My mom once told me about her first rental experience. “You have to clean the apartment really well to get the deposit back,” she explained to me (I was about ten). “So before we moved out, your dad and I spent a lot of time cleaning everything because we needed our deposit.”
Knowing her excellent housekeeping abilities, I trust her version of the story. “But in the end I guess we didn’t clean everything. The landlord wouldn’t give the deposit back because he said we didn’t clean under the dishwasher.” My mom frowned. “If he’d just told us I would have cleaned it,” she finished. “But nothing was said until a month after we’d left.”
I have no doubt my mom would have appreciated a list that included ‘clean under dishwasher.’ During my interview with landlord Deanna, she mentioned that she gives her tenants a cleaning list that is very specific for move-outs. “I even have them clean the fridge coils,” she said. “Anything that could possibly need cleaned, I have them do it.”
I was in awe. I wished my landlords had given me a list. And it’s not because I have a secret desire to clean fridge coils but because it’s so much easier to meet expectations when one knows what those expectations are.
Plus, sometimes your residents really don’t know that the ceiling fan blades need cleaned or that it isn’t your job to wipe down window blinds. My mom had never used a dishwasher before so it hadn’t occurred to her to clean under the unit. A cleaning list educates residents on these finer points of home care.
