It’s the end of the university year, summer is right around the corner and all seems well, but before you leave, you and your housemates have one last task – to clean the house. If you’re lucky you and your housemates will have kept on top of this throughout the year, but if you’re reading this the likely case is that you haven’t.
Not to worry, the task doesn’t have to be an overwhelmingly stressful experience; the best way to tackle it is to take on the house one room at a time. Using a checklist is the most efficient way to ensure you aren’t missing out any important key details which could result in you and your housemates not getting your deposit back.
This is what your end of tenancy checklist will consist of (delegate these roles between you):
- The Kitchen
The kitchen will most likely be the room within the house that has seen the most mess over the course of the year, ranging from used kitchen utensils to dirty pots and pans – if this is the case you must ensure that none of it is left behind!
Make sure to give a thorough wipe down of all surfaces and get rid of all stubborn stains. The sink and taps should also be included in this, ensuring all lime scale is removed (top tip: soak a cloth in vinegar and tightly secure it around the lime scaled area, leave for approximately an hour and this should hopefully lift the limescale therefore making it easier to eliminate.)
If needed, you can pick up drain blockers from any supermarket to unclog your sink. Once these points have been ticked off your checklist, give one last wipe down of all surfaces in the kitchen including the doors of cupboards and the outside of the fridge and washing machine.
- Your Bedroom
Depending on the type of person you are this could take from as little as half an hour to a couple of hours. This is one of the more crucial areas to getting your deposit back, your bedroom is individual to you so nobody can help you with this apart from yourself.
To begin with clear out any rubbish residing in your room, and as with the kitchen, wipe down all surfaces and cupboards; Also make sure you haven’t forgotten to take anything with you. Make sure to hoover the floors and use a dust pan and brush to get to those hard to reach places if necessary.
If you’re a poster fanatic, make sure to check the walls for any Blu-Tack residue (top tip: You can use a wad of Blu-Tack to remove most of these marks from the walls by rubbing it gently against the mark.) Finally, wash the windows and use a sweet-smelling odor abolishing spray to give the room a fresh, clean scent.
- The Bathroom
Flip a coin if necessary, to appoint who takes this job on as we doubt anyone will be willing to tackle the bathroom. If fate decides that you are the one to deep clean the bathroom, fear not, it won’t be as bad as you think!
Start with the toilet. Assort some bleach around the bowl of the toilet and leave for approximately 10-20 minutes. Once you’ve done this, grab the toilet brush and give the bowl a deep clean, flushing any excess remaining. Moving onto the sink, you can use the same procedure as the kitchen – a throughout scrub should do the job again ensuring all limescale is removed. The bath/shower follows the same protocol.
Once you’ve carried out these steps make sure to throw out any loose bottles of shampoo etc. and the toilet brush you used to clean. Finally, wipe down wall tiles and clean any mirrors with an anti-smudge cleaning agent and mop the floor.
- The Living Room
Finally, we have the living room. This one is straightforward. Remove any furniture that didn’t come with the property. Hoover the floors, dust the whole room and air it out by opening the windows for at least an hour.
If you stick to our tips, then you shouldn’t have any worries. Leaving your house in a clean state is not only crucial to getting that much anticipated deposit back but can also often lead to your landlord giving you a good reference, which is important if you’re planning to rent in the future. Make sure to follow this checklist as you go through your house to ensure you don’t miss anything out!
But if worse comes to worse and you mutually realize the deep clean is too much of a hassle, you can check out our End of Tenancy cleaning prices for more details.
We provide high-quality cleaning service at an affordable price. Our experienced team of professionals prides themselves in maintaining the highest standards.
When you move out from a rented property, there are a number of things which must be planned and organized. This includes the end of tenancy cleaning, which a large number of landlords are now insisting be done by a professional cleaning company. Our end of tenancy cleaning services are designed to help take the pressure off you and ensure that you are 100% satisfied with the outcome.