Out of the dozens of places I've lived I've only gotten my full deposit back twice. Once because a sewer pipe burst and forced all the residents out. The second time was because I was going broke paying the rent because my job didn't pay enough so I got a friend of mine to forge a letter that made it look like I was joining the military. The landlord told me she was proud of me and gave me the full deposit back.
Other than that, I've always had hundreds of dollars deducted from my deposit because I left toilet paper on the roll or forgot some stray ketchup packets in the junk drawer.
I'm moving in a few months and I'm wondering if I should bother cleaning up to try and get my deposit back or just saying fuck it and cut my losses.
Last time I had to move I informed my landlord that I wouldn't be paying the last month's rent and informed him to use my security deposit to pay for my last month's rent. He bitched and moaned about it but I just didn't pay him for the last month and told him where he could find the money. I also requested (prior to move-out) that I would require a line-item bill for any items incurred. This puts the burden on them to collect after the fact and requires them to provide receipts for costs incurred. I also took a ton of photos of every wall, corner, floor, and appliance and emailed a compiled PDF to him on a chain email that included his response (which loosely acts as proof of receipt) and requested a walk-through with them prior to move-out