With Ames’ notorious move-out week quickly approaching, it’s good to prepare in advance for the stressful and fast-paced actions of the week. There are many things you can do to prepare your apartment in advance, while other things are done the day-of. Follow these tips offered by Hunziker Property Management to avoid the rush and make sure that you don’t wait until the last minute to move out.

The first thing you must do when it comes to move-out week is to organize and sort through your things. Most of us have many things that you can pack away or store days or weeks in advance, while there are a few items that will need to remain accessible for the last couple days. Things that you can definitely pack up beforehand include things like winter clothes, decorations, books & movies, and some dishes.

It is a lot easier to move and clean your apartment if you don’t need to either bring or throw out pounds of heavy food. Plan ahead for the last couple of months of your lease and begin eating all the food in your house. Try to finish everything from your freezer first, because those things are incredibly difficult to move in the heat of the summer. Also go through your cupboards and try to reduce the cans and sauces that you have, as these would just take more heavy boxes to move. If you have leftover unopened non-perishables, consider donating them to one of the several food banks in Ames, but make sure the food isn’t expired first.

Now that most of your items have either been packed (or eaten in the case of your food), it’s time to begin your deep clean of your apartment. We find it is easiest to clean one room at a time and then completely shut off that room. For example, you may clean the bedrooms first, then the living room, then the kitchen and the bathroom last, because you likely will not need the rooms in that order. We’ve got easy to follow instructions and numbers of the people at Hunziker to contact if you have questions.

At Hunziker, we have an online and easily printable move-out form. This has all the information you would need to prepare your apartment to move out, including what we’ll be looking at when doing the move-out inspection. We highly recommend following the details on this form, because if you miss something, you may be liable for any extra cleaning that our maintenance staff needs to do after you move out.

Your carpets were professionally cleaned using the extraction method prior to your move-in date. You are required to leave them in the same condition, less normal wear and tear. A receipt for carpet cleaning using the extraction method, shown at the time of your move-out inspection, would meet that obligation.

Nobody likes to rush and be stressed the week of moving out. Plan ahead and stay in front of all the chores and cleaning that you’ll need to do. If you follow these instructions and make a list of all the things that need to be completed before moving out, you’ll have no trouble finishing on time. And once everything is complete and you hand your keys back into Hunziker, you can relax and sigh a breath of relief and enjoy the rest of summer.