How to Eliminate Lingering Odours From Your Rental Property

Dealing with lingering odours before the final inspection of a rental property is quite challenging. Many tenants in Gold Coast lose a part of their bond money due to lack of cleaning and unpleasant odours throughout the premises.

Whether it is the lingering smell of burnt food or cigarette smoke, it is your responsibility to keep your house clean and smell-free before the landlord comes for an inspection. No matter how thoroughly you clean the area, sometimes bad odours linger in the air and carpets for days or even weeks.

Of course, you can take professional assistance for attention-to-detail bond cleaning in Gold Coast, but you should know the right ways to eliminate lingering bad odours. It is important to address the source and remove bad odours from your entire rental premises.

Make sure you deep clean your premises including the carpet, furniture, cabinets, cupboards, walls and other areas to pass your final inspection. Here are some great hacks that will help you kill unpleasant smell from the premises with ease:

1. Prepare Homemade Odour Removal

Treating light odours from a microwave and a refrigerator can be done quickly without using chemical-based odour removals. You can prepare natural agents and air fresheners at home using some of the best natural ingredients such as :

• Baking Soda: Make a thick paste of baking soda and water to treat the areas lingering with bad smells.
• White Vinegar: An agent of white vinegar and lukewarm water also works wonder as a natural deodoriser.
• Lemons: You can use lemon juice to disinfect and remove bad smells from your house.
• Coffee Grounds: Put coffee grounds in a bowl and place around your home. The strong fragrance of coffee grounds will eliminate all bad smells.
• Apple Cider Vinegar: Pour apple cider vinegar down the clogged drain to eliminate odour.
• Essential Oils: You can add a few drops of your favourite essential oils (orange, apple, lavender, etc) while preparing your homemade cleaning agent.

2. Purify the Air

Maintaining indoor air quality is imperative when it comes to killing bad odours from rental premises. It is good to start with the basics- open the windows and curtains and turn on ceiling fans to circulate the air.

To let the fresh air in you can place a table fan in a window at one end of the room. Put another one in the opposite direction of the window to pull out the air from the room. Keep the windows open throughout the cleaning process.

Tip: If you keep the windows open an inch or two for 7-8 hours, this will assist you in removing bad odours from home.

3. Clean the Ceilings

This may seem a daunting task, but it should be spruced up if you want to get rid of lingering odours, especially cigarette smell.

Take a microfiber cloth dipped in a homemade cleaning solution (white vinegar and water) to clean your ceiling. White vinegar is a natural cleaning ingredient that can remove stains and deodorises a variety of surfaces. Remove the excess moisture before wiping the roof down for better results.

Tip: This trick works effectively when cleaning ceiling tiles.

4. Clean and Deodorise Windows & Walls Coverings

This is one of the important steps that can help you get rid of unpleasant smells. Eliminate window coverings such as drapes and send them to a dry cleaner.

You can prepare a natural solution by mixing white vinegar and water to clean and deodorise hard surfaces such as vinyl blinds, washable walls and wood coverings. Dip a microfiber cloth in the agent and wipe of the surfaces from top to down. White vinegar removes not only tough stains but also reduces lingering odours.

5. Remove Odours from Carpets and Rugs

Eliminating pet odour, cigarette smoke and other lingering smells from carpets and rugs is an overwhelming task. Of course, you can take assistance from professional carpet cleaners in the Gold Coast, but there are some great ways you can try at home to trap bad odours, such as:

• Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on the carpet and rugs
• Vacuum it up after half an hour using a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner.
• Blot the affected area with a mixture of vinegar and water mixture to remove bad odours.
• Turn on a table fan to dry
• You can also apply baking soda if the smell persists and vacuum your carpets.

6. Spruce up Cabinets, Cupboards and Drawers

Bad odours even linger in closed drawers, cabinets and other furniture inside a home.  If you want to make your rental property smell fresh during the inspection, then don’t forget to clean these areas. All you need to do is to:

• Apply the natural cleaning agent (white vinegar and water) on the washable surfaces and wipe them off using a soft microfiber cloth.
• Clean and deodorise the insides of cupboards and cabinets with the same solution.
• Leave the doors open to let the smell out of cabinets and drawers.
• You can place the bowl full of coffee grounds inside the cupboard if any smell remains.

7. Paint the Walls Again

If the odour persists, then you can repaint the walls with an odour-blocking primer to secure your bond money after the final inspection. A thick coat of paint and primer can remove the allergens from walls and also eliminates the odour completely.

8. Wipe off Hard Surfaces

Treat the pungent smell by washing the floors and wiping off hard surfaces using an eco-friendly cleaning agent. For wooden floors, mix warm water and a neutral-pH soap and apply it to kill bad odours.

Apply vinegar and water solution on laminate and vinyl floors to get rid of lingering smell. Strictly avoid using vinegar on grouted areas and stone tiles as it could harm the floors.

Conclusion

These are some of the best tricks that can help you eliminate lingering odours from your rental property before the final inspection. If you don’t want to lose bond money, then hire professionals for end-to-end bond cleaning in Gold Coast. Take their assistance and remove dust, grime, grease, stains, mould, mildew and bad odours from your rental property.