Arlington takes most bulk items on the normal trash day, but upholstered furniture and mattresses must be wrapped in plastic. Grandview Heights collects bulk items set out on the regular trash day, or by appointment at 614.488.4728.
Check your own city's page before move-in weekend so the moving boxes and the old mattress leave on the right day.
An empty home is the easiest it will ever be to clean. Every floor is reachable, every cabinet is bare and nothing has to be moved. The Moving Clean covers everything in a deep clean, from hand washed baseboards to wet-wiped blinds and wiped fans and vents, plus inside the oven, refrigerator, kitchen cabinets and drawers, and bathroom cabinets and vanities. Shower glass is treated for hard water spots, which on Columbus water is worth doing before the first shower.
Schedule it after the previous occupant is out and before your movers arrive. More than half of Columbus homes are rented, so for many new arrivals the place was a rental turnover a few days before; a clean of your own gives you a known starting point. Read the move-out guide for the other side of the move.
The questions Columbus homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Columbus 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.
