Updated with current information for 2022
You can pick your roommates, but you usually can’t pick the former tenants of your Athens apartment. Unfortunately, sometimes you can smell them long after they are gone. Lingering odors from cigarette smoke, cat litter, smelly dogs can hang in the air like a Nickelback Greatest Hits CD on repeat. Here are some tricks to airing out the smelly house you just rented, even before you move in.
Let in the Air
The first step is to air out the house or apartment. Open all the windows and let the walls breathe. Leave them open for 24 hours if possible. Stick some fans in the windows, faced outward so the air gets sucked out of the house. Ideally, have fans on one side of the house and open windows on the other to create some cross wind ventilation.
Just be careful of letting bugs in. If you’re living in a one or two bedroom apartment – odds are you’re high enough off the ground to be fine. But if you’re in a house or anything bigger, you may run into some issues.
Or alternatively, install screens on your windows.
Wash Windows and Mirrors
You don’t think about windows and mirrors having an odor, but they actually do get coated with residue. In cases of cigarette smoke and mold, dirty mirrors and windows can actually cause your place to stink. If your apartment has a nice view – you’re ruining it with ugly windows!
Change the Lightbulbs
You’d be surprised just how much smell lingers in old lightbulbs. Replacing them with fresh helps remove the old odors and gives your apartment a clean, bright feel.
It May Be Time to Downsize – or Size Up
If you’re struggling to get rid of the smell – be it caused by roommates or past tenants – it may be time to look at other options.
First, if the issue is your roommates, try downsizing to a one-bedroom or studio apartment.
Alternatively, if the issue is roommate related, it may be better, as counterintuitive it may seem, to size-up. The more roommates you add, the more space you get in your home, the more you can separate yourself from the living spaces of others. This is in case you still really want to room with the people you are currently. Six bedroom houses often have multiple levels where rent is divided by floor, not by tenant.
You could, however, get new roommates entirely and still increase the size of your unit, both for reasons outlined above but also to just save money.