When moving out of a rental home, the last thing that is on most tenants’ minds is ensuring that everything is left spotlessly clean. In many cases, the sheer level of stress and amount of work that has to be done when moving house usually means that aspects such as ensuring that everything is securely packed will take precedence over everything else.
While many tenants won’t intentionally leave a rental property dirty, it can be easy to miss some areas when doing a final cleanup. Below are just some areas of rental homes that often get skipped when tenants move out of a rental home.
Windows
When living in a home, many inhabitants will probably only clean windows once a year at most because it’s usually quite a large surface area to clean overall. Many hands make contact with window latches, pets’ noses often brush against the glass and children will often touch the glass as well – and this is just on the inside. All of this makes for a tremendous amount of accumulated dirt over time.
When prepping your rental home for new tenants, ensure that all of the windows are cleaned thoroughly on the inside and outside. This alone will make the property look a lot more visually appealing.
Walls
This is another part of rental homes that is overlooked where move-out cleaning is concerned. Depending on the paint color, smudges of dirt and other marks such as those from crayons or markers could be easier or more difficult to see – but this doesn’t mean that walls should be overlooked when cleaning is being done.
Walls should be cleaned with a cloth and warm soapy water to ensure that all dirt and grime is removed without causing damage to the paint itself. When cleaning, ensure that passageways and areas behind appliances are not skipped.
Fixtures
Fixtures like light fittings, ceiling fans, power points, faucets, baseboards and wall mounted shelving are often overlooked during move-out cleaning. However, these accumulate a tremendous amount of dust over the years because they are often extremely inconvenient to clean.
Most fixtures can also be cleaned with a soft cloth and warm, soapy water – power points should only ever be wiped with a slightly damp cloth to prevent water from getting into them.
Carpeting
If the carpets in a rental are patterned, there’s a strong chance that dirt from the past decade or so may have been ground into the fibers and gone unnoticed.
Where carpet cleaning is concerned, it’s best to hire the services of professionals because this will ensure that they are not only thoroughly cleaned; they will also dry a lot quicker if any form of damp cleaning is required.
If you’re a landlord who doesn’t mind getting your hands dirty, you’ll be able to save a lot of money completing move-out cleaning yourself. However, enlisting the help of professionals will allow you to spend your valuable time on other more important tasks.
