And depending on the law or the judge, you could end up paying a penalty if you deal with the tenant or handle the deposit return in bad faith.I think you should follow the security deposit law for PA, charge her for one day's rent and for hauling junk away and cleaning, get receipts for it all, and send her the difference, if there is any, and send it on time.

you can look for BBQ grills, toys in the yard, cars in the drive way etc.   

and we've been hauling window units back and forth to these houses while our great HVAC guy has been replacing these units. 

A week ago, my tenant caused minor damage(bent a bit) to a neighbor's utility line support beam while driving a rented u-haul.

Open up the floor registers and clean them out, this is not only good for your HVAC system, but also will reveal things like cigarette butts (unauthorized smoking), pet food (unauthorized pets), and the occasional kid toy (this is okay, since finding a barbie shoe or the missing lego will make a child happy.) 3.

Heck, I now have the weirdest picture of older women with some boy-toys on the premises in my head!

I told them that the place was a mess, and that I had to spend time cleaning and hauling abandoned furniture out to the dumpster.

One idea I'm toying with right now is to ask the tenant to retain her own pest control services and to send me the bill if they find evidence of a rodent problem, but I'm not sure if that's legally defensible.  

any stuff that you had to haul out of hers?

Just needs a power wash and some paint, needs the weeds wacked down, junk hauled off, rip out that carpet, basically cosmetic stuff - but the bones and location are good!