WikiHow has a great HOWTO for vacating an apartment without surrendering your security deposit — not just how to clean it, but how to clean it in such a way that your landlord can’t claim that you still owe. Wish I’d known about this before: I once had a crooked landlord keep back some of my deposit for failing to clean an oven that I had never, ever used during my tenancy (and this was after the landlord inspected my apartment and told me it was all OK).
(via Consumerist)