Congratulations! You’ve moved out all your stuff. And all that remains is a dusty apartment or house with some holes in the wall with scattered picture wire and dust bunnies on the floor.
You’re crazy to leave your apartment, but not so fast. You’re in danger of forgetting about a bunch of things. Your refrigerator is not only not clean, it’s still half stocked with food. The stove needs cleaning , and so does the oven. You slowly walk to the bathroom and that needs a thorough going over as well. If you’re a renter in this situation and you cut and run, you will surely lose your security deposit. No one wants to do that, so now it’s time to hunker down and clean the place to a spic and span. Before that happens it will also help to recognize that you’re not liable for routine wear and tear damage on the apartment. Small holes in the wall from paintings and hanging lights are legally deemed “wear and tear” and thus you’re not liable to fix them. That said, when you’re fixing up the vacated apartment, it’s always good to have some spackling compound on hand to patch up holes or chips in the wall or ceiling, especially if they are particularly large or the result of accidents.
Cleaning the bathroom is not particularly difficult, but before you attend to the bathroom, do yourself a favor and hit the oven with a liberal application of oven cleaner. The baked on carbon deposits of the oven are perhaps the most difficult aspect of cleaning an apartment. Get the oven soaking and while you’re at it clean out the food in the refrigerator as well. Remember, part of your planning included eating all your food before you left so that by now you shouldn’t have much to clean out anyway. As with the oven, the same goes for the fridge; clean it out, spray it down, and scrub it clean.
If you go through all this magnanimous, exhausting hassle, you can say hello to your little friend; Mr. Security Deposit.
That should pretty much cover it. If taking twenty minutes to read this article saves you an hour’s worth of time, then I’ll have done my job.