Taking care of your home
🍀 Did you know that by taking good care of your apartment and the property, you help reduce the need for repairs and support the building’s lifespan? The maintenance and repair of properties contribute significantly to Hoas’ carbon footprint.
As a tenant it is your responsibility to take good care of your apartment. A well-maintained apartment lasts a long time and can serve many students even long after your study years are behind. Also, taking good care of the apartment makes moving out easier when the time comes. On this page, you’ll find instructions for good maintenance of the apartment.
We are here to support you with living at Hoas. We are happy to help you with anything housing-related, such as paying the rent, maintaining the apartment, or roommates. Don’t hesitate to contact us and send a message in MyHoas, call, or visit our Service Center, if something is bothering you.
What taking care of the apartment includes?
- Regular cleaning and more thorough cleaning few times a year.
- Taking garbage, trash, and any useless items to the garbage room or recycling. See ourinstructions for sorting your waste at Hoas property.
- Make a fault report as needed.
- Act safe at the property. Get to know our fire safety and rescue plans.
- Maintain the appliances that are included in your apartment. Get familiar with our responsibility chart to see what is on tenant’s responsibility and what is maintained by Hoas.
- Take care of your own appliances.
- If you want your own laundry machine or dish washer, get to know our instructions for that and get a home insurance.
- Change the light bulbs.
- Report missing keys.
- Get familiar with our instructions for alteration work – be in touch with our customer service if you are unsure if the alteration work you are planning is allowed.
- Responsibility for guests staying with you.
- Responsibility for your pets, their messes, and possible repair works.
Fault report
Despite taking a good care of your apartment, occasionally something may break. Fault can also be found at the common areas of the property. You can always make a fault report in MyHoas of the faults you notice. Let us know especially if there were anything that would affect the safety of your building, such as broken locks.
- Read more: Filling a fault report
Cleaning
We all have our own opinions and tastes for how clean we want our homes to be. As a Hoas tenant you have agreed to maintain the apartment according to our instructions. Here is a list for what needs to be cleaned and how often, in order for the apartment to be well-maintained.
As a part of your daily routine
- Wipe the stove and counters from crumbs and stains and do the dishes after cooking.
- Check the garbage bins and take trash out if the bags are full. Remember to sort your waste!
- Use a squeegee to dry the bathroom floor (and walls) after a shower so the moisture doesn’t accumulate. Remove also loose hairs from the floor drain to keep it from clogging.
Regular cleaning
- Clean the apartment approx. every two weeks.
- Start with putting your stuff in their places to make cleaning easier.
- Wipe dust and stains off from shelves and surfaces. Remember to clean light switches and doors especially during the flu seasons.
- Clean the kitchen: Wipe counters, stove, sink, faucet, and tiles. Remove stains from doors and walls.
- Clean bathroom and toiler: Wash toilet, sink, mirror, and faucets. Wipe stains from walls and floor to prevent red mold.
- Vacuum and mop floors with damp mop.
Do these couple times a year or as soon there is a need
- Clean air vents (instructions)
- Defrost and wash freezer (instructions)
- Wash oven, stove, rack, and trays (instructions)
- Wash the cooker hood and filter (instructions)
- Empty the floor drain in bathroom (instructions)
Thorough cleaning
- Do a more thorough cleaning once or twice a year.
- Clean stubborn stains from surfaces.
- Dust off the hard-to-reach places, such as behind the radiator and above tall cabinets.
- Clean the refrigerator.
- Empty and wash kitchen cabinets and doors. When cooking, some grease evaporates into air which sticks to dust and forms a sticky substance on the shelves. Cabinet doors keep the dishes and items covered for large part, but some grease ends up in the cabinet too. Eventually this dust-grease will make shelves sticky and very hard to get clean.
- Wash bathroom walls, floor, and seams. Seams are easiest to clean with a brush.
- Empty the floor drain in the bathroom.
Washing the windows
- Windows are good to wash 1-2 times a year. Most of the windows in Finland have two layers, so one window has in total of four glass surfaces to wash. When the outdoor temperature is below zero, the windows can be cleaned only on the inside. During summer, you should wash windows when the sun is not directly shining on the window. If the sun is shining, it is harder to wash the window clean because it dries so fast.
Instructions for window washing:
- Make a cleaner with dish soap and warm water.
- Wet the cleaning cloth and squeeze most of the water off.
- Wash the window with circle-like motions.
- Dry the window with a squeegee with one-way motion and dry the squeegee in between wipes.
- Also wash the frame and the windowsill.
- Dust the blinds (if needed).
- Clean the dirt water from washing the windows from around the window.
What cleaning equipment do you need?
Home can get clean with very minimal cleaning equipment. When you move into your first home, you should get the very basic cleaning equipment. It is good to have at least:
- Vacuum
- Mop
- Squeegee
- Cleaning cloths
- Dish brush
- Toilet brush
- Dish soap
- Mild general cleaner
- Bucket
Cleaning and roommates
In shared apartments, your responsibility is to maintain your own room in good condition and participate in taking care of the common spaces of the apartment. Usually, the spaces shared with roommates are at least hallway, kitchen, and bathroom. Remember to participate in the final cleaning every time a roommate is moving out.
Talk to your roommates and agree on how clean you like to clean the apartment and the best way to share the workload. It is recommended to agree on these beforehand, write the thing agreed up on a paper, and leave the note in a visible place in the apartment. Use the above cleaning instructions as a backbone for your own cleaning routine.
There are many good ways to share the cleaning responsibilities. Others like to clean the whole apartment regularly together with roommates, and others prefer to share tasks and get them done in their own schedule. Part of being a good roommate is to be flexible from time to time. However, if there are persistent problems with roommates and talking doesn’t help, contact our tenant support. We’ll give tips and help you to get the problem solved.