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Moving Out Cleaning In Spots You Usually Ignore

If you want to get your deposit money, you have to do the end of tenancy cleaning right. As you may have gathered, this process goes way beyond what you’d usually do to get your place tidy and hygienic for everyday life. It even goes beyond what you’d do by way of cleaning if you’ve got visitors coming. During the end of tenancy cleaning, you have to get into places that you normally wouldn’t tackle.

Deep Cleaning Your Property Prior to Vacating

This is because Archway landlords and the people who are going to move into what was your old rental home will want somewhere that looks sparkly and fresh rather than dingy and a little shabby (which differs from shabby chic – and that’s not to everybody’s taste anyway). Just think about what you’d want to see when you moved into a new place or took your first look around it.

Landlords Look Through Different Eyes

The thing with end of tenancy cleaning is that you’re used to the limescale on the taps or on the tiles in the bathroom. It’s part of the patina of everyday life, and if you’re cleaning the bathroom, you tend to focus on the gunge in the soap rack and the splatters of toothpaste on the mirror. However, when the landlord or a prospective tenant comes in, he or she sees the place with fresh eyes (yes, even the landlord). What’s more, there are no other odds and ends to attract attention, so the eye just zeroes in on the bits of dirt.

It’s easy to forget this fact – after all, when you’re moving out, you’ve got a truckload of things to think about. This is one reason why many people like to call in a professional end of tenancy cleaning service to get rid of the hassle. Landlords also like it, as they know the job’s been done right.

With end of tenancy cleaning, you need to get into all the odd spots that normally get overlooked. If you’re game enough to do your own moving-out cleaning, then these are some that you really can’t ignore. But what are all these odd spots? Here are some of the ones on the end of tenancy cleaning checklist that we use in our business in N19.

Check Your Tenancy Agreement for Any Cleaning Clauses

Do You Have These On Your End Of Tenancy Cleaning Checklist?

  • The front door. Most people, when they clean, tend to concentrate on what’s inside the house. The outside tends to be ignored, apart from maybe the windows. However, the front door picks up its fair share of everyday grime and dirt. Yes, it’s a cliché, but first impressions count, and the front door is the first thing the landlord will see. This means that you need to give the door handle a good polish, and the door’s surface will need a good wipe, especially if it involves moulding. If you’ve got a letterbox slot in your door, don’t forget to clean this as well.
  • Skirting boards. Dust collects everywhere that’s horizontal, including all the horizontal elements in your walls, such as skirting boards. Dado rails and architraves come into the same category. They’re often overlooked during general cleaning, but if there’s no furniture to hide the skirting boards, then any dust and grime will show up only too easily. The good news if you’re trying to do your own end of tenancy cleaning is that if it’s just dust on your skirting boards, then the upholstery attachment or the crevice tool of your vacuum cleaner can remove this.
  • Taps. Limescale builds up on taps very easily in hard water areas or when the water is chlorinated (which is most of the time unless you’re lucky enough to somehow be on a rainwater or natural spring for your water supply). All this has to go to ensure that the taps are sparkling clean and ready for inspection. This may involve getting stuck in with an old toothbrush to get into all the fiddly bits and pieces.
  • Behind the furniture. If you own the furniture, the dust bunnies and other debris that will inevitably have collected behind it will become obvious when you shift the furniture out (so that’s where that other earring went!). However, if you rent a furnished flat or house in Archway, you may be tempted to leave the furniture in place. Don’t do this. There’s a good chance that the landlord will move it and check behind it, and your lack of cleaning will be exposed. Move your own bits out, then pull the furniture that came with the house or flat, out into the middle of the room and get in behind it. If one of the furniture items is a sofa, don’t forget to pull off the cushions and vacuum underneath them (and there’s the other missing earring, a teaspoon and a very dodgy old crisp).
  • Inside the oven. And outside the oven and in the range hood as well! Unless you’ve never used the oven at all (like that’s going to happen!), there will be smuts, bits of grease and old burnt raisins (well, that’s what they look like) inside the oven. It’s not an easy job cleaning an oven, and plenty of people just ignore it until they move out. Sometimes, folk hire professional end of tenancy cleaners in Archway just to take care of the oven. One handy hint I learned from an electrician for cleaning an oven is this: if there’s grease and muck on the element itself (in the case of an electric oven rather than a gas oven), don’t fool about trying to wipe it off. Just open the windows and doors, turn the extractor fan on and switch that element on fully. This will burn off the grime. It will smell and may set off your smoke alarm, but it will remove the grease.
  • Light fittings. We usually only stare at light fittings if we’re lying in bed ill unless we’ve got a nice fancy light with pretty sparkles or coloured LEDs that do more than just illuminate the room. Because we usually don’t look at the light fittings and because they’re high up, they tend to get dusty very easily. During moving-out cleaning, you’d better grab your ladder or a step stool or a very sturdy chair and get up there to clean them up. Lampshades also need to be dusted, which can be a very fiddly job in some places. In the case of incandescent bulbs that have collected fly spots and dust, don’t bother cleaning them. Just replace them with new ones instead – it’s a lot quicker and easier!
  • Door handles. Usually, only germophobic people are the ones who fanatically clean door handles inside the house. Well, that was the case until the COVID-19 pandemic turned the lot of us Archway folk into germophobes who wiped doorknobs all through the house. If you take a close look at a doorknob, you’ll see that it will be a bit grimy from all the fingers touching it. This means that you’ll need to give them a good clean when you move out.
  • Towel rails. Towel rails just sit there with your towels on them, and you tend to be more concerned about whether or not the towels on them need to be changed or not. However, they can collect dust, obscure bits of shampoo or soap (well, that’s what I hope that slightly greasy stuff on them is) or even limescale over time, which will all need to come off during the end of tenancy cleaning. Don’t forget to pay attention to the place where the towel rail is fixed to the wall as well as to the main bar of the rail itself.
Hard to Clean Areas That Often Get Missed During End of Tenancy Cleans

