To wonder what you do about cleaning when moving hous

[Mammylamb]

We are moving house early Jan. Since having our son, housework has gone to pot, so I'm worried about the house (inside of cupboards, fridge, freezer etc) not being sparkingly clean for the new owner. What do most people do when selling their home? Do you hire someone to clean your old home or do you focus your attention on cleaning your new home once you are there?

[SailingThroughTime]

Employ packers and get them to start in the dirtiest room. Clean through from there once that room is emptied. Do fridges etc the week before so they'll only need a wipe on the day.

[JojoLapin]

Full clean, house is left spotless. It is the courteous thing to do.

[Bobsmum02]

I gave my house a good clean when we moved, just sort of packed then cleaned, repeat in each room.

The people we purchased off on the other hand did not! Think cheese stuck to the grill pan, rotten veg in the cupboards and standing inside the wardrobes with a bottle of flash with bleach to remove the yellow tobacco stains (they were white fitted wardrobes)! They must have used lots of air freshener when we viewed!!

[LottieDoubtie]

In your shoes I'd hire a cleaning company to do an 'end of tenancy' style deep clean once you've got out. If that isn't possible due to cash I'd do it myself once all the furniture etc was out.

[SailingThroughTime]

If you are going to leave it grubby because you have a little one and no chance to clean as you go, offer to pay for and organise 1 off cleaners for the new people. They may well not want to take you up on it but it's a lovely gesture of goodwill.

[Helloooooitsme]

I was going to post asking the same question. How do you have the time to clean a whole house after everything is moved e.g. Behind furniture? Surely you have to be the other end sorting everything out in the new home .

[SailingThroughTime]

Bobs we had that too. It did influence my decision to give the debt collectors who called round a few months later their new address

[lovelearning]

Full clean, house is left spotless. It is the courteous thing to do.

+JojoLapin

[Elphame]

Full clean. I've been lucky and only once moved into a dirty house. When you're tired and stressed from the move it's horrible to have to scrub out the kitchen before you can start to unpack your stuff for a cup of tea.

I was in tears. We spent the fist evening throwing rubbish out of the window so we could get the bed set up. I would never do that to anyone.

[anotherBadAvatar]

Are you having packers or doing it yourself?

If packers- get them to start upstairs and clean each room as it is cleared (Hoover, wipe down/dust of all sides + bathrooms).

If you're packing yourself - start with room you use least and just clean as you go. Earlier you start with this one, the easier it is (it took me nearly a month to pack as I decluttered/binned as I went along so we had less overall to move).

Pack cleaning things in your car on the day, so if your vendors have left the place in a tip, you can Hoover and dust before the house is filled with boxes.

[mygorgeousmilo]

I have packed and moved loads, done it myself every bloody time. If you can afford it, get packers and a cleaner! It will be money well spent. Or do little by little starting with the least used stuff and find a corner or wall to start to put the boxes against. Clean each bit as you pack. My most dreaded job - you have my sympathy!

[PurpleDaisies]

We started properly cleaning a couple of weeks before we moved and then once the furniture was out we only had to run round with the hoover and duster where the furniture had been, and quickly wipe over the bathroom and kitchen. Once everything's out it doesn't take long.

[user1469456533]

We moved into a property 3 weeks ago and the owners said they had cleaned it but obviously had not. 5 cleans of the oven later and it is still not clean. I wouldn't expect anyone else to clean up my mess so I would personally clean before i left

[WhooooAmI24601]

We had a company come and do a deep clean the day before the keys handed over (we stayed at MIL's overnight) when we moved from our old house and would do the same again if we moved. We left the old place spotless with flowers and champagne for the new owners as they picked up the keys the next day shortly after the removal company had left. The people we bought from had no such manners and I arrived to find weetabix stuck like cement on the walls near the table, filthy carpets and bare wires hanging out of walls. I could have kicked the previous owners in the shins, it's such a rude way to behave.

