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A Property Deep Clean is a Legal Requirement Prior to Vacating

Living rooms, front rooms, lounges, parlours, family rooms… these rooms have got a number of names, but you know the ones I mean. This is one of the public rooms in the house and it’s not the place where you go for privacy. It’s the place where you bring visitors in, sit them down on a nicely upholstered chair or couch and hand them a cup of something. It would be nice to say that the sure-fire way to tell that a room is a living room is that it’s the one with the couch in it; however, some people are lucky enough to have couches in their bedrooms (we won’t ask why). As well as a couch or a lounge suite, these rooms often have coffee tables, televisions and other home theatre devices and maybe a bookshelf. There could be a fireplace.

Then the time comes to deep clean that room because you won’t be living in it anymore but you’ll be living somewhere else. Like any other room in the house, living rooms need their own checklist for moving out cleaning. Ask any professional cleaner – he or she will tell you that a checklist is always a must.

You might think that doing the moving out cleaning in the living room would be easy and would have no special challenges. However, because it’s such a public room and because it doesn’t belong to anybody, it’s all too easy to leave it until last and/or assume that you’ve already done it because it looks clean, or think that someone else has taken or will take care of it. However, the good news is that cleaning the living room before you move house seldom involves discovering a horrible mess somewhere. What with living rooms being so public, they’re usually the first to get cleaned if you know that visitors are a few minutes away!

OK, so what do you have to think about and make sure of when you give your living room that last cleaning session before you move? Of course, you could just hand the task over to a professional end of tenancy cleaning company and let them take care of it all (landlords certainly like this). However, if you insist, you can do the job yourself, with a little help from some friends and family members.

Step 1: Move The Big Items

Some houses and apartments have been let furnished. Others haven’t. No matter what the situation is, you will have to move the big items out before you try deep cleaning in the living room. As is always the case with moving out cleaning, you should do the packing first before you clean, and you shouldn’t try to declutter as you go.

If the couch is one of the furnishings and belongs to the landlord, you should still move it out from its place and clean behind it. For one thing, the landlord will check here. For another, you’ll need to check behind and under the couch for lost items that you need to pack. Whether or not it belongs to you or the landlord, don’t forget to clean the couch itself – this means taking off the cushions, removing the dropped paperclips, pens and teaspoons that have made their way down there, then giving the under-seat bits a good vacuum. Replace the cushions and you’re good to go. You’ll need to do the same with any other upholstered furniture, whether or not they’re part of a lounge suite.

Step 2: Look Up

Once the big items are out of the way, it’s time to pay attention to the little details. As always with deep cleaning, you need to start at the top and work your way down. Start by looking at the ceiling and what’s on it.

• If there are any cobwebs, wrap an old towel around the head of a broom (this avoids webs getting stuck in the bristles and spreading elsewhere) and sweep them down.
• Damp-dust the light fittings and ceiling fans, top and bottom. Don’t forget to make sure that the light is switched off when you do this!
• If the light fittings don’t come off but they involve spaces where insects have gone to die, then use the vacuum cleaner (the sort with a hose, of course, not the upright type) to get the carcasses and other debris out. If you don’t have this sort of vacuum cleaner, try a bottle brush or improvise a giant swab with kitchen implements and paper towels.
• Metal light fittings and fans may need to be polished as well if the metal is looking tarnished.
• If the lightbulbs are looking a bit grotty and dusty, and they’re common or garden ones (incandescent, energy-saving or LEDs) then it is usually easier to replace them than to clean them (take LED lights and energy-saver bulbs with you if they’ve still got a lot of life left in them, which a lot of them do). In the case of fancier ones, damp-dust them very carefully to remove fly spots and the like.

Step 3: Clear The Walls And Windowsills

Working your way down, the walls come next. Presumably, you’ll have already taken away your pictures and ornaments from walls, windowsills and mantlepieces. Depending on what you used to put your pictures up on the wall, you may need to cover over holes from thumbtacks or remove Blu-tack marks. You’ll probably also need to remove fly spots and weird marks on the walls where furniture has rubbed.

• Use a fresh piece of Blu-tack to remove the old stuff that got left behind – the old stuff will bond to the fresh bit if you knead and warm it (meaning the new piece) a bit.
• Citrus based cleaners help remove the old greasy residue marks. So does baking soda, but be very gentle so you don’t take away the wallpaper or paint. You can also try those magic eraser type cleaners or even a very good artist’s rubber. The manufacturers (Bostik) recommend sugar soap.
• Sneakily fill in those holes left by thumbtacks with white toothpaste. If the walls aren’t plain white, then you can try tinting the toothpaste carefully with a touch of food colouring or watercolour paint BEFORE you use it to fill the holes.
• Many of the marks on walls come off with a cloth dipped in warm soapy water. Stubborn ones require treatment with baking soda and/or toothpaste applied with a soft old toothbrush.
• Any built-in mirrors will need to be cleaned with your favourite glass cleaning product, whether that’s a proprietary spray or vinegar. The same applies to glass-fronted cabinets.
• Dust any horizontal surfaces: windowsills, mantlepieces, shelves, skirting boards, dado rails, architraves… You can tackle the dust on low-down ones with a vacuum cleaner.
• Don’t forget to wipe light switches, door handles and electrical outlets down. Turn the power off at the mains if possible while you do this to avoid accidents.

Step 4: Storage Areas

Some living rooms have built-in storage areas like cupboards. These are often overlooked, but don’t forget them! You’ll need to make sure that everything has been taken out of them, if this hasn’t been done as part of the packing process. After that, vacuum them out right into the corners, then wipe down any lingering marks and residue on the bottom, the shelves and the inside and outside of the doors.

Step 5: The Floor

Leave the floor until last. Vacuum it thoroughly if the floor is carpeted – and maybe think about getting the carpet steam cleaned. Some landlords require steam cleaning as a condition for giving you back your deposit money. If the floor is a hard floor, then it will need to be scrubbed and/or mopped, then polished after a good sweeping.

Then you can just close the door, walk out and move on!

Those who have such an experience know very well that the days around the transferring date could be significant for the whole process and successful finish of the contracts and relationships.
The cleanliness of the property is one of the main factors for a good pass. The opposite, in case you leave not well-kept home, all that means nerves and harmful recommendations of the landlord. All these can bring us about losing the deposit.
There are blessing possibilities to find and hire a reliable, professional cleaner. That could be a good idea if you haven’t got enough time to prepare to move correctly. All necessary is perfect clean environment ready for the next rentals. It is our obligatory to leave as pure and fresh as it is a new one.

Professional end of tenancy service includes deep clean of the entire home, stain removal, special care for the different materials and surfaces. The equipment and expert products have the power to restore and lend pure shine to the cleaned belongings and furniture.
In most cases, only the expert cleaner with the appropriate experience and accurate eye for the details could pass the landlord’s observation of the property successfully.