Moving house - getting it cleaned before the furniture goes in

[Deleted User]

Anyone ever managed to do this?

On moving its all a rush, seller moves out, you show up, they chuck you're stuff off the lorry. No time at all to clean the house when its empty.

One idea (but not sure if removal company will go for this) - move out on completion day, removal company store stuff overnight, we get someone in to clean that day, stay in hotel overnight, meet removal lorry next day.

Any other ideas?

sheramber

if the removal do storage they will charge  you for it.  

Maybe I have been lucky but every house I have moved into has been clean.

Similarly, I have cleaned cupboards etc as I emptied then to box the items and hoovered each room after the removal finished and mived on to the next room.

Hoover was last on the lorry.

Will you be leaving your house clean?

Sapindus

Put at least some of your stuff in a storage unit for a few weeks to give yourself room to move the rest around while you clean.

kempiejon

I learnt many years ago that moving in a day/weekend was too difficult and when I could afford to looked at alternatives. I have used a storage unit, spend a couple of weeks putting all your stuff into store and move with just enough belongings to live on for a few weeks. Gives you an emplty house to clean, decorate etc. And means yo can unpack gradually. My mate has several times used firsms that deliver a trailor mounted box for you fill it with your kit, they take it away store it and deliver back to a new address when you're ready.

youth_leader

Moving day is such a rush I agree, my removal men were like machines and I was glad I was so ready.   I was moving out of a rental to my newly purchased bungalow here.

Preparation is key,  it is such an exhausting day.

In advance of my move, about a week before,  I had washed all of the interior windows and windowsills, and dusted the blind I was leaving. I also cleaned the light switch covers and gave door handles a wipe.

I deep sparkle cleaned the bathroom and kitchen,  so I only had to squirt some toilet cleaner down the toilet, and clean the floors.  I did leave a toilet roll for the new tenants.

I checked each ceiling for cobwebs (although the agent still found one!). 

My removal men (no ladies this time, but I did have one the first time) emptied a room at a time and I immediately followed them in with the hoover, long handled duster, and a packet of wipes.  I did wear an apron with a big pocket. 

I bagged up all rubbish and threw it into my car. 

I left the new tenants (nice couple I'd already met) a bottle of wine, a note about bin day and some bird seed, it was a wonderful spot for birds.

When I moved into this bungalow the owner had filled both bins with odd rubbish, I was very unhappy not to have access to a bin for a week.

Brie

We had an odd move in that the movers came and removed all our goods, a few days later they then went to MiL's and removed her stuff and went from there to our new place for all 3 of us and unloaded the lot.  OH didn't want them to walk on the floors they were so clean which was an absolute blessing.  

I only mention this as when we got a quote for us to move and MiL to move and then had to change it to them storing our things over a weekend the price didn't change very much.  So it's well worth the ask of what difference it would make if they held your stuff overnight.  Cheapest is likely to be if they move your stuff out in the afternoon and into the new place the next morning which would mean they don't need to empty the truck(s) for other jobs.  

Bigphil1474

We left our house spotless last year - house was emptied from top floor down, over 3 floors, by professional removal company. As each floor was emptied we went round with a duster and vac. The vac came in the car with us. 

The house we moved into wasn't cleaned, but the people moving out had tried to do their move on the cheap and ended up with half their belongings on the drive, in the street, and on next doors drive. We gave them an extra hour after the purchase had gone through while our removal guys had a break, but we moved in long before they'd moved their goods off the street. Unsurprisingly the whole house needed a good clean. Fortunately, we were upsizing so had plenty of space to move stuff round. 

Use professional removers and have a very thorough clear out before moving. If you tell the movers what order you want to move in the new house, they will load stuff the correct way into the lorry. When you get to the new house, get them to start on one room while you try and clean the rest of the house room by room in the correct order. That way you'll only have one room that needs cleaning after you move in?

jumire939

That overnight storage plan works and removal firms do it all the time, it's usually charged as a night in the van or a day of storage, so worth asking when you get the quote. I've used AnyVan for this kind of thing and they're a marketplace so you can find movers who'll do the storage option rather than one fixed firm.

The other route people use is cleaning before completion on the old place, and booking a cleaner for the new one the morning the keys are handed over, then pushing the movers to an afternoon slot. Tighter but avoids the hotel.

RelievedSheff

We moved in March this year.

The house we sold we left spotlessly clean, we had a couple of days off work before the move and cleaned the house top to bottom, had the ovens professionally cleaned, scrubbed the appliances that we had agreed to leave.

So imagine our dismay when the house we purchased was left in a bit of a state, more so the kitchen then anywhere else but it was a bit of a let down and the stench of dogs was obscene (which we hadn't noticed during the viewings but looking back they used a lot of scented candles to mask the smell). Fortunately the house is big enough that we could get the removals guys to put our boxes in a spare downstairs room while we went through the others and scrubbed the life out of them, the floors, the carpets, the appliances, etc.

It was a bit of an anti climax to what was already a long day. Had we known what a state we would have found we would definitely have left out stuff in storage for a few days so we could get everything in order but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Slinky

Many years ago a heavily pregnant colleague moved house, doing a swap with the people who were buying her house with money changing hands also as one house was bigger than the other. Imagine her horror when she's cleaned her old home to within an inch of its life, only to find the mucky people who were moving into it, had not cleaned their house. So she had to clean the new one, knowing that the people who had left it messy benefited from her old clean home.

lincroft1710

This thread is 21 months old!