House move - to clean or not to clean?

Dyrne, I don't think a quick wizz around with the hoover is going to cut it. This is what our vendors did, but left the insides of the cupboards, the oven and the stove and the shower really filthy. On top of that they were late to move out, so our movers had already been waiting around for hours, it wasn't really possible to have a cleaning service prior to moving in. That would obviously have been ideal.
We had paid for a professional service because there was no way we would have been able to clean a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house over three floors top to bottom in the space of 2 hours including cupboards, skirting boards, door handles etc. They weren't even that expensive.
I did it mainly out of pride rather than because the buyers were so nice. They had actually messed us around a bit - renegotiating the price down 6 weeks into the process and spending hours in the house with trades people a week before completion. But they still paid a very good price for the house so I felt it's standard to leave the house spotless.

The point of a professional cleaner is that it saves you time and effort, not that they do a better job?

Surely you can clean just as well as any "professional", it's just great not to have to bother yourself.

Obviously if a team of 7 arrives, they'll get a lot more work done in the same time

Thanks saleorbouy, very helpful. The house is immaculate, just the paint detail I'm concerned about.

@TowelHoarder no I get that; and yes it probably would be best to try and clean when you move stuff in; it’s just the attitude of some posters of “there’s no point in cleaning much because the new people will definitely be giving it a deep clean anyway”.

Agree that there’s no need to pay for a professional clean (unless you don’t have time to do a quick whizz round yourself); and definitely no need to waste money painting, filling frame holes etc. That sort of thing definitely comes under normal wear and tear, sold as seen etc.

If anything, if I was going to pay for a professional clean I’d try and do it for the new place; and try and find a cleaner who is flexible and is willing to nip in as soon as the keys are handed over if there’s enough time between hand over and moving company arriving. Surely there must be a service that aims for this - so you can tell them downstairs stuff will come in first so they can whizz round there first and hopefully they can be finishing off the upstairs while the downstairs stuff is moved in etc.

Once we had an offer on our house, we got a skip and went through the whole house getting rid of everything we didn't want /need either by binning or recycling in some way. We were downsizing so this was very necessary! Then we cleaned the house throughout. Pulled all furniture away from walls so could clean behind, deep cleaned bathroom and kitchen, even did a bit of touch up painting! On the day of the move, after all the furniture had been loaded up, I stayed behind and gave everything a quick once over, hoovered, checked the bathroom was clean. Our buyer ended up redecorating throughout immediately but she really appreciated the effort we'd gone to.
The house we moved into was filthy!
I wouldn't bother with professional cleaners, I'd just do what we did if we moved again.

I confess, I've never used a professional cleaner, or done a deep clean when leaving a house. We've left it as clean as it would normally be - so hoover behind the moving people, wipe down bathroom and kitchen etc, but not going through the cupboards, wiping skirting boards and so on - we haven't ever had any help to move (apart from the moving service), and just don't have time.
I'm selling my late parents house at the moment, and its very much sold as seen - totally empty but not cleaned. The new people intend heavy duty building works, so no point in me scrubbing or paying £££ on paying cleaners

Always assume that the property you move into will be filthy, miss all the basics (light bulbs, toilet roll) etc.

You are prepared, and everything else is a bonus. It makes life so much easier not to have unreasonable expectations.

depends how the seller behave 🤷

If you dealt with decent and nice people, it wouldn't even occur to me not to clean. I always use professional movers, your cleaning stuff goes last as you need it first thing anyway, so it's quick and easy to clean as soon as a room is empty.

If the buyer has been awful, messed you around, made unreasonable requests or worst, tried to drop the price at the last minute.. no moral obligation to do anything than sticking to the contract to the letter, "clean" is very subjective, agreeing to leave whatever appliance and feature means leaving something in working order.. read your obligations and go from there.

I have always treated my buyers the way they treated us throughout the chain. I even repainted a wall once because it looked a bit grubby and the people were lovely. I did have horrible buyers, no effort was made I tell you!

If you can, a professional local cleaner who can reach your place before your own removal team and clean is a bonus!

I cleaned, the kitchen was easy. Cleaning cupboards I as I emptied them. Bathroom the night before and then a quick wipe round before leaving The other rooms were easy to whip round as the removers emptied them.

I loved that house, I'd have hated for the new people not to see it at its best on their first day.

goodbyestranger
I would see picture hooks and paint shading as normal wear and tear. It's highly likely that new owners will decorate anyway so you're probably wasting your time making it look new.
Sometimes when removing wall fixtures the plaster can crack and leave larger holes in the walls, I'd leave well alone there's more than enough to do moving without getting the filling knife out!

