Cleaning the condo

I have been cleaning one of my rental condos this weekend. It is, in some ways, a lot of fun. OK, maybe fun isn't the right word...more like satisfying.

Whenever a person leaves they take all their personal stuff with them and just leave the bare bones of the condo and the items I had originally put in there. I take out all of the linens, towels, bedding and wash it all. Then I go through and I clean everything from top to bottom. It is so easy to do because there is no clutter, nothing in the dressers, no clothes in the closet - everything is empty.



I vacuum out the dressers, wipe down the TVs, clean every tabletop, the windows, the blinds and the curtain rods.

I use a paint brush to get the dust off the baseboards, a Magic Eraser to clean the tub, sink and the faucets.

I take off all of the glass globes from the light fixtures and clean those. I even clean the lightbulbs.

I iron the sheets for the beds and the extra sets that I put in the closet.



This time around, I have to get the carpets cleaned, too. My last tenant was there a year, so good carpet cleaning is necessary. If I don't have a professional come in and clean the carpets, then I vacuum and spot clean the carpets, as well as clean the tile floors.

I take everything out of the kitchen cupboards and wash everything. The dishes, the glasses, the silverware, everything. I want everything to be "Tide Clean" for the next tenant.

The fridge gets cleaned, which is a total breeze because there is literally nothing in the fridge.

It should only take a real long day to clean the condo, but it takes me three days. I usually end up taking nearly an entire day to iron the sheets, the duvet covers and the pillowcases. Sometimes I get caught up in a movie that I've got on the TV or I start reading my emails and replying -- or even reading my favorite blogs. So it takes me several days to get the condo ready for a new tenant.

Tomorrow I need to call a plumber to help me fix the toilet tank that is not working properly. It's being finicky. I wouldn't normally call for just that - so while I have him there, I'm going to have him fix the shut off valve to the toilet, fix the drain plug in the sink and then go over to our other condo a few blocks away to fix another plumbing issue. I always have a list of projects!

I will be calling the carpet cleaner folks and scheduling them. I need to spray the oven (I just noticed it as I was leaving this evening, that it needed cleaning) and that's about it.



I have someone moving in on Wednesday. I'm going to have to pull some strings to get that carpet cleaning done, I think.

So that's my cleaning routine for my rental condos for people going through the transplant process.

I just found out this evening that one of our friends, who has been waiting since the Fall of 2007, had his liver transplant this afternoon. Ooooh goodness, we have been praying for him to be next for a long time. He was really missing his home in the mountains of Colorado...he hadn't been home since he left in 07. We all needed to hear this news.

I hope you all have had a productive weekend. Or a lazy weekend. Or whatever type of weekend that you wanted.

Kristin