I've always contended that the best way to help a new apartment begin to feel like home is to roll up your sleeves and give it a thorough cleaning yourself. You'll discover areas that need repaired, acquaint yourself with how the surfaces look and feel, and feel a sense of pride and ownership when you're all done. The top five spots to hit when you move in:
1) The Bathroom
One might call a tossup between this and the kitchen, but I'm going to list this one first. Takeout can get you through a few days, but bathing comfortably and without feeling like you're in a strange person's bathroom goes a long way to making you feel more human when you're settling into a new rental.
2) The Kitchen
Next up: the kitchen! This one's fun, because once it's all clean, there are lots of boxes to be put away. Hit cabinet interiors first so you can get some things put away and free up a little space. Then you can close the doors and know everything inside is clean and ready for use. Then hit the kitchen surfaces like countertops, backsplash, and flooring. Last, scrub up the appliances and sink.
3) Closets and Storage Areas
Much like the kitchen cabinets, cleaning closets will let you unpack a lot of boxes and will get your clothing hanging up so you can stop living out of boxes and luggage. Clean the floors, wipe down any shelving, and clean the walls and door. Which leads us to the next don't miss spot to clean...
4) Walls
You don't often think to clean walls, but that's how they get surprisingly dirty! Giving the walls a wipe-down will eliminate any cobwebs, dust, and fingerprints left behind by the previous tenant (and maybe even tenants before them!). If you're in a freshly-painted apartment — as is often the case since landlords often paint between tenants — just be sure to get the ceiling (using a duster) and light switches (as they're major fingerprint traps).
5) Doors and Trim
Unlike the walls, the doors and trim are likely not painted between tenants. It can often go unobserved, but if you take a good hard look, you might notice that the doors and trim are really dirty. Wiping them down will go a long way toward spiffing up most any rental.
What spots top your cleaning list when you move into a new place? Please share below!
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The floors!!
so...basically everything ;)
When I moved into my new apartment, I never bothered to check out the broiler (at the bottom of the oven, it's an old gas oven). Four weeks later, I was roasting veggies when whatever the previous tenants had left behind in the broiler caught fire! After a big mess and a visit from the fire department, I've now learned to always check out the broiler.
Yeah, this post just seems like a vote for cleaning your entire apartment. Who has the energy after a move? I say sweep the space where you are about to place heavy furniture that you won't be moving for a while, then take care of the bathroom. Skip the kitchen by eating pizza from the box for a few days.
Yes - I agree - everything! I once rented a place where the backside of the drapes were covered in bird poop! The previous tenant had a bird (or perhaps multiple birds) which they let fly loose in the house and the bird(s) obviously roosted on top of the drapes and pooped.
On a happier note, a friend of mine said she always scrubbed the front door and the threshold of every new place (obviously in addition to everything else!) to cleanse away the past and open her new home to the future.
I scheduled two full days to clean before I even moved anything into my place. Just brought a car full of friends/cleaning supplies on the day I got my key, and went to work. It's so much easier to clean an empty apartment, than it is to work around all your unpacked stuff! Highly recommend this route, if it's possible.
Agree with postagenotes that it's much easier to do the deep clean before all your stuff is there... Re the kitchen, don't forget to clean all the appliances thoroughly. They are commonly overlooked and can be pretty gross if they have been unused for a bit.
I always change the toilet seat and make my husband scrub the tub.
I agree about cleaning the whole apartment, preferrably before you move all of your things into it. I also agree that it's exhausting, so I like to hire a cleaning person to come in and do the job for a few hours. Even if I can't afford to have a cleaning person regularly, I think it's completely worth the splurge to give a new home a good scrub.
Those are some good friends.
I would add radiators to this list. They gather dust on and behind them so I always vacuum them out really well before I move in.
I am actually moving Saturday! The best advice I was given is to have some overlap time where you are still in your old apartment but have the keys to the new place. Although it can be expensive my roommate and I have already cleaned everything on the list and more and are now taking over breakable items and other things we don't want in a dirty moving truck.
