person holding yellow plastic spray bottle

If you’re getting ready to move out of a rented property, we’re sure you have some questions about the end-of-tenancy cleaning. Like, is the end-of-tenancy cleaning really worth it? After all, you’ve kept your rented place clean and tidy since you moved in, so do you really need to hire a team of cleaners to come in and clean it just before you move out?

My end-of-tenancy cleaning story

When my partner and I moved out of our rented flat, we had it cleaned professionally. We did this because the flat had been renovated just before we moved in, and we wanted it to look as new as it had when we first moved in. Plus, we got a dog during our time at the flat and agreed with the owner that we would get the flat professionally cleaned if our new furry friend could come and live with us.

Our flat

We had a few friends that lived close to us during our time at the flat, and we lived the closest to town. So this meant our flat was often the meeting place before we went into town for dinner or nights out. Of course, this meant that our flat was never really messy; we kept it tidy and ready for our friends to drop by.

Our attempt at deep cleaning the flat

Just before we hired a professional cleaning company to come and do an end-of-tenancy clean, we decided to have a go ourselves. We got a few drinks, put on some music, and got to work. It became pretty obvious, pretty quickly, that we had no clue what we were doing and that we were well out of our depth.

Despite keeping the flat clean during our time there, there were a shocking amount of places that gathered dust, grime, and pet hair. Under the bed, the door frames, the kitchen cupboards, the skirting boards, behind the toilet, and more. To clean everything would have taken us ages. And we would’ve still needed to hire a carpet cleaner and an oven cleaner anyway. So, we decided to save our elbow grease and hire an end-of-tenancy cleaning team to come in and clean the entire place.

On the day of the end of tenancy, clean

The cleaning team arrived a few days after we moved all of our stuff into our new place and got to work straight away. They started by removing the racks from the oven and leaving them to soak in the van. This was when I left the cleaners to it. It was very clear they meant business and didn’t need me there cluttering up the place.

A few hours later, I got a call saying they were all done. I went in and was absolutely amazed at how new our apartment looked. Every surface, other than the carpet, was dust free and looked incredible. At the same time, it took my girlfriend and me to give up on our attempt to clean our apartment. They had made it ready for new tenants to arrive.

Carpet cleaning

We opted to get our carpets cleaned for a few reasons. Firstly, they were brand new when we moved in, and we had a puppy, who, for a few months, wasn’t too kind to the carpet. Also, when we moved the sofa and the bed, we were amazed at how much the carpets had dulled in just a few years of us living there.

The day after the end of the tenancy cleaning team left, and the carpet cleaner arrived. This was one gentleman with a massive carpet-cleaning machine. In about an hour, he cleaned all of the carpets in our one-bed flat and made them look brand new. Even got rid of a few stains that we were confident were never coming out! The carpet cleaning was really the icing on the cake. The flat looked almost sterile at this point, perfect for the new tenants.

Handing back the keys

Handing our keys back to our landlord was a bit nerve-racking. Even though the flat was professionally cleaned, we weren’t 100% sure it would go smoothly. Thankfully, our landlord was pleasantly surprised with all of the efforts we (the cleaning team) had put into cleaning the flat and was more than happy to give our deposit back in full.

Is the end-of-tenancy cleaning worth it?

I can only speak from my end-of-tenancy cleaning experience, but this cleaning service is worth every penny. To start with, you quickly realize that the cleaning you are doing every week while living there is surface cleaning, and you are never touching certain areas of the property. Plus, hiring cleaners to come in allows you to focus on getting your new home ready, which was massively helpful for us as we had sofa deliveries and Wi-Fi to sort out.

Plus, moving is stressful enough. If we hadn’t had the end-of-tenancy cleaning in our flat, moving out would have been 100 times more stressful than it was. Cleaning is such a big job if you are an amateur like me. My partner and I both agreed that hiring end-of-tenancy cleaners to clean our flat was the biggest stress-saver of the entire situation, and we will certainly be doing it when we move out of the place we are in now.

So, if you are wondering whether the end of tenancy cleaning is worth it, in my experience, it is. While you’re moving out, your time is extremely valuable and is much better spent getting the new home sorted rather than worrying about cleaning when a team of cleaners can come in and make sure work of all the fine details that we mere mortals will likely miss anyway.

A good quality end-of-tenancy cleaning company will clean your property in a few hours and make sure it is a blank slate for the next tenants while you focus on moving into your new place and making it your home.