We have always cleaned ours. Not quite to a rental standard but pretty much

We declutted a few weeks before the move and paid the Removal company to pack since we were relocating to another country it was well worth a few extra £. Some essentials had already gone in a car load on the ferry. We had previously cleaned and dusted the rooms so really had just carpets to hoover and bathroom and kitchen to wipe over.
When we had moved before the previous owners had left a tea tray similar to those in hotel room, with takeaway mugs and a kettle, longlife milk and biscuits. It was a lovely thought after a long day so I did the same for the new owners.

As an extension of the question, what do people think about nails behind pictures and indelible marks on paint from removal of bookcases, corner cupboards etc, and where the paint colour differs behind cupboards which were fixed to the wall during a re-paint. I'm not sure whether I should re-paint - I'd find that a challenge.... Interested to know what other people do.

We've always hired professional cleaners to come in right before completion to make sure the place we were leaving was sparkling clean for the next owners. At our last move we moved out the day before, spent a night in a hotel and the next morning all we had to do was let the cleaners in, collect the last few bits from the garden and wait for keys. It made it so much less stressful.

And then we've arrived at our new property to find it filthy and disgusting. It's so disheartening to have to deep clean before you can even think of unpacking. Our current house even came with its former owner sitting in the back garden with her dog for five hours as she didn't seem to understand that once everything was completed it was our house, no hers. (But that's another story.) So she watched us clean for hours without an offer of help.

We cleaned before we left, all was packed up so we went round for a few hours hoovering, wiping everything down.
If you can do it then do it. Or pay someone?
I think it's a nice respectful thing to do, and a bit of a karma thing. You clean for someone, they remember how great it was to start in their new place fresh and clean, and they do it when they move out.
Why wouldn't you??

@dyrne because people don’t notice dirt in their own houses, I’d bet good money all the people saying here they left their houses spotless missed something.

I’ve got a friend who prides herself on her cleaning, according to her all her friends say she’s the cleanest person ever and she spends hours every day cleaning. Except I’ve been to her house and it’s not that clean, dirty marks on the walls, sticky cupboard handles in the kitchen and very dusty skirting boards. I think she just spends hours mopping the same bits of floor and wiping the same bits of worktop everyday.

Last time we moved, we had a couple of days between moving out, and needing to hand the keys back.

We got professionals in to do a whole-house deep clean, including carpets. Granted, it was only a very small house, but it wasn't that expensive, and saved us a lot of aggro.

I cleaned mine with the help of family on the day of the move. I had kept it as clean as possible in the preceding couple of weeks. My new house was also clean, except the windows which had not been touched for months.
My previous house was filthy when I moved in. It took a lot of scrubbing to get the grease off the kitchen cupboards. That also happened to my parents years ago. I don't think this is accepted nowadays as cleaning is part of the agreement to clear everything from the house. I have had quite a lot of rubbish/stuff left when buying previously.

@Thinkingabout1t haha. I think we took a little off but not as much as they wanted. They claimed their mortgage wouldn't give them as much as they thought even though they would of known that months ago. According to the neighbours they went on to build a massive extension.

They also paid for the worst surveyor who did 60 pages of it may have this and thst including that next door was overgrown and may have japanese knotweed in it (there is no knotweed in our area). But failed to pick up the fault electrics (our lights flickered all the time), that several of the tiles were off the roof and the asbestos in the loft.

So they probably got their commupence.

Start early! My cleaner let me down and DH was ill. It was cleaned but not as I wanted.

To those assuming the new people will “want” to clean their new house before moving stuff in... how? Their new house will be full of boxes and furniture dumped everywhere! (very much doubt movers will be happy to twiddle their thumbs for a few hours while the people fanny about cleaning).

Plus, after a long day with all the stress of moving, why are you assuming people will have the energy to zoom around with a Hoover and mop?

I’d clean it to my usual (rather basic) standard because I’d assume anyone would want to clean it themselves before moving their own stuff in anyway, I’d clean the new place myself even if it looked clean just so it had my own smell (if you know what I mean)

@THisbackwithavengeance they sound rather familiar to the ex-tenants l encountered. They too were precious about moving out and kept on trying to push it back. I too repeated the post trick, fair enough as they showed no respect to us and how hard is post re-direction?!

Well it doesn't matter whether you do it or pay someone else to, but yes, you need to leave it spotless. We bought a house once that was thick with dog hair. I don't mean there were wisps here and there, I mean the carpet WAS dog hair. It was the nastiest thing. And oh the smell! I'm a animal lover too!

The sneaky bastards also swapped the curtains (agreed they were leaving them) with random ill fitting alternatives in 'character' prints.

Please leave it nice OP.

I find I don't want to leave a home dirty or neglected.

It's much easier to clean when all the furniture and belongings have gone. The Hoover, mop and box of cleaning products are the last thing to go (and in my last two moves, with the buyers agreement, were left for them).

Then say goodbye to the house, thank it for looking after you, and lock the door for the last time.