Hiring a Professional End of Tenancy Cleaning Company in Archway – Is It Worth It?

End of tenancy cleaning requires detailed knowledge and precise skill. Professional companies have the specialised personnel, supplies and equipment to tackle even the most challenging of cleaning jobs.

Trained professionals understand the nuances of end of tenancy requirements, ensuring that high standards are met at all times. They use sophisticated cleaning solutions and products that can tackle tough stains without posing a risk to anyone in the vicinity. Professional end of tenancy cleaners use industry-leading technology for superior results without wasting time or supplies. Eco-friendly practices are used to protect your property and maintain a safe environment for everyone.

Hiring one company saves stress and hassle by covering every nook and cranny, from airing bedrooms to washing windows or degreasing ovens. You can be assured that no dirt is overlooked or left behind whatsoever — helping your rental property look as good as new!

Go on, give us a ring and sort out a thorough end of tenancy clean at your Archway property.

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What Is Urgent Tenancy Cleaning?

After almost a decade in the tenancy cleaning business, I still get amazed by how clueless people can be about their lease contracts, moving-out procedures, etc. In my experience, at least 50% of the tenants think they can just pack their boxes, leave the keys on the kitchen table and move on to their new apartment. The idea of reading their tenancy contract, let alone planning for a professional cleaning visit which is a mandatory condition more often than not, does not cross their mind.

Let me give you an example. A few weeks ago, I was enjoying my first cup of morning coffee when the phone started ringing. Without knowing it, I could guess it was an emergency call – nobody would contact us for a pre-scheduled clean-up at 9 AM. When I picked up the receiver, I was immediately exposed to a torrent of hardly understandable vocal abuse in a strong Eastern European accent.

As it turned out, a Hungarian lady was moving out of her Whetstone apartment but, of course, hadn’t read the tenancy contract. She should have cleaned the apartment a day before the call – or lost her deposit. In something between panic and rage, she demanded (the cheek of this woman!) we take the job on the same day, for extra pay (how generous!).

I am usually very accommodating with my customers and try to help them in similar cases. But something in this lady’s tone put me off immediately. I tried to explain that we could sign her up for a clean-up in the early evening of the same day, which is more than a reasonable timeframe. She would have none of it – the cleaning had to be done by noon, or she would lose her deposit. Well, I guess she lost her deposit.

Please, please, please – guys, read your tenancy contract! And if you fail to do so, do not forget it is your fault, nor a professional contractor’s!