When you’ve moved into your new rental, it’s only natural to want to unpack your belongings immediately and start making the new space your home.
But before you get too carried away, there’s one crucial thing you need to do first – give your new place a good clean!
This will be much easier to do before you unpack all your belongings and while you have a clean slate…it’s not going to be this uncluttered for long, after all.
It will also give you the satisfaction of moving into a clean space, with no worries about what germs or mess the previous tenant may have left behind.
While it should have been cleaned after the previous tenant, it’s good to check and go over the difficult to clean areas for your own peace of mind. There’s likely to be some less-than-obvious spots that have been missed too.
While you don’t need to go crazy with the cleaning, here are a few must-clean areas.
Disinfect all surfaces you touch regularly
Every single surface you’re going to touch in your new home will have been touched hundreds of times before by previous tenants.
It’s highly unlikely the previous tenant would have wiped down every surface in preparation for your arrival.
So grab your disinfectant and wipe over all light switches, bench tops, handles, appliances, locks, buttons, dials and taps. Basically, anything you’re going to touch.
Clean the bathtub and shower
You’ll enjoy your regular soak in the bath a lot more if you’re not worried about laying in someone else’s germs. Same with the shower – you’re not going to feel very clean afterwards if the floors and other surfaces have not been cleaned since the last tenant used the shower.
Grab a bath and shower cleaner, give well used areas a good scrub, and wipe down all surfaces.
The oven and dishwasher and other appliances
The oven has to be one of the trickiest household items to clean, meaning there’s a good chance this appliance may not have been cleaned to your desired standard.
Be sure to wash the trays and the door, and wipe along the base and edges.
You might also want to run a load of the dishwasher before putting any dishes in there, and if your rental comes with a microwave give that a good wipe out too. Remove the plate to make sure you’re reaching all surfaces.
While you’re at it, you can even think about organising your new pantry so everything is labeled, accessible and even fit for the pros.
Clean the floors
Do you really want to be stretching out on the carpet if the previous tenant’s bare feet have been there? Nope!
Give all carpets a good clean and vacuum with a standard handheld vacuum or a robot one from Ecovacs. Or if you’re really serious about it you could look at getting the carpets professionally cleaned.
If your new home has tile, hard wood or laminate flooring give it a good mopping with a cleaner suited to your floor’s finish.
Pay extra attention to high traffic areas and corners that may have gathered dust.
Wipe out cabinets
Before you put your plates and food in the cabinet and pantry, give all shelves a wipe out to get rid of any crumbs, spills or dust.
Also pay special attention to the cutlery drawer, particularly if it comes with an installed cutlery divider.
The built-in wardrobe
It’s not likely that the wardrobe will be this empty ever again, so use this as your chance to give it a good once over. Wipe over all surfaces and built-in shelving, vacuum the base and remove dust from the corners.
If any shelves and drawers are stained or looking a little worse for wear, cover it with (removable) liners to give them a new lease of life.
Clean the toilet
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Be sure to wipe over the flush button too.
Bathroom cabinets
Bathroom cabinets contain all manner of lotions, products and personal hygiene items.
Give the shelves a good wipe over with a disinfectant as well as the vanity surface and mirror to get your new bathroom spic and span.
