Move-out clean shortcuts, tips, and tricks?

Janessadawn

So my husband and I bought our first home last week. We are all moved in, and all that's left is doing the move-out clean on our old apartment. We were there for 2 years and were pretty cramped, so it's fair to say certain things need an intense deep-clean in order to get as much of our deposit back as possible.( We were gonna hire a pro but then decided to spend the $200 it was going to cost on stuff for our new place, and suck it up and do it ourselves.)

That said, I don't wanna spend all day Saturday cleaning. We're already planning on shampooing the living/dining area and master bedroom carpets, which will take a while by itself. The rooms/items that haven't yet been cleaned: spare bathroom, used infrequently; small kitchen including oven and dishwasher; master toilet and master shower. The toilet bowls are bad due to a combo of 30 year old toilets and the hardest water in town, so I already know those are going to take some pumicing (it's the only way they've come clean in the past).

Any tips and tricks y'all can recommend for maximizing our use of time? I've tried to google for specific move-out cleaning tips and have come up empty. Thanks!

musictchr25

Is it possible for you to go over to the apartment a few times before Saturday for about an hour? Breaking up the cleaning would be much less boring and chore-like. 

Take advantage of time too. For example, put some cleaner/bleach in the toilets and let them sit for about a half hour while you go clean something else. Multi-tasking will really help you get things done quicker.  And split up the work too, since there will be two of you. Work in different spaces so you aren't crowding each other. And set goals/make it a competition so that you have motivation to work harder and faster.

Don't use the self-cleaning option on the oven - it never works well, it smells, and it makes your space very very hot since it heats the over to over 500 degrees.  A Brillo-pad or a tough scrub brush will be much better and faster for you.  

Also, Hydrogen Peroxide or White Vinegar will be your best friends for cleaning - it can be used on everything and is very effective.  Make sure that you leave the carpet shampooing for the very end, as you don't want to walk over your newly washed carpets.  

MrsS728

When my husband and I moved out of our apartment (we had been there for 4 years) we cleaned it over the course of 3 days. We first got the appliances cleaned and fixtures, then the misc stuff out and last we cleaned the carpets. It was a pain, but we got back 100% of our deposit.

kmj500

I know this doesn't help much now but last time we moved, we would get a room packed up, move everything out to our living/dining room area then clean the room we were done with. Obviously things like the bathroom and kitchen happened the day before, but splitting it up like that made it seem like less of a chore.