Your apartment is empty because you just spent the weekend moving every box and belonging you have. Now it's time to make sure that you do everything you can to get your deposit back.

It may seem like a task that you aren’t capable of but trust us - if you put more time into cleaning the apartment, paying attention to the details, and not cutting any corners, you should be able to get some of your deposit back. The perks of apartment living you've likely enjoyed - like ceiling fans, nice carpet and other amenities, are also things that need to be kept clean. Here are some tips to help you get your deposit back.

Read the Lease

It's common to see that carpet cleaning is mandatory to ensure that the next apartment living resident will have a clean carpet just like you did when you first moved in. Knowing what you'll be paying for automatically when you move out is a good thing to know and understand before you even sign the lease. Check your lease and give yourself a refresher on how much of the deposit you know you won’t be seeing so you don’t get your hopes up.

Get Good Cleaners

When trying a new cleaner in your apartment, it is important to follow the instructions on the back of the bottle. Chemicals in oven cleaner require ventilation to prevent any damage to the brain. Another common instruction seen on a bottle is to test the product on a small area before you potentially ruin property that isn’t yours and have to pay to replace it. You'll need different cleaners for different areas of the apartment so don’t be stingy! Cleaning Tip: use steel wool to get grease stains out, but test an area before you scrape it up.

Start From Room to Room and Top to Bottom

It is best to start on rooms that have appliances or surface areas that need extra scrubbing attention or even letting the cleaner soak awhile. So if you have been neglecting cleaning your tub or oven weekly, then you might want to start there. Once you have designated which room you will be beginning in, always start from the top. You don’t want to have to re-wash those kitchen countertops once you wiped down the cabinets do you? No way! It wastes time and money. So make sure you clean those fan blades before you even think about cleaning the floors.

Write Out a To-Do List

Make a to-do list for each individual room and tape the list to the wall. Once that task is done, check it off. Once everything is done on the list for a specific room, then throw the list away and close the door. This is a good idea if more than one person is doing the cleaning. Nothing will be cleaned twice and nothing will be left off when cleaning to get your deposit back from apartment living.

Now that you have a few tips the next step is to just start the process of cleaning. It won’t get finished until you start so make sure that you don’t procrastinate. The more time you give yourself to clean the better chance you have to get some of your deposit back. Remember to update your contact information with the complex that you are waiting for the deposit check from. No need to work hard to get a return and then never receive it!

Need a specific list of things that need to be cleaned in your apartment? Download our Cleaning Checklist for Move-Out Inspection and you'll find the list that will leave your apartment as clean as the day you rented it. 

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