Vacating apartment-Ideas?

I need some help regd. how to clean the house on vacating the apartment. Is there any specific liquid that is good for cleaning the house. I have some specific questions and please do let me know about it

a) There are some marks on the walls - few are mosquitoes stuck to the wall, so little blood stain(i'm not sure how it happened), some dirty marks etc., How to clean the walls.

b) In the kitchen stove, the paint has peeled off near the place where the burners are. What i need to do for this..

c) For the cupboards, toilet which detergent would be good. My wash basin is white but my bath tub and toilet is cream in colour. Irrespective of what i do, the colour remains as such.

d) What do i need to do for the carpets. Incase of any marks, what should i do?

e) Do i need to clean the fan filters and everything?

f) The kitchen place next to the sink, stove are all made of granite or some sort of grey tiles...they are all filled with different colors. How do i clean them

I've not stayed in US before and i'm not sure how they actually inspect and put the fine. Do the apartment guys tell something after inspecting your house. What basically do they check. Do they charge heavily? Can we rectify if incase they charge for something?

Hi..
I dont think you will have to clean soo much. My suggesstion is let the leasing office people come & inspect, after that they would tell u what to clean. You can clean based on that. Also dont forget to tell them how the condition was when u initially when i occupied the apartment.
Usually they wouls insist on cleaning bath rooms & kitchen stove. Walls any how they paint before they rent out to the next resident.
HTH
Sandhya

I have changed many apartments in US, so i little bit of idea. No matter how much cleaning you do, they surely are to deducted from you deposit. Read in your lease, they might have put a clause that for carpet cleaning they would take so and so amount. (For us its 125). So no matter what is the condition of carpet, unless you will not show them a receipt that your carpet is professionaly cleaned they would deduct this amount. (instead we take care i would suggest let them do it)

For walls, try to wipe it with wet cloth. I too had few stains but with little bit liquid soap and wet cloth it went off.

Its good if you scrub kitchen and bathroom floors. But if you have not given too much of deposit then its ok

Yes, also clean up refrigerator thoroughly, becoz they maximum deduct money in that.

Throw away even a smallest piece of trash, i mean if they find a little bit trash like an empty bottle or some tissues etc, they charge a lot

Last but not least after you move out they will come for inspection, so its always advisable to be present whn they inspect (you can give a notice that u want to be present at time of inspection, so they will give u a prior notice, when they r gonna check ) this way you will exactly come to know, what r they gonna deduct money for.

I dont exactly know which cleaning liquid is used to really shine every thing, but for bath tub and toilet you can try plain bleach. I heard from a friend that with 100% bleach bath tubs can be white again

Hope this helped you. I will definetly share more things if i will come to know

All the best

Hi Suja,

I too would suggest you go by what Sandhya's suggested. Let the leasing office folks come and inspect. Ask them how much they would want to charge if not cleaned. Then you may decide whether it is worth cleaning or paying the few dollars they may ask!

Just in case you decide to clean...

For cleaning your restroom sinks & tub, use clorox cleaning bleach. It will clean to sparkling white. You can use it on your cream color tub - I too have the same and use it.

For cleaning your stove top, just use any dish washing liquid like dawn or ajax. You can pour a few drops into little water and use it to wipe clean.

Good luck in moving to a new house...

Rathi

Hi

FYI.....

Apartment people never inspect before you move out.

Dear friends,

We are moving from a one-bedroom apt to a 2 bed apt within a radius of 2 miles.
There seem too many options(on craigslist) which makes it hard for me to decide on a moving company that's economical yet reliable and safe.

I was wondering if any of you in the bay area had suggestions regarding good and reliable movers around this area...


Thanks

Dear shal,
there is one proffesional service for moving called aronmovers.com then you can also check out desimovers.......but if it is just close by then instead of spending so much money....u can just go to home depot or target....there you will find lots of mexican waiting for labour jobs(specially during weekends)they will do the job for very cheap price(like around$50-70 for 8 hrs) just make sure the mexican understands atleast little bit of english to make your job easier!!you can just pick them up on the morning of ur move&drop them back in the evening....last time we moved they even helped me clean the house&later on with some unpacking since am expecting.

I checked aronmovers.com and it looks like they are based out of NJ.

I was thinking about your suggesting of going to home depot or target to get people for help. Well, I have seen those men standing outside these stores too, so I think it might work (as confirmed by you). So, did u rent a truck from u-haul and get all the work done by them? And do they charge u a flat rate per person?

Thanks for all the help!

hey shal,
yes we rented a truck from u haul....they even drive the u haul if u ask them to.....yes they charge a flat rate.....when u pick them up...just fix a flat rate for the whole day&also clearly tell them that u will drop them back at home depot at this time...say 6pm or 7 pm ....whatever...talk about time&money clearly(coz most dont understand english&get confused later)generally they charge between $60-80...thats including cleaning&little bit of unpacking.....so bargain according to your needs&tell them clearly what exactly they have to do.....hope this helps.
ps:dont forget to keep an eye on them at all times!!!
vidhya.