Cleaning Up Our Rental

Dec 4, 2013 /

Here we go people. The countdown is on for moving day which means our window of being able to clean up this rental is slowly (well quickly) closing!

We talked to our landlord last week and told her the news. She is bummed but of course understands. She left us with one request… to really get the house clean. Mike and I feel very strongly that we need to honor her request. She has been a wonderful landlord and has given us so much flexibility. So operation clean up this house is in full force.

I’m going to make a checklist of all the rooms in our house – simply for accountability – and I will hopefully cross everything off in the next couple weeks. I’m also going to pass along some tips…

Deep Cleaning Your Rental Tips

I have lived in a handful of rentals in my time and have definitely not done a good job at cleaning them up at the end and yes, my deposit was kept in return. This time? It’s not worth it, and we really care about our landlord and don’t want her to have to come out to clean. One time my sister moved out of her rental and was sent a bill for cleaning – my mom and her had spent at least two days seriously cleaning that place and they charged her for dusty baseboards. Dusty baseboards?!

Tips for Cleaning up your Rental

1. Don’t leave everything to the last minute.

If you dust your baseboards two weeks before you move out they won’t get coated with dust in the two weeks you’re packing and doing other things. Feel free to start ahead of time and knock out some of the daunting tasks before moving day.

2. Look high and low – don’t miss the small things

When my friends and I moved into our rental our senior year, the renters before us had forgotten to look up while they were cleaning. The ceiling fans and the corners of the ceilings were disgusting. I don’t even want to tell you how many wipe rags it took to get the gunk off the fan. Don’t skip those things – I think your landlord would rather sweep a little dust than pull out a ladder to clean the ceiling fan. Also don’t neglect your closets. Just because they’ve been filled with clothes doesn’t mean they’re dust free.

3. Fill nail holes

We’ve all been asked before moving in to not use nails and guess what? We all use nails. Do you landlord a favor and fill those in. It’s tedious, yes, but it’s also something that can happen before the day you move.

4. Manage your time wisely

The kitchen and bathroom are going to be the dirtiest rooms in your house – please spend more time in there than you do sweeping the floors. Unless of course your floors are disgusting, then maybe you should spend a little extra time on them.

5. Magic Erasers are your friend

Seriously, I took one of these and wiped down our bathroom walls (around the light switch, near the shower where water can splash, around the vanity, where the laundry basket rubs the wall) and it literally transformed the room. It looks cleaner than it did the day we got it just because a few small smudges were wiped off the walls.

Take a magic eraser to all your doors and any obvious marks on the walls.

WARNING: Don’t scrub too hard with the magic erasers – they have taken off paint for me before and that is usually not the desired result.

6. Vacuum attachments contain the dust

If you’re like me, dusting is the last thing on your cleaning list. It frustrates me because I wipe it up and then the dust is in the air and settles somewhere else. Nothing ever really gets clean. I think part of this is the old house we’re living in, but since I’ve started deep cleaning the vacuum seems to be the best option. The brush looking one? It’s great for dust.

7. Don’t leave everything to the last minute!

I realize I said this before, but I really believe it needs to be said again. Don’t kill yourself the day before your big move to try to get every knick and cranny clean. You have enough to be worried about – like moving into and unpacking your new home. Put away some extra time in the two weeks leading up to the move to clean. It will save you a huge headache and it will give you a much smoother and more relaxed moving day.

These things have helped us so far and I wish I would have thought through them in my previous rentals. It would have saved me lots of money and frustrations with management companies.

Since we are under the wire here, I have already started cleaning. It’s surprisingly fun for me. I put on Netflix in the background and just get to work. Happy cleaning, packing, and moving!

Oh, and Happy Hump Day!
Love, KJ

What We’d Change About Our Rental…

Sep 27, 2013 /

So, here we are. Part 2 of our rental posts. This time with the not so positive but also some tips on how to handle our biggest wish in our future home.

So last time we talked about our cute little quaint kitchen. It’s small. It’s adorably small and it all matches. Cream, cream, white, cream. Really cannot complain because it’s so cute and small. But if there was one thing I could change about this little house….

