Cleaning etiquette

olgadapolga

I've always thoroughly cleaned the house that I'm leaving and left the garden neat and tidy.

Unfortunately, every house I've moved into has been a disgusting mess and I've had to clean each house I've moved into, including a rental property which had rubbish left by workmen (who were in the property between the previous tenants and my tenancy, they couldn't even be bothered to throw it in the bin outside) a garage full of other people's stuff, cupboards full of stuff and a rather disgusting toilet!

The house before that was a repossession, so part of me doesn't blame the previous owner for not cleaning before they left.

Our current house had been left vacant for a year or so and was filthy, although of course we viewed it as it was and didn't expect any different, even though the vendor said that the house would be cleared and cleaned. It wasn't. We had to get rid of a load of his junk when we moved in (but he paid for a skip). The the vendor was clearly not someone who believed in throwing rubbish away, preferring to bury it, as we discovered when we attacked the garden.Two years on and it's a different place, apart from the horrible gravel driveway (which is the next thing to deal with).

Reddington85

Though tbh, in the current Covid climate - even if the house looks spotless I would be thoroughly cleaning at least key touch points once the removal guys have left 

Philomel

I just moved out of rental (which we spent about 5 solid days cleaning; when we moved in there was no professional clean and it had had what the inventory called a 'fair domestic clean', but we wanted to leave it nice for the next people) and into my own place, which was clean-ish. Oven and fridge clean but toilets a bit grubby and cobwebs in all the corners/carpets need a wash. Not awful but I don't love the thought of another weekend of cleaning after the last week 

TBagpuss

Yes, ideally you should clean but a lot of people don't.

The first house I bought was dirty when I moved in - we had to empty the vacuum cleaner 3 times from vacuuming the living room and discovered the carper as cream with a pattern, not brown with a pattern as we'd thought! It had I think been a probate sale then the people I bought it from were a couple wo bought but never moved in as they split up, so it had been empty a while. - so while dirty it was understandable. (and I was moving from rented so had a few days overlap, which was handy)

House 2 was disgusting. among other things there was a pile of burnt bits literally 6 inches tall, in the oven, they'd obviously never cleaned it. The fridge had died about 2 weeks before completion and they had dumped it (without emptying it) in the garden, and the rest of the house was similar. They were the ones who also took all the light bulbs and didn't even leave a part used roll of paper in the bathroom

House 3 I think they just stopped cleaning as soon as my offer was accepted. 

I feel I am due to find a clean house next time I move but wouldn't bet on it! 

I left mine clean when I moved out - it helped that the removal guys packed everything except the bed and a box of kitchen essentials the day before moving day so I spent that evening doing a final clean.

I left a box of chocolates, a folder with notes about the utilities, rubbish and recycling collections etc plus , local takeaway menus etc, and also ensured that I left loo roll & soap in the bathroom.

(I think I also left a half used bottle of cleaner and some new cloths, but that wasn't intentional! 

gab3x

We left our perfect London flat we sold spotless - every wall plug taken out, refilled and repainted. We moved into a house that had 101 things to fix.. some people are just rude

mat1964

my GF's on/off (mostly off) buyers solicitor requested a 'COVID professional clean' in the questions she raised.  We just replied we would leave it cleaned.  In any case, I think leaving somewhere clean and tidy is the right thing to do.

gingercordial

Our sellers turned out to be filthy b******s.  Not sure if they cleaned between viewings and completion.  Drawers full of spilled pasta and spices, old empty cat food tins on the floor, old lollipop stuck to a cupboard shelf, an old freezer full of yuck.  Dust and hair and tat left everywhere.

We were coming from rented so had an overlap.  I called in a professional cleaning firm for a deep clean (arranged as such with their premium moving in/post-building work special service).  They turned up that morning, saw it and announced that it was simply too bad, they could not do it and would not even attempt it as they were sure they could not get it to a satisfactory standard in the day.  Couldn't even pay them extra.  They did refund my money.  We spent the next three days scrubbing it from top to bottom, at the same time as dealing with packing and cleaning our rented flat.

So I bin all the post they can't be bothered to redirect and as they say I would not wee on them to put them out if they were on fire.

dramaticat

This move, the challenge I faced was that I was moving with a broken leg. So my initial plan of going round with the hoover once furniture was moved out of a room wasn't going to work. I got my cleaner to come in and do that and give the bathrooms and kitchen surfaces a wipe – she even had time to mop the floor. What didn't get cleaned were the insides of cupboards and the oven. The oven was self-cleaning, but I hadn't been able to get the shelves out to run the program. I didn't manage to wipe out the fridge either, but nothing was mega dirty. I didn't feel guilty about any of this as I'd done what I could.

I moved into temporary accommodation, but have now found a house to buy. No matter how pristine it is the day I pick up the keys, I shall get my cleaner to do a deep clean – it's as much to stamp it as my new territory as anything else

wewilldoit

Ive always left our houses spotless, on top of door frames, all cupboards, oven etc, even left new toilet fresheners on the Loos so they smell nice for the new people, just how I would like to be welcomed 

hb2

When we moved here, the removal company couldn't come to pack until the morning of the move (only a few days between exchange and completion). We were expecting to complete at 1pm so left them to it and went over to visit my mum in her care home (as we thought we would be too busy to visit for a few days afterwards). We got a call at 11.30 to say we had completed, rushed back home to find the removal men sitting in the lorry outside and the buyers already in, so I'm afraid the cleaning we expected to do didn't happen.