Got a rundown apartment? Are you thinking “The place is falling apart and with no investment, I want to clean my space?” Here are some renters’ tips for cleaning a rundown apartment.
You need a cleaning routine that includes bi-annual deep cleaning, you also need maintenance cleaning even if you do it yourself.
You deserve a clean place to live even if you’re a tenant and you live in a rundown apartment.
Listen: Rundown Apartment – Tips for Cleaning
Watch: Rundown Apartment – Tips for Cleaning
How to Clean a Rundown Apartment
How do you clean a rundown apartment? One house cleaner is in this situation. “I live in a slightly rundown apartment, think cheap 1970’s wood paneling and thin scarred industrial carpeting.
I try to keep the home clean as best I can. But with chipping paint on the window seals and gouged linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom, the task seems impossible.
We don’t have much money to invest in renovations, nor do I want to. So what would be the proper solution? Also, just for any home in general, how often should I clean the nooks, crannies, cracks, and crevices in a home, like behind the couch, nearly inaccessible room corners, etc.?.”
All You Need is a Safe Place
If you live in a rundown apartment, that’s great. You have a roof over your head. The purpose of an apartment or a home or a condo or an RV or a van or wherever you live is to have a safe place that brings you peace.
This is a place where you come in from the outside elements, where you’re safe, you are at peace, you are at home, and it’s a safe place of refuge for you. If it has gouges in the linoleum and if it has 1970’s wood paneling and if the paint is chipping off, whatever, that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that this is your home and so that it’s clean is important to me. You deserve to live in a clean home.
You Don’t Need to Have a Fancy Apartment
That it looks fancy and that it’s updated and renovated, not important to me. It’s important to me that you feel safe and that it’s clean. That’s what’s important to me and that you deserve.
How do you clean it? Well, there are a few routines that you get in to keep it cleaned and maintained on a regular basis. As far as the paint peeling off, not a problem. As far as the gouges in the linoleum, that’s normal for something that is from the ’70s.
You are not going to fix that. It’s an apartment. This is not your home. You’re not going to live here forever. You’re not going to pay to fix it up. That’s the landlord’s job. While you are in this space, you just want to bless the space that you’re in, make the most of it, and keep it clean.
Keeping Your Rundown Apartment Clean
Okay. Keeping it clean. First, we want to clean the dishes on a daily basis. First, wipe the counter-tops down and keep the kitchen clean for the reason that you process food in there.
All your meals are made in the kitchen. And there’s a tendency to attract ants and mice and other things if food is left out. It’s important to keep that area very clean and do that every day.
People use bathrooms a lot and that’s another very sensitive area of the home because that’s where germs and bacteria grow. It’s important to make sure that you clean the shower or the bathtub after every use. Wipe everything down and make sure that there’s no standing water, that the drains flush properly.
Make Sure Your Rundown Apartment Shower is Clean
Showers are a hot spot in the bathrooms. All kinds of gunk get washed down the drain at every shower. So, it’s important to keep the shower and tubs clean after each use. The basins and the vanity on the sink should also be wiped down every day.
Those are daily tasks. The toilet can be cleaned out every other day or twice a week. Use a toilet brush in the bowl and underneath the rim. Wipe the toilet seat down with an all-purpose cleaner and a paper towel.
I would say clean the toilet two or three times a week.
As far as mopping the floor and sweeping and vacuuming and all that stuff, once a week is okay.
You Want to Clean Your Kitchen Every Day
Now in the kitchen, clean it every day.
You don’t have to clean the whole kitchen every day, but the area around the sink and where the crumbs drop, under toasters, on the counters, and in the microwave – clean that every day.
Clean it twice a day if needed to keep ants and mice at bay.
Deep Cleaning Your Rundown Apartment
If you’re not using an area of your home, and there’s not a lot of traffic you can do a deep clean on occasion. Maintain it with light cleaning in between.
You might dust every week and you might do all your regular and maintenance cleaning every week or biweekly.
But if it’s hard to reach places and it’s under the couch and stuff, maybe twice a year, maybe three times a year.
If you live in a small confined space and it gets dirty quicker for whatever reason.
Maybe you have pets and there’s pet hair. Or maybe the doors open and shut or you have lots of wind or breezes that blow in and it blows in dust and stuff like that, maybe more often.
Resources:
Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home – https://amzn.to/2W5WtWV
The Martha Manual: How to Do (Almost) Everything – https://amzn.to/2W5Mtga
Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Organized, Clean, and Beautiful in Just 10 Minutes a Day – https://amzn.to/2YXkrRb
Get Your House Clean Now: The Home Cleaning Method Anyone Can Master – https://amzn.to/30KYKW6
Real Life Organizing: Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day – https://amzn.to/2ED58Fm
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