Where to start? Lodger gone, mess left

Uniscots97

I feel like such a horrible person today. A few months ago I let a friend (he's also a distant relative) rent a room off me as he became homeless quite unexpectedly. All I asked was money to chip in for bills and food (I was going to be doing the cooking most of the time and he would do cooking on days where I would be home late after physio) as well as him cleaning his room and his bathroom on a regular basis (I have a shower room and a bathroom so I gave him the bathroom to himself).

He hadn't even been in the house 2 days when I realised I'd made a mistake (dirty laundry left lying at door to bathroom in the hall). Fast forward a few months and I was left feeling like a lodger in my own home. He had a tv and freeview box in his room yet any time I had friends over he hung about including the time I asked him to not hang about as a friend was coming over after being dumped. He hung about and didn't quite help my poor friend's mood. The smell from his room was unbelievable. I did remind him where the hoover etc were and he said he hoovered etc while I was out. In the couple of months he was staying in my house I only twice saw him cleaning his bathroom. I brought up the subject of him moving out during the christmas holidays reminding him that the agreement was that he was only staying at mine in the short term and last week he went to see a flat and got the keys on friday. He packed (in a hurry!) on saturday morning and left, thanking me. I went and opened his room door and the bathroom door. The smell was horrible. I opened windows. He had stripped his bed and put the sheets in the washing machine but the place hadn't been dusted or hoovered at all (any time during his stay). The toilet was vile! I can't put it into words what horrors I found. I just wanted to cry. I gave him a roof over his head when he needed it and this is how I'm repaid. Every time I think I can't find any worse I do. The best was a load of dirty q-tips under the bed! I've washed and dried the duvet and am soaking the pillows in oxy powder (you don't want to know about them). There's also black marks and gouges out of one of the walls.


Where do I start on these two rooms? I've sprinkled Neutradol powder on the carpets and vacuumed to get rid of some of the smell. I feel like a failure and a bad person to be left with a mess like this from a so called friend whose also a distant relative. He certainly wasn't brought up like that!

Where do I start?


Materials I have:

A vax plus carpet cleaner
Neutradol powder
Stardrops
washing up liquid
Oxy powder
polish
bleach
toilet cleaner
dettol (a third of the bottle has already been poured down the loo in his bathroom)
cloths
rubber gloves

moggins

You start by opening the window wide! Then go in the bathroom and squirt the toilet cleaner liberally round the loo, leave it and squirt the bath all round with stardrops and leave that to soak. Make up a weak solution of stardrops and start at the top, wash the walls down, remove any curtains and put them in the washing machine, damp polish any wooden surfaces, sprinkle neutradol all over the mattress. Hoover the carpet (you can't clean it until you have given it a good hoover. Go clean the bath, sink, clean toilet. Using stardrops mop the bathroom floor. Go back to the bedroom and hoover the mattress. Check the carpet again and put cleaning carpet on your list for tomorrow. Rehang the curtains whilst still damp. Any creases will fall out while they are drying and you won't have to iron them.

Uniscots97

Thanks Moggins, just so depressed after being left such a mess. The gouges out of the wall were unbelievable. I gave him a roof over his head and this is how he repays me?

jrrowleyws

I'd bin the duvet and pillows, you can easily get a cheap replacement. As for the bathroom, usually a good scrub with lemon cream cleaner will fix most stuff. Carpets, borrow a VAX off a friend.

Cleaning walls; toothpaste is good as its abrasive but not too much so usually removes marks without removing paint. Holes providing they are small can be filled with some cheap standard filler and then painted.

What an !!!, write to him and say how you feel. Totally unacceptable.

grannybroon

unixgirluk

I think moggins has given you a very good grounding on where to start. The only thing I would maybe add is to make sure you maybe stand mattress against wall, neutrodol both sides and hoover both sides thoroughly.

Before I got my new bathroom I used to leave a solution of bio washing powder over night in the bath - I filled to near top, to waste overflow from the hot tap only. It was amazing how much ingrained dirt this removed.

Now I have the new suite I just use Stardrops/microfibre cloths.


Sorry you have been left such a mess when you were giving someone a helping hand.

Not sure what kind of base you have on the bed but would also give this a good clean too.

Uniscots97

Thanks, he came over yesterday to collect his car. I went out just couldn't face him. Am so angry and upset. His Dad gave him a lift over and I didn't want to embarass his Dad by venting. He wasn't brought up like that so I was shocked that he just didn't care. Even when he was supposed to do the cooking (evenings when I'd be late due to physio) he didn't bother.

Idiophreak

personally I wouldn't do anything for the time being and would first get back in contact with them and ask them to return and clean up their mess.

if that doesn't work, I'd get professionals in to do it then forward the bill.

don't know if you'd have a case in small claims, but you certainly would on judge judy

hope you get it sorted out, anyway.

lil_me

If you have a vax plus I would use it on the carpets and mattress. My vax brings mattresses up fantastic, just make sure you stand it on it's side, preferably near a window, to let it dry. Moggins has I think covered everything I would do.

I would let him know how you fell, that's shocking after what you have done for him, don't know how someone can live like that. Best of luck getting it sorted. I don't know how you could keep calm in front of his Dad, I would have made sure he knew. Maybe I am a little harsh!

Uniscots97

Thanks grannybroon its a pine bed frame which I'll need to fix as the central support has been broken.

There's too many items to list. I was gobsmacked.

angchris

people like that infuriate me :mad: they wander through life with no thought of others! you doing your good deed has backfired and probably left you feeling "why did i bother" i really feel for you! ask him to come back and clean it, its his mess after all! i`d be tempted to wipe all trace of him from the room, buy some filler for the walls and slap up some cheapo paint. if he wont come back and at least make an effort i would have no hesitation in letting the world know you were good enough to put him up rent free he should have the decency to make sure he left it as it was when he arrived! i`d close the door on the mess for now and ask him to clean and wait for him to return if he doesnt by all means clean the room but take a note of what you spend and the hours involved cleaning and send him a bill. theres no way you should have to suffer for his thoughtless/laziness

lil_me

We just fixed our pine bed (kids bounced one too many times) cost about £5 for the piece of wood from local wood selling place, B & Q sell it I think aswell.

If there is any marks that don't come off that may ome through the paint try one of the 'stain block' paints first, someone on here suggested when I was decorating and it's been a godsend.