AIBU to give my neighbours living room and kitchen a quick clean.

[Casschops]

My lovely neighbours have gone away on their holidays they don't have much money although work reaaaaally hard and juggle their childcare of their 10 year old son. They have gone to stay in annex of their relations home so have an absolute minmum on their holiday, a friend even drove them their as they struggle with money so much. Im feeding their cat. I saw the man chucking their vacum cleaner in the bin the other week and he was laughing saying they can't afford a new one ATM. The cat has been sick on the floor and flicked cat litter everywhere which I have cleaned up but I can tell that for some weeks they have swept the carpet and floor and there is a thin layer of cat hair and bits in corner of the rooms. It lools like it needs a good vacum the cat has also been walking on woŕktops in the kitchen and there are footprints on things generally lookin a bit hairy and in need of a good wipe as are the windowledges where he sits.
Would they think it odd if I gave everything a wipe down in kitchen and living room as well as mopped the kitchen floor and vacuumed the carpet. I just want them to come home to a nice fresh house or is this intrusive? I am absolutely not looking for people's judgement about levels of tidiness but would it be nice to give things a quick once over or just too much? We say hi on the street and chat but have never socialized with them just to give an idea of our relationship.
Thanks for any input.

@PepperPotty

Will no one think of the cat? Poor thing, getting all the blame! 😹

scapecat

😸😸😸

You are a good friend OP. I think it depends on the person, only you can answer that, are they easily offended, very private, have anxiety, etc.

Personally I'd be chuffed to bits if someone did that for me. If I trust someone enough to give them my access to my home, I'd have no problems with them having a wizz round before I came back.

It depends on the neighbours I guess. A lot of people seem not to like to idea but when I paid someone to feed my cat I assumed basic cleaning up after the cat would be part of the service and was a bit pissed off when I came home to a blanket of cat fur covering every surface. I have asthma and I'm allergic to cats, even my own. He went into the cattery next time we went away.

Maybe text them and say the cat is shedding so you're going to run the vacuum around if it's ok.

I’d absolutely do it. As you have described.

You sound very nice.

Don't do it! We were kindly allowed to use someone's holiday home in France, for two days before they needed it, as we were in transit back to the ferry. I thought it would be nice to give it a wipe and dust around - that's all I did, so just open up the house for them and she didn't like it. I had not gone into rooms I didn't need to, just the common areas, thinking it would be a nice thank you - won't be doing it again.

OP could you come and look after my cat for a couple of weeks please?

PS The hoover's under the stairs and cleaning stuff is under the sink.

PPS I don't have a cat.

Don’t do it! They will be offended or af best feel uncomfortable and embarrassed that you noticed how dirty their house is. Either way it will make the relationship awkward.

When I catsit my friends house I clean all cat related mess . That includes mopping the kitchen floor where cat food dries when he drops it out of the bowl , hoovering where his cat litter tray is in the carpeted hallway and wiping his footprints . It is not judgemental or intrusive , part of taking part of the cat . As previous posters have said , just mention the cat made a mess and you cleared up after it .

Another vote for blaming the cat vomit here!

What a lovely neighbour you are :)

Someone did exactly this to me once - came in to feed the cat and ended up cleaning the kitchen from top to toe, including moving everything around to places they deemed more suitable and using violently perfumed cleaning products. (In fact, worse than that, they got their mum to do it!) I was extremely pissed off and promptly crossed them off the list of people I could trust with the cat in future, so it was a double inconvenience, in fact. Please don't do it, OP. Your intentions may or may not be honourable, but almost no one wants to feel that their personal space has failed someone else's uninvited test.

My mum used to clean my whole House when we went on holiday while she was still able. It was great.

Id do it op. Theyve told you the Vacuum is Broken. Blame the cat. The cat made quite a mess so i gave downstairs a quick clean. I hope you dont mind.

They might find it intrusive or offended.
I would casually say that they are welcome to borrow your hoover if they needed as they mentioned they couldn't get a new one yet.
Other than that- it's none of your business.

If you don't know how they would feel, you don't know them well enough to do it.

Anyway, if they had the same standards as you, they'd have cleaned it before they left. I'm a right slob, but my house would be much cleaner and tidier if someone was coming in to feed the cat.

You sound so helpful!!
I think I'd do it, just a whizz around with hoover, you can say "cat kicked litter about yesterday, I didn't want to go looking for your hoover so I just ran over everywhere with mine"
I'm sure they'd be grateful
(I have a spare Dyson sat in my garage in the event you're in the north west)

Id love it if someone did this for me

I would give it a quick hoover and clean and say that the cat made a right mess and you didn't want to leave it for them to deal with on their return.

Just do it, and if they say something say that you dropped cat litter/food and it went everywhere. you didn’t want searching for their cleaning stuff so took your own.

You sound lovely OP. However I know someone who did this for one of my friends. My friend has much lower standards of cleanliness than most people and its fair to say that her house was on disgusting levels of cleanliness (think close to the filth levels you see on cleaning TV programmes). Her good friend was feeding the cat whilst she was away. Her friend did exactly what you are suggesting, and gave the kitchen a really good clean. My friend was absolutely livid. So angry, thought it was an invasion of privacy. Refused to speak to her friend for months. So if you do decide to clean, be prepared for a reaction you may not expect!

cleaning the kitchen from top to toe, including moving everything around to places they deemed more suitable and using violently perfumed cleaning products. (In fact, worse than that, they got their mum to do it!)

That is entirely different to wiping down surfaces because the cat has left marks, mopping the floor where the cat has dropped food and hoovering up cat hair/litter/vomit as part of your job as cat sitter!

All the people I have noticed saying don't do it all have anecdotes of people coming in and doing unnecessary and unwanted cleaning/organizing without warning or asking. That is not what the OP is trying to do.

She is just trying to gauge whether it is acceptable to bring her own hoover to tidy up the cat related mess since she knows the family doesnt have one of their own and therefore it will be obvious that she has "cleaned". If the family hoover was just in the cupboard and was available for the OP to use it would not be an issue to do a quick once over for cat hairs but since she is bringing in her own then it could look like she has judged the family's standards, which is not the case. She is doing nothing more than cleaning up after the cat which is what she has been asked to do.

@EndofmyWeightTether

I would absolutely do it, and in return I’d be grateful if you did it for me.

Me too. It’s such a kind thing to do.

As long as you take a photo of the cat next to a sign saying 'I Woz Framed'.

I’d be absolutely delighted if you did this for me. Go with your hunch as to how you think they’d respond.

Just tell them the cat made a massive mess everywhere and you didn’t want it to attract flies/mice while they were away.

Or tell them you found mice running around in the kitchen so on the advice of whoever you hoovered up so as to discourage them from coming in.

Or tell them you went in and accidentally made a massive mess so tidied it all up.

Or tell them they were burgled, they made a massive mess but didn’t appear to have stolen anything,

If my cat is sick, I use a spray carpet cleaner that tells you to vacuum after. Seeing as it’s traipsed litter about, you can’t just leave a vacuumed patch, now can you?! Just make sure you tell them the excuse! Or just say, you’ve been away, thought I’d make it nice for your return. You know them best

I look after my friends cat when she goes away.

She's a compete clean freak.

I always do a clean before she comes home and hoover everywhere, bathrooms and surfaces.

But her house is always spotless so she knows it's not a judgement and she loves coming home to a clean house she doesn't have to clean for 24 hours!

I agree with posters saying have a wipe down which a house will need and perhaps have a hoover and just mention cat was sick and thought it odd just to do one bit so did it all!