Yep, we don’t have a dishwasher (or a garbage disposal but that’s not the topic here). It’s the FIRST thing I would change about this house. Really, doing the dishes isn’t that bad, but a year and a few months in, I’m sick of washing dishes. But I have mastered a good dish washing session, so here’s a few tips!

1. Gloves – if you don’t want dry hands all the time
2. A good drying rack with lots of space.
3. These drying mats have been lifesavers to me. They soak
up all the water and the counter doesn’t get wet.
4. A good scrubber. I have found that the third option is our
favorite, but I really love all the soap dispensing ones.

You’ll also need to wash the dishes at least once a day, if not more than once a day. If you leave them sitting there they’ll start to smell, trust me. Smell bad. Real. Bad.

My trick? I do my best to have zero dishes in the sink when I go to bed. Then I wake up to a clean kitchen and start the day fresh. It works.

While I have your attention I will also mention that I am 100% opposed to sponges…A few facts: 1.Kitchen sponges are the number 1 source of bacteria in a house
2.Wiping your counters or dishes with a dirty sponge will transfer
the bacteria from one item to another
If you absolutely have to use sponges, before using the sponge get it wet
and zap it in the microwave for 2 minutes to eliminate the germs or you
could run it through the dishwasher, but in my case, that doesn’t really work.

Sorry about that dish doing tangent. But seriously, watch out for the germs.

What we’d change? We’d put in a dishwasher (and a garbage disposal). But for now, I rock at cleaning dishes. And Mike rocks at cleaning dishes.

Life of a renter is fun, and stress free (usually), but we do wish for a little bit of personalization. Someday hopefully we’ll get that in our own home, but for now we are happy to be where we’re at.

I hope you’re having a great Friday preparing for this beautiful weekend ahead.
The Jaderstons

If you missed it, here is What We Love About Our Rental…

What We Love About Our Rental…

Sep 25, 2013 /

I have been a “renter” for 3 years now. With every place I’ve rented there have been somethings that I loved and somethings that I didn’t really love. The tricky thing about renting though is that you’re not always allowed to change things even if you really don’t like it.

We really do love our rental that we are in right now. When we first started looking around for houses to rent in Sterling, America we quickly felt very defeated. We knew we wanted to be in a house, not an apartment, but the only houses we found were for sale and not willing to rent. Eventually I told Mike to just take care of it. I was getting too stressed over something that I knew the Lord had under control. We ended up getting this house just a few days after it became available and before the landlord even advertised its availability. It was a huge blessing and we couldn’t be happier with it.

Now, onto what we really love about our home…

Yep, they’re beautiful and they run all through the house
(except the kitchen and bathroom, which are tile)
I should also note here that I love our high ceilings. Mike never worries
about hitting his head on them.

There are two doorways with simple arches. It’s not much, but it adds a lot of character.

I’m pretty happy with our quaint little kitchen. It’s cute and everything matches.

Our basement is HUGE. It’s not finished (clearly) but it has a
ton of space for storage. Right now it holds lots of empty boxes and
also doubles as a spray paint room.

Oh man, I am so happy we have a washer and dryer. I love a good load of clean
laundry so that fact that I can clean clothes in the privacy of my own home is amazing.

A few other things I should mention…
– Sterling housing is not expensive. We REALLY appreciate this one.
– We have a big backyard with a fire pit!

And the biggest thing we love about our house is probably the flexibility with our landlord. She is the sweetest and very helpful when we have issues or questions. Gosh, I really can’t say enough about how blessed we’ve been by this house our first year of marriage. Having this much space at my disposal has revealed a lot of disorganization in my life (clutter, piles, junk, trash) but it’s fun to live life with Mike so a little disorganization is worth it.

It has been so fun making this house our own through the year we’ve been here.

We are off to Wichita (again) for some family time this afternoon. I only had to work a half day so we are taking advantage of this little break together. I hope you enjoyed our rental loves, up next will be our rental woes – AKA what we would change if we had the tools, time, or permission.

What would you say is your favorite thing about your home?

Happy Wednesday!
The Jaderstons