Loyal friends + free food/alcohol
Great idea postagenotes! Would be so much easier with an empty apartment, and if you buy yummies for friends that help it can be a fun day to share with friends.
I absolutely agree, much easier to clean an empty apartment and, yes you have to clean everything. It's hard ...but necessary :)
I agree with the post about overlaping leases or apartment to house. I Did this twice and it was definately worth the money, and I was able to move things gradually. The last two moves I on including the house I bought needed cleaning top to bottom. I would say that the Kitchen especially the fridge, Bathroom, followed by floors were the necessity. For my house I also painted the bedrooms, living room and bathroom to freshen it up. I think that the apartments I rented were cleaner than the house.
This is one thing that I did before we moved into our rental house. I removed the drawers in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom peeled off the old shelf paper liners then I cleaned the drawers with Murphey's soap and a damp rag. While the drawers were drying I lightly hammered in any loose nails that made the drawers wabbly and hard to push in. Our drawers are old and made of wood. Then I vacumed any dust particles behind the drawers and on the rails. I then relined the drawers with plastic liners purchased from the 99 cents store and filled the drawers. What a differnce that made!
I clean everything, and never skip the handles - handles are disgusting, whether door handles, windows handles, cupboards handles and so on.
Each time I move, I get a little bit lazier and a little bit spendier. The first time, I bribed friends with pizza and beer to help me move boxes. After that, I've hired movers ever since, and never regretted the money I've spent on them.
Likewise, my most recent move a couple of years ago was to an apartment that the previous tenants had left in a disgustingly dirty state. To be fair, they moved in the middle of winter, and had a baby and a dog. And it was a lease transfer, not a new lease, so the landlord didn't have any responsibility to clean up.
So I bit the bullet and paid to hire a cleaning lady for the day before I moved in. That's a luxury I generally don't allow myself in my daily life. But this was a godsend. It took me, my mom, two of my friends AND the professional cleaning lady a good eight hours to scrub the place top to bottom -- and it's not a big place! We were finding dog hair everywhere -- it was so gross! And don't even get me started on the state of the kitchen and the bathroom. Anyway, we swept, mobbed, scrubbed, vacuumed, dusted and washed every surface 'till we couldn't see straight, and we finally made headway against the dirt.
Afterwards, I felt like I could finally breathe, and when I moved in my stuff I could feel comfortable about putting it away and actually starting to live there. If/when I move again, I'll definitely do the same thing. It's worth every penny.
The floors are the first thing I would clean. I like to walk around barefoot but won't if the floors are nasty. Plus, cleaning the floors first means you can start moving stuff into the apartment and not worry about your stuff getting gross from the floor.
i also agree with postagenotes; luckily, there's an unspoken rule that if any of us moves, the rest of us help out. and yes: buying beer and greek food helps a lot.
i would also add that i clean out the fridge first: melting food = unhappy me, and the ventilation in the bathroom. they're usually overlooked, and pretty gross, generally
I also recommend spraying/setting baits for bugs when the place is empty. I know, no one wants to think about bugs in a new home that's *clean* but where I live, we have those 6-foot-tall tree roaches that come in your house, not because it's dirty, but - I dunno, just cuz? they want to enjoy the air conditioning? probably to look for water? Anyway, they come in, no matter how clean your house is. So, I spray under the cabinets, around pipes, around doors and windows - oh, and the furnace and hot water heater. Much easier to do this before you have food and dishes in the cabinets.
Babyfishmouth-
Where do you live? I'm looking to relocate and your post just gave me the heebeejeebees. Want to make sue I don't relocate or visit there! :-)
I always change the toilet seat, too! I don't know why, but I feel so much better.
I'm actually moving to a new apartment on April 1st. Fortunately, I have both apartments for the entire month. The first day, after I get the keys, is cleaning day. I've always cleaned everything on this list (and more) when moving into a new place... including steam mopping the carpet (even though it was just "professionally cleaned"). There's "their" version of clean and then there's MY version!
If possible, I would do a clean before your stuff is completely moved in. Not having to move stuff or clean around stuff makes things go so much quicker.
