House cleaning is one of the last things that tenants want to do upon vacating a property. The stress that goes along with moving, as well as the sheer volume of work that needs to be done, is one of the many reasons a lot of areas in a home go uncleaned.
People may not purposefully leave their previous residences dirty. The reality of the matter is that dirt has a habit of getting into every single nook and cranny of a home. It’s very easy to miss places, and often, people are just unaware.
There are certain areas of the home that are a given for needing to be cleaned. The kitchen and bathrooms are definitely the places most of your time should be spent. If you’re not quite sure what other areas need your Cinderella gift of scrubbing and dusting, we’re here to help.
Here are 5 places in the home that don’t often get cleaned when a tenant moves out. If you’re on the way out, or even if you’re on the way in, hopefully the areas brought to your attention in this article will inspire you to get an early start on the cleaning, as to not stress yourself out on moving day. Fortunately, with a little help from your friends, the overwhelming amount of surfaces that need to be sanitized won’t be the death of you. Many hands make light work, so let’s get started!
When living in your house, you probably didn’t have a habit of cleaning the windows; maybe once a year, if that. If you think about the amount of windows in your home, that’s a lot of surface area to cover.
Think about all the times you’ve put your hand on the windows to open them. Think about all the times the animals rubbed their noses against the glass panes. Think about the children and their sticky, dirty, grubby hands moving across the surfaces, making pictures in the fog that accumulated during the winter months.
That’s just the inside. Now, think about the elements on the outside. When prepping your house for move out, take notice of the windows. Find great cleaning solutions that will be sure to take off even the stickiest of smudges. When your windows are clear as can be and the sun is able to shine through uninhibited, you’ll feel confident that you’re leaving your prior home in better condition than when you arrived.
This next area is one that’s very easy to walk right past and not realize the magnitude of filth. Depending on the color of paint on your walls, dirt smudges and color crayon marks are going to be easier or more difficult to see. It’s important to note that just because you can’t see the dirt most definitely does not mean it’s not there.
In the same way you looked at the windows, look at the walls. You and your children touched those walls like they were dying for some love. It’s not necessary to clean every inch of your walls from floor to ceiling, but think about the highest traffic areas in your home. Where is there high probability for splatters and germs to get spread from place to place?
Check the mud room, check the hallway walls on the way to the bathroom or bedrooms, check the walls close to the doors, and most definitely check the walls underneath cabinets and sinks. It’s best to do a general survey of all the walls in your home to ensure you’re not missing some unintentional dirt mural that will be unappreciated by the new occupants of the space.
Nobody will notice the dust atop the ceiling fan mounted 15 feet in the air, right? Wrong. Home fixtures such as fans and light fixtures are notorious for being neglected when it comes to cleaning. Most of the time, the fixtures are such a pain to clean that people turn a blind eye. This doesn’t mean you should follow suit.
Dust is not something that goes unnoticed. It covers everything and fills the air. When cleaning for move out, look at your fixtures. Get the right tools to make the difficult crevices easier to access. If you’re not willing to do that, hire somebody who will make sure the job is done right. You probably wouldn’t want to move into a house where every fixture was crusted with 10 years’ worth of dust, so do for others as you would like them to do for you.
Every person is going to have different standards for their home. Some people don’t let anybody wear shoes in the house, let alone on the carpets. For those who couldn’t care less, that just means that there is more dirt to clean up. Some carpets are really good at covering up everything.
There could be crumbs from 1996 hiding in the corner that nobody knew about. Corners are hard to reach with the vacuum, so they just get left there unknowingly collecting debris. Maybe you’ve been good about vacuuming and keeping food and beverages away from your rugs, but that doesn’t mean your floors won’t benefit from a thorough cleaning.
Scents tend to get caught up in the fibers of your carpet. Consider getting a professional cleaning done or consider doing a DIY baking soda treatment to make sure all unwanted germs and scents are long gone. Keep in mind that Febreze isn’t the end all of unwanted scents.
If you’re a landlord and concerned that your current and future tenants won’t follow suit with your cleaning requirements, consider contacting Green Residential to handle things. We offer tenant screening services that ensure you’ll have individuals in your property that will go the distance to make sure everything is clean, paid for, and in tip-top shape for the next tenants.
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