Your apartment is your home. As a tenant, you want to maintain your home to not only feel comfortable but to get that deposit back. Additionally, you want to utilize maintenance services as much as possible. Sometimes service calls can be inconvenient and intrusive, plus it’s rewarding to maintain your home. Taking preventative measures now will greatly benefit you in the long run. Protect your peace of mind and your security deposit with these tips on how to take care of your rental as a tenant.
Homes, whether it’s a rental or not, have a way of turning from a freshly cleaned space into chaotic piles of laundry and dirty dishes. Whether it be the hectic way of life or the size of the rental itself, it is possible to keep your rental clean without really trying. Stay on top of your mess with these cleaning tips.
A great place to start is to create “catch-alls” in areas such as the front door, your bedroom, and any other room, really. A catch-all is an organizational area for things such as your keys, sunglasses, chapstick, and loose change. Sometimes you just need to stash stuff and catch-alls have the ability to make messes look orderly (and they give a great excuse to buy those cute petite bowls!).
Catch-alls turn lovingly collectible items into mini displays of personal passions, as well as decoratively display objects such as paper clips or post-it notes.
To prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed with cleaning duties, clean a little bit every day. Clean the bathrooms on Monday and vacuum on Tuesday for example. Before you know it, doing a little each day simply becomes a part of your routine.
Take care of the flooring. Another big lesson on how to take care of your rental as a tenant is keeping a decently-close eye on your floors. When dirt embeds into rugs and carpets, it wears out the fibers. On harder surfaces like wood, laminate, and vinyl, dirt and debris cause noticeable scratches. To reduce the amount of dirt tracked into your rental, it’s recommended to have placemats inside and outside your doors. Further protective measures include
To keep drains flowing freely, avoid pouring oil, fat, coffee grounds, or other solids into the kitchen sink. In the bathroom, remove hair from the sink and tub promptly so it is not washed down the drain.
A simple tip on how to take care of your rental as a tenant is to buy inexpensive drain screens for the kitchen sink, the bathtub, and shower drains to prevent food particles, hair, or small items like jewelry from entering the drain. These screens will catch and hold hair, fragments of soap, and other potential drain cloggers, making it easy for you to toss obstructions into the trash before they become a problem.
Untreated mold, mildew, toilet stains, and loose bathrooms tiles only get worse if neglected. The longer you go without cleaning your bathtub, shower doors, or toilet, the harder dirt, muck, and bacteria are to remove. Fortunately, all microscopic things growing in your bathroom can be removed by applying a simple shower spray and using toilet bowl cleaner!
Take advantage of our ‘clean a little everyday’ suggestion and clean a little every day.
If you do have a loose tile in your bathroom, don’t wait until it’s dislodged to do something. If you have experience with DIY, make a quick trip to the hardware store. However, it’s probably best to take advantage of rental perks and call for maintenance service right away.
It can be discouraging to spend an entire day cleaning just to have your space destroyed a few days later. While deep cleans every once in a while are still very necessary, you can prevent the madness with minimal effort tasks.
You certainly shouldn’t have to spend the majority of your time keeping up with your rental. By learning how to take care of your rental as a tenant, you won’t have to deal with dirt, junk, or maintenance issues. Leave some of the work to the pros, clean and organize your space with minimal effort, and pick up a little bit every day to truly enjoy your home.
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