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.

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.

@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.

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

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

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.

but left the insides of the cupboards, the oven and the stove and the shower really filthy.

if you keep a clean house, these are never filthy in the first place.
That's why you have to assume your new property will be grim - and be pleasantly surprised if it's not. People have very different standards.

We moved in January and I cleaned each room after the removal men had emptied it. Went round with the vac and polish/ dettol spray, wiped all the surfaces etc. Cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen throughly. But I do a 2 hour clean every week anyway so our house is never dirty.

I wish the bloody old owners of our new house had done the same. They’d hoovered floors and that was about it. There were cobwebs EVERYWHERE and I do mean everywhere, all down the walls, skirting boards, staircase, above cupboards etc. All the drawers in the kitchen were filthy, the bathrooms were dirty, dust all on the windowsills etc.

I don’t think I took much notice when we viewed but I can only guess they just weren’t very clean people as it was years worth of dirt and cobwebs. It did make it stressful though as we had to clean everything before we could unpack (I’d have cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen anyway) and I’d just spent the entire morning cleaning the old house for the new owners so was pretty resentful i was then having to spend the afternoon after a very long and tiring day of moving cleaning the new house.

I would never leave a home in a dirty condition; all the houses we have vacated have been left clean and tidy and that goes for holiday homes as well. People have enough to do when moving in without having to deal with someone else's filth and detritus. It's basic respect for others and self.

If you own, I think leaving it dirty is nasty unless there's some unusual circumstance. (Which the buyer will probably have noticed when they viewed.)

In a rental, there's an awful lot of landlords who'll claim money off your deposit for a "professional clean" no matter what. And will pocket the money themselves given the chance. So I fully understand someone deciding not to bother at all.

I cleaned myself but used our removal company to pack up our house on the day of the move. It was only a couple of 100 more to the cost and it was better than packing for weeks in advance and was done in a a little more than 3 hours. I then cleaned an empty house in no time. Maybe that would be easier?

Yes clean.

I’ve always got everything loaded in the removal van by 11am at the latest. I keep the hoover and some cleaning products back. And then clean. But you can have deeper cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms The day before so they only need a quick wipe over. Hoover everywhere fast, wipe skirting boards, etc. Stick hoover in the car, lock up and get the key to the estate agents. I think last time I maybe sent dh to the estate agents with one key so they definitely had a key before midday and then actually I locked up and put the key I had through the letter box.

I cleaned ours and touched up walls and filled in holes as we were packing and emptying rooms. The house we moved into was filthy though and we had to clean everything before we could moved things in. Luckily we had few days overlap of the houses so it wasn’t a big problem. We just sold our second home in Holland and due to Covid I couldn’t go over to clean so husband had to do it alone. I don’t think that would have been left as clean as I would have left it.

This house had a welcome bottle of bubbly, with a folder of manuals for the boiler, etc plus a page detailing which Farrow and Ball paint colour they had used. Very appreciated.

This may be the most middle class, most Mumsnet thing I have ever read.

In the last two moves I've done I've hired cleaners for the day. After each room cleared at old house they start cleaning then we all move on to the new house. They start cleaning the new house before unloading starts, starting with the room of the last boxes that were loaded on if that makes sense. It was a team of six and they did a brilliant job. I was lucky that everything went smoothly and the distances involved weren't too far, max 2 hours. It cost c.£1000 iirc but was worth it to me.

We left the last house we moved from spotless, the buyers seemed to he surprised, ive no idea why.
The house we moved into was beyond disgusting yo the point we vouldnt stay in it until a cleaning army had visited first. (Think every surface like glue, mould everywhere, baths with do much schm or was impossible to remove, black dirt, dust you could write your name in and cobwebs galore- even slugs in the fridge!) It was truly the worst thing.
Moving into a clean house is like going to a nice hotel. A pleasure and?as PPs have said clean as you go and whizz ?around the empty rooms, it shouldnt be too hard.

Please clean!
I left my place spotless and moved into the new house which clearly hadn't be cleaned since I viewed it. I spent nearly two weeks gutting it and it was so, so disheartening.
Even just a quick one over of rooms, toilet, cupboards and floors would make a huge difference.

£1000 to clean????

MilerVino I've got the FarrowandBall half used paint pots all lined up and ready to go, for touch ups :)

Of course you leave the appliance hand books for the new owner - why wouldn't you?

Mind you I'm way ahead of myself - house has only just gone on the market, just need a buyer.

We cleaned, it was spotless. DP went in the removal van with the drivers, I stayed behind to hand over the keys.

Just after they left I realised one of the removal guys must have picked up dog poo from the street and had trodden it all over the carpets while taking the furniture out the window. It stank!

It was a new carpet too, we'd done the place up to a high spec to sell.
And all our cleaning stuff was in the removal van!

I spent my last hour at the flat I'd lived in for a decade, not thinking about memories and mentally saying goodbye to my hometown but frantically racing to the shop to buy cleaning products and scrubbing the carpet before the new couple arrived. I did it in time, just!

Imagine moving into your new home and it being covered in poo! I'm glad I had the time to remove it, I'm sure I would have felt awful to this day if they'd turned up and seen it like that.

The house we moved into was beyond disgusting yo the point we vouldnt stay in it until a cleaning army had visited first.

that's why you should never exchange without a final viewing on the day or the day before, and ideally not wait too long between exchange and completion. If people are happy to have lived in squalor for weeks or months, they won't even comprehend what you complain about.

There's cleaning and then there's cleaning. We've sold two houses and I've always given everything a cursory wipe down and hoover. But a deep clean with bottles of champers and paint pots left out? Who has the time?

Of course you leave the appliance hand books for the new owner - why wouldn't you?

Well that bit should be common sense, but sadly isn't. I'm now quite adept at working out appliances. It was the F&B paint that really did it, after a slow build-up of middle class stuff!

I've lived in lots of army houses and left each very clean but not left wine and paint for the buyers. But I've sold two houses and done just that. It takes zero time to leave wine and zero time to leave the paints. No idea why anyone wouldn't think of paint (for a house already in immaculate condition, so no need to repaint, just touch up) and certainly no idea why you wouldn't think to leave appliance brochures. It's basic.