I'd say step 0 is: Steam clean carpeting, scrub hard floors
@cinnabunni - I live in Dallas. We have no state income taxes, but six foot tall tree roaches are plentiful. Especially in older neighborhoods (> 50 years) where there are old trees. There is no going "green" with organic pesticides on those suckers, you have to use the real stuff. But once you figure out what to do you can have it under control. I only found about 5 of them in my house last summer, and only one of them was still alive. But it is a pain to move all my stuff every spring so I can re-spray without poisoning myself and my animals.
As for floor cleaning before moving in, I have done that, only to have the movers ruin the whole thing. Especially if you are moving cross country and your stuff is coming off a van line where it has been moved on and off trucks several times, your boxes are going to be really dirty.
The kitchen and bath need to be sanitized well before moving in.There is no sure way to know how clean or unclean the prior tenants were.Spraying for bugs and also fleas is a good idea.Using part of your security deposit from your old apartment can help pay for 1 time cleaning person.I used Sittercity.com.They don't only provide a list of babysitters in your particular zipcode but housekeepers as well.I simply chose the qualifications important to me and selected the best independant cleaners in my area.The woman I chose charged $50 for 4 hours work.
I agree with postagenotes...we've learned a case or two of beer and free wings are a decent enough payment, especially for guys. I always make sure to clean on the underside of things i.e. where the wall meets the tub (if there is a bathfitter), behind the toilet, the underside of cabinet/appliance doors, the underside of the oven hood...places nasty crud builds up and even professional cleaners don't get always. Oh! and if you have ceiling fans always clean the top side of the blades off...or else whatever is on them gets blown around the room. If you really want to be ambitious pull out the stove and refrigerator...a lot of stuff will spill down the sides and underneath.
I agree with postagenotes...we've learned a case or two of beer and free wings are a decent enough payment, especially for guys. I always make sure to clean on the underside of things i.e. where the wall meets the tub (if there is a bathfitter), behind the toilet, the underside of cabinet/appliance doors, the underside of the oven hood...places nasty crud builds up and even professional cleaners don't get always. Oh! and if you have ceiling fans always clean the top side of the blades off...or else whatever is on them gets blown around the room. If you really want to be ambitious pull out the stove and refrigerator...a lot of stuff will spill down the sides and underneath.
One thing we do when we move is remove and wash the vent covers in a new place and clean out inside the vent if it needs it, we both have bad allergies and you would not believe how much that helps and it will make the place smell better if you use the air system alot! We also pull the screens off windows and wash those as well, we try to do that monthly being we are close to a road. And pull out the appliances and clean the sides and under them, places clearly NOT cleaned often in appartments! It's a little more time and elbow work but for us they are steps that really make a big difference!
I've been living in my place for a little over a year. I cleaned everything right before I moved in, except the baseboards. I cleaned them recently (even though they looked fine). It's surprising how dirty they can actually get. Now it's something I will do periodically.
Oh god yes, around the doorknobs and cabinet fixtures. Anywhere frequently and repeatedly touched will slowly get a grimy build up that is surprisingly gross once you actually notice.
If you have an aerator or a water-saving thing screwed on to your faucets, take them off and clean them/soak them in vinegar, or just change them out completely. They can get pretty nasty inside.
You can skip the ceilings.
I am moving April 1st, I wish I had some overlap time! My beau and I are both moving in from apartments we share with multiple roommates, and our replacements are paying beginning 04/01, so we need to get out for their sake!
We will definitely be going to "ask friends to help, treat them to pizza and beer" route, as we've been helpers before we've got a few volunteers. We're just asking them to help move though, not the cleaning part. It's going to be a long day!
Changing the toilet seat is absolute #1 in my books! (unless by some miracle the rental gods smile upon you and you get a new one included). Speaking from experience after you've done this once you'll never, ever go without doing it again! Nothing is more painful than thinking of all the ones you didn't change after doing this the first time...
On a related note, bringing a pair or two of cheap dishwashing gloves and/or a box of latex disposable gloves on a move in can also be great, not only for toilet seat removal, but just some of the general cleaning can be pretty gross even if the unit is pretty clean.