How would you leave the house?

[dozyjosie44]

I'm moving next week and I'm heavily pregnant. Also doing work on our new house which is taking up a lot of time.

I will of course thoroughly clean my current property before I leave even if it means getting help in. But all of the little jobs that I wanted to do to freshen the place up such as touching up paint work in the house and tidying up all of the borders in the garden are fast seeming impossible.

What's the absolute minimum you would do before handing over the keys? I had grand ideas of leaving the house perfect and even leaving a little welcome gift for the new owner but time is running out and I think it's now a case of prioritising.

Just leave it clean - the garden won't be crazy at this time off year and the new owners may redecorate, voiding your works to any paint chips.

If you get time to get a present, lovely, but I wouldn't think anything of not getting anything when I move in.

As long as the house is empty, everything is clean and as much rubbish is out of the bins as possible, that’s absolutely fine. We picked out keys up to find bags of rubbish piled up next to overflowing bins and the house in a disgusting state. Plus a roof and shed full of junk.

When we left, we had already deep cleaned the kitchen and bathroom the day or two before, back yard swept and wheelie bins emptied. I vacuumed and mopped the way out of the house after everything was gone.

We had already done odd touch ups on paint ahead of the estate agent photos and viewings, but there were the odd bits we found scuffed etc after we moved furniture.

Nothing we could do at that late stage so left the tins of paint we had used in the stair cupboard with post it's on for each room so if they were bothered they could touch up. Nothing major, just a slight scuff line where the sofa met the walls etc.

I wouldn't deep clean -or even clean- anything. Let alone touch up paint. Why would you spend all your time energy and resource doing that to a house which is no longer yours. As the new owner, I wouldn't expect it either. The house is sold as seen, regardless.

A gift ??! Is this an American thing ?

All completely unnecessary apart from the obvious decent clean.

Let the rest go, right now!

Decent clean, empty bins, none of your possessions (wanted or otherwise) left behind.

A list of what paints you’ve used is helpful, as are some short directions for any tricky boilers, hidden meters, etc.

I’d be happy just for it to be clean. When we moved into our current house just over a year ago it was filthy. We had to spend days cleaning it, and then pay for someone to come and clean the oven as I just couldn’t face it, it was disgusting. Just after cleaning my old house from top to bottom.

Paintwork, garden etc I wouldn’t bother with.

A gift is nice too, we left a bottle of fizz for our buyers.

Deep clean, carpets shampooed if they are grubby. No crap left. You can get a company to sort this.

Carpets was another thing but I had planned to hire a machine and do it myself as our budget doesn't stretch to professional cleaners. But the thought of lugging a rug doctor around at this stage of pregnancy is horrendous. It's not happening. The buyer can do that if they feel it necessary.

I'm emptying cupboards and cleaning them as I go. Just worried about what state walls will be in once the furniture is all moved.

Empty and clean with no rubbish left behind.

You don't need to touch up paint and a rug doctor is a lovely but totally bonkers idea!! They're so heavy to lug around. The new owners can do that themselves.

I left it clean and made sure the bins weren't full. That's enough. The new owners wanted to paint and redecorate so I left all that to them. Our house certainly needed TLC but they were aware of that.

Just a thorough clean really. We just moved house and after cleaning the old one top to bottom, the last thing you want to do is clean a new one top to bottom. You just want to hit the ground running with unpacking.

Paintwork I'd assume would be in the same state as I viewed it unless the old owners had explicitly told me otherwise.

You definitely don't need to tidy garden borders!

A lot of those little freshening jobs may be on things the new owners are planning to change anyway.

I think the box of chocolates the old owners left us was an accident rather than a gift (it was in a drawer, no note). They also left us a packet of tortellini and three sweet potatoes. Wasn't expecting a gift and in a few weeks you'll be drowning in fizz from friends and family anyway.

@needyousomuch

I wouldn't deep clean -or even clean- anything. Let alone touch up paint. Why would you spend all your time energy and resource doing that to a house which is no longer yours. As the new owner, I wouldn't expect it either. The house is sold as seen, regardless.

Jeez, have you any idea how much of a pain it is to move into a house where the leavers haven't cleaned? We swapped houses and we cleaned the one we were leaving, got to our new one and it was disgusting - and I am not houseproud! I had to clean before doing anything. That is gross!

We just moved house and after cleaning the old one top to bottom, the last thing you want to do is clean a new one top to bottom. You just want to hit the ground running with unpacking.

I agree with this.

There's no need to touch up paint, leave a gift or sort out the garden, but I do think you should leave it how you'd like to find it if you were the one moving in.

It’s needs to be empty and cleaned to an everyday standard. That’s it.

We moved in to our house which had skid marks in 2/4 toilets. So I wouldn't consider a deep clean essential. Although that was bloody disgusting.

Agree with others - just make sure you have properly emptied it. Definitely don't paint; the new owners may be planning to change the whole colour scheme anyway.

If you do want to do something nice, the most helpful thing we had when we bought our house was a note they old owners had left with contact details for the neighbours, suggestions of the best local restaurants, info about bin day, number of the person who they got in to clean the windows, etc.

We were vvvv grateful to our seller who left the house spotless. Meant we could move in rather than clean first. My parents left wine for their buyers and my dad left the paint they used labelled for each room just in case they needed it although he already touched up and suspected they repaint. As most of the rooms were same colour it was only three small tins next to the wine and a note letting new owners know which day the bins etc were collected

Empty and clean. I wouldn't touch up paint, I would expect the new owners to redecorate anyway. I would appreciate a tidy garden but it's not a must. What pisses me off most is when people leave behind random pieces of furniture and similar stuff which I have to take to the tip.

Seriously no. Don't bother. I always deep clean any house I move into anyway. I really wouldn't expect them to do anything other than move their stuff and empty bins

Just leave it clean and empty - I have moved into properties that were neither. No need for rug doctor or paint touching up.

Always left things as they were when the buyer viewed.

Skid marks - reminds me of my last move. I thoroughly cleaned as each room was emptied. What I didn’t know is that after I’d cleaned the loos, someone left skid marks and the seat up too. I only saw as I was doing a quick run through to make sure nothing was left behind so no loo brush or cleaning fluid left about. Didn’t budge when flushed. I felt so bad.

Same move - movers made scuff marks in the hall when moving out the furniture. No time to touch up but I had left paint tins for them (labelled for which rooms).

Another move, I did the garden beautifully. Edged the lawn, bedding weeded, new mulch etc. but the buyers were very slow to move things along so move date was pushed out, ended up 8 weeks later after many false starts. We were packed, ready to go for original date and I couldn’t get off work thereafter so they got the garden as is (and everything else, cleaned as per a regular weekly clean).

You can only do what you can do. Leaving the house clean is most important. Particularly don’t forget when moving in, with the movers going in/out, much or your hard working will be undone. Don’t fret.