To Clean Or Not To Clean?

Sofa_Sogood

Somerled wrote:

I join the crowd and say yes it is polite to clean the house/flat when moving out. It gives a lot of aching muscles but it does make you feel good. Imagine moving into a new flat and finding you have to tidy up the rubble left from the builders or spend hours scrubbing the balcony with cif just to get the dirt off. Not pleasant.
However wouldnt it be wonderful if the house you moved into you found a welcome to your new home with a bottle of wine and fruit basket alongside a welcome to your new home from the previous owners.
I'm still hoping are you ?

I couldn't hack it, or cope with it

But if I was ever left moving into a dirty house ... I'd go nuts

cathys1_2

Every house I have ever bought has been filthy. It took a week to clean the cooker in my first flat - and she had the cheek to tell me she had cleaned it the day before!
This house - the toilet had been pebble dashed for a week or two prior to us moving in, and the kitchen was the biggest grime ball ever! :rolleyes: :eek:
I always clean so that all it needs is a wipe over once the boxes have gone - don't want people mouthing me off!
Would I clean again after the horrors I've been welcomed with - YES!

Slinky

Years ago I worked with somebody who did a house swap with somebody. My colleague spend hours cleaning her old home, only to find the new one she was moving to was absolutely rancid when she got there. How absolutely peed of was she? I think that has to be the absolute pits of a of a situation to have spent all that time cleaning for the benefit of the slob she was swapping with.

I've always left our old home spotless when we've moved out.

livmclennan

Definitely clean your house. I moved into a property 18 months ago and had to scrub it top to bottom because it was so disgusting. It wastes a lot of time when all you want to do is unpack and arrange your new home. It's more of a goodwill gesture and certainly very much appreciated!

m.r.davies

rule of thumb:
you should leave your old house in a state that you expect your new one to be.

irritable

As usual Mum is right! How could you possibly move out and allow others to judge you other than as a tidy person. The only circumstance which would justify not cleaning is if they have behaved like A..holes during the purchase process. I bought a house 3 years ago and had to clean 3 loos worth of other people's waste and when we moved in at dusk I found that the previous owner had even taken the light bulbs!! The best piece of advice I ever received when I was younger seems to apply here "Progress in life is about the standards which you set for yourself"

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Good point - but what if one's cleaning standards are perfectly acceptable but totally unacceptable to the new owners?

Crispy_Ambulance

When we moved, we left our old house spotless - it is courtesy, a matter of pride and also a psychological "removing" yourself from a house you no longer live in.

The house we moved into had been owned by a single bloke. It was "man clean". He probably thought he had cleaned it really well - ie he had put the hoover round. However, the oven was filthy and the bathroom needed a damn good scrub.

to the OP - clean it, there is such a thing as karma.

Wickedkitten

irritable wrote:

As usual Mum is right! How could you possibly move out and allow others to judge you other than as a tidy person. The only circumstance which would justify not cleaning is if they have behaved like A..holes during the purchase process. I bought a house 3 years ago and had to clean 3 loos worth of other people's waste and when we moved in at dusk I found that the previous owner had even taken the light bulbs!! The best piece of advice I ever received when I was younger seems to apply here "Progress in life is about the standards which you set for yourself"

To be honest I wouldn't advocate not cleaning even if the buyer was being a muppet. Why lower yourself like that?

That is horrible having to clean someone elses muck from the loos though, yuck.

toys19

I think we are all missing a trick here. I have bought 4 houses in the last 6 years, and in the contracts for each one I have insisted on a £500 penalty clause to cover the eventuality that the house may not be clean or there is rubbish to remove upon vacant posession. :beer: