House move - to clean or not to clean?

[Youngatheart00]

Hypothetical at the moment as not looking to move until the Spring. But thinking of our home, when we bought it 5 years ago we were very pleasantly surprised to find the place pretty clean, despite the fact that completion wasn’t occurring on their home until the same day. We left our rented place professionally cleaned as required under our contract.

What are people’s views on cleaning when selling a home? Do it yourself (if so - how do you manage alongside packing and removals?) or get a professional in (timing?). What have been your experiences when buying? The thought of moving in to somewhere dirty is horrible, has anyone experienced?

Sure COVID might change this, maybe we’ll see professional cleans as part of the contract now.

I think a lot of it is about respecting the place that was once your home. We were thrilled to find our house sparkling when we moved in and it was clear that the house was well cared for and loved by the previous owners and now that we're looking to move again we would do the same when it comes time to leave. This has been a wonderful house to us, kept us warm and safe and is full of wonderful memories. I would hope it would be loved and treasured by the next people who live here too.

I always leave a house clean, ready for the new owners to just put their things in the cupboards and furniture where they want. I havent use cleaners just as I've emptied cupboards I've cleaned them. It helps if you line the kitchen cupboards with paper.
Every house I have moved into has been flithy, even as a child. In one house they even left half their things behind and it was over run with mice!

Clean. Why would you not?

First house l bought was a grubby stick mess when we moved in. It had been rented and the tenants were disgruntled it was being sold. It became apparent night 1 that the cooker was broken and had been for some time. For an encore they kept a key and continued to let them themselves in to collect post. After that we changed the locks and everything that came to the house with their name on was shredded and binned. They did come to the house to ask about some important post, luckily the then fiancé spoke to them. He was more polite then l would have been

When we moved out of the family house the buyers messed us around for months and then tried to gazunder us on day of exchange. So when we moved everything and it was all dusty we said f-it and left it.

Having said “Leave it as you’d like to find it” - I’d do the same as you to such nasty dishonest buyers, Bells! I hope they didn’t manage to gazunder you.

I wouldnt get professional cleaners in if I sold my current home but would leave it clean and fresh smelling.

I bought a flat once which had been occupied by student tenants. They left the place in a disgusting state..think 2 inch thick grease layer on kitchen surfaces, caked in shit stains in the toilet etc.. They'd also dicked me around by refusing to move at the very, very last minute as their new flat found for them by the agent didn't have a washing machine and they wanted one fixing. This meant I was literally homeless for a week and had to put my stuff in storage.

I got my own back by binning all their post including bank cards, college certificates and national insurance numbers and feigning ignorance when they came to collect it.

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.

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.

@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?!

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)

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?

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

@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.

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.

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.

@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.

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??

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.

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 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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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.

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