[RuskBaby]

We brought our first home in July, the dirt that was left was insane. Pretty sure they had not cleaned inside their cupboards ever nor the oven. It took serious hard work and several hours/days for things to be clean enough for us to unpack. If and when we move again, I will hire cleaners to deep clean like on rentals as I could not bare the thought of the stress and wasted time again if the previous owners don't clean.
Also, I would have our home thoroughly cleaned as I just think dirty when thinking of the previous owners and wouldn't want others to think the same of me.

[bigredboat]

My house was spotless when we moved out, the previous owner was not so kind when we moved in and I didn't want to inflict that on our buyers!

I did a deep clean (cupboards, oven etc) a couple of weeks before then dusted skirting board, doors etc and hoovered/mopped as each room was emptied by the movers.

[Mammylamb]

Having packers and have planned to clean over the next few weeks; I just don't think it would be clean enough for the new folk if you know what I mean. We move out the same day they move in, so we don't have time to get the professionals in! Think I may do the best we can and then offer to pay for a few hours for a cleaner for them. When we left our last house it was spotless when we moved in and left. But this house required a lot of cleaning when we first moved in and I would hate to do that to someone else

[dollydaydream114]

How do you have the time to clean a whole house after everything is moved e.g. Behind furniture? Surely you have to be the other end sorting everything out in the new home

You clean where you can before you pack away the furniture and then you run round with a Hoover and a damp cloth once the furniture's packed away. The cleaning behind furniture bit is really easy; it's just a bit of dust to Hoover up really.

As others have said, if you're having packers, you clean each room as they empty it.

Even though our buyer was a twat, we still left the house spotless when we moved out. The one we moved into was pretty clean too, overall ... we had to replace the oven shelves because they were beyond help but they'd certainly Hoovered everywhere, dusted and made sure the kitchen and bathroom were nice and clean.

If only they'd actually bothered to remove all their furniture and the contents of the shed as well. :-/

[sqidsin]

We moved out in the same day as the buyers were moving in too. What I did was arranged for a professional cleaning company to come as we moved out. I spoke to the company and they said they'd send 3 people - so what would usually be a 3 hour clean would only take 1 hour. Perfect. They came at 10.30am as we were aiming to be out by 12 and by that point most of the furniture was out of the way. It worked very well and was money well spent IMO. I actually thought the house was pretty clean before they came but removing the furniture revealed a lot of dust and dirt!

[HerodZackHunt]

Paying for a cleaner still means they have to move in before they have it clean. Or wait for it to be done. I think you need to do what you can in advance and follow the packets and movers round cleaning.

[MeetMeAtMidnight]

You have to leave it spotless, it's the polite thing to do.
We got a professional cleaning company to come in the day we moved. We had a couple of rooms empty of boxes and furniture so they could make a start as we loaded the removal van, they did all the windows, floors, bathroom, cupboards and closets, the oven and fridge looked like they'd just come from the showroom by the time they finished, it looked so lovely I didn't want to leave! All done by the time we were loaded and ready to go.

We were lucky that the house we moved into had been empty for months, bank owned and they had gutted the inside, fresh paint inside and out, new carpets and flooring, cabinets refinished, every week they'd had cleaners and gardeners come in to vacuum and dust inside and mow, weed and trim the yards, so much nicer than trying to clean and move in at the same time.

[Dazydazy]

Basically you need help. Meaning help with the cleaning, if you can get it. The last time we moved lots went wrong on the day and we ended up having to focus time on other things. Once it starts to go wrong you can't ignore stuff like, for example, your furniture all over the street and stroppy removal men, etc. Anything you can do up front then great but if there's someone on hand to deal with the last bits - these can be quite a challenge. We had a window get broken and also a mini flood which then got walked through. Just by way of encouragement, though, I've done other moves which were a whole lot easier.

[lovelearning]

I would hate to do that to someone else

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

When we moved I left an extra 2 days on the old house so I could clean. I would loathe to arrive in a mucky home!