Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
When you’ve lived in the same property for an extended period of time, it’s natural that things are going to start to look a little… well, lived-in. Your furniture might experience a bit of wear-and-tear, your floorings and walls might be scuffed, and chances are, there are corners of your property you’ve made a deliberate thing out of not going too near too.
Don’t worry if this is you – not all of us are cleaning saints, and our busy schedules hardly allow us the time to maintain a dedicated daily routine of scrubbing, vacuuming, polishing and tidying. But if your lease is running out, and you know you’ll be moving to a new place soon, you need to spend some real time focusing on a deep clean of your place if you want to get your bond back.
Luckily, end of lease cleaning doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. Take a look at these simple tips below for impressing your landlord with your end of lease cleaning:
1. Empty your home
It sounds obvious, but it’s going to be a whole lot harder to deep clean your home if all your furniture and possessions are still in there. Try to overlap your moving-out day with your moving-into-a-new-place day to save yourself the hassle of trying to clean around your clutter. A blank canvas is always a lot easier to work with.
2. Cheat
Yes, cheating is often discouraged, but if you simply don’t have the time or effort to commit to a full deep clean of your house, the most sensible option might be to leave the work to a professional. A number of specialist cleaning companies focus specifically on bond back cleaning, and their experts will know exactly what a landlord’s looking for when it comes to property cleanliness levels.
3. Don’t forget about your oven and microwave
Yep, the two most nightmare-to-clean appliances in your kitchen are most likely the ones that will put you at the biggest risk of not getting your bond back. It’s frustrating, we know, but you need to allocate at least an hour of dedicated scrubbing and soaking for each. It’s worth spending your money on a professional oven cleaning formula to make the job that little bit easier.
4. Consult your inventory list
When you move into a new place, you should be given a few documents, including an inventory list, which details the state of the property before you arrived. Take a good look at this before you get to cleaning, because it might be that some marks and stains have already been acknowledged by your landlord, and there won’t be any reason for you to tackle them (unless you’re feeling particularly generous, that is).
5. Get scented
Before you leave your property for the last time, walk around the space and give it a final spritz with an air freshener or fabric spray for a finishing touch. A nice smell won’t exactly deter away from a broken table or a wonky chair, but it’ll show your landlord that you cleaned the place with care and to the best of your capabilities.
Excellent tips for renters. I wish all of my tenants did even the basics when it comes to cleaning a vacant unit! Maybe I'll make this required reading 🙂