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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

How would you leave the house?

87 replies

dozyjosie44 · 08/03/2022 07:24

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.

OP posts:

Averyproperteaparty · 08/03/2022 10:25

@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.

It’s about having pride. I wouldn’t dream of not cleaning my house from top to bottom when moving out.

blobby10 · 08/03/2022 10:31

Clean the house, try not to leave the bins full unless they are being emptied the day of moving, but remember 1. that the odds are the new owners will put furniture exactly where you have so any marks on the walls won't matter 2. They will redecorate to their taste pretty soon !

In all the times I've moved the garden was the last thing on my mind! As was carpet cleaning - unless they were absolutely filthy?

godmum56 · 08/03/2022 10:48

@SummerInSun

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.

This. Empty, clean and well aired and notes about stuff like bin day. I am assuming that you have got a folder of manuals for anything you are leaving that requires one, eg central heating boiler plus details of anybody who does regular stuff for you, windows, boiler servicing and so on. If you really want to go to twn, a couple of large addressed envelopes plus a few quid for stamps to catch anything that mail redirection misses. A gift is a lovely thought but not essential if you can't stretch to it.

scoobydoo1971 · 08/03/2022 10:53

When you are leaving, take mobile pics of every room and outdoor space. I do this after every sale to prove it was left in a good condition. I had one buyer trying it on once claiming the kitchen was damaged (it wasn't and my photo proved it).

gamerchick · 08/03/2022 11:22

Just clean it. New people like to say how scruffy buggers the previous people were anyway, no matter what you do.

whoruntheworldgirls · 08/03/2022 11:25

We left it clean and a bottle of prosecco.

New owners will likely decorate anyway

Leftbutcameback · 08/03/2022 11:25

The main thing is you take all of your stuff, and leave behind everything you said you would. If you can run the hoover round once all the rooms are empty that's great but not essential. A bit of fresh air is also good, esp if they are coming in straight after you leave. Good luck with the move.

Leftbutcameback · 08/03/2022 11:26

Good point about manuals - I would have loved one for our heating system!

Momijin · 08/03/2022 11:27

Empty and fairly clean.

HaggisBurger · 08/03/2022 11:27

@needyousomuch

A gift ??! Is this an American thing ?

I’ve always left a bottle of wine and card to my buyer wishing them happiness in their new home. Not sure why this is an American thing to do. Plus a note with bin days, house info. Only if they’ve not been dicks in buying process obvs

SpiderinaWingMirror · 08/03/2022 11:28

Sold my mums house. Paid £100 to a local firm to come in after the furniture had been moved. New owners were absolutely delighted.

DespairingHomeowner · 08/03/2022 11:32

@Coldilox

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

Card and a bottle of Prosecco shows you meant well, even if you run out of time

House is meant to be left ‘broom clean’ ie swept. It will get dirty again when your furniture comes out making any deep cleaning you do before then a bit pointless sadly. Do try to clear out as much as possible and leave empty bins for the new people too

No matter how much you clean, anyone who cares will clean it again before they move in so just do your best/be reasonable

daisyducky · 08/03/2022 11:36

Clean would be great. I found the remains of a chicken dinner in our new house the day of the move and huge dust bunnies in the bedrooms.

I'd leave a loo roll and light bulbs too.

A little gift of a plant / fizz would be a nice touch but painting and the garden would be too much especially if heavily pregnant!

LottyD32 · 08/03/2022 11:42

@needyousomuch

A gift ??! Is this an American thing ?

I think it's nice to leave a toilet roll, few teabags, sachets of coffee and sugar, little creamer pots. Maybe a loaf of bread, couple of paper cups etc. A little welcome pack.

I do things like that.

starfishmummy · 08/03/2022 11:52

Clean and empty. Instruction manuals etc for things like the central heating left out for them.

godmum56 · 08/03/2022 11:54

No a gift is not an American thing. when we moved into our first house some 40 years ago the sellers had left wine and a card. We thought it was a lovely idea and have done it every time since.

Notjustanymum · 08/03/2022 12:06

We received a gift from the sellers (wine and flowers) when taking ownership of our new flat near London in the 1980’s - so no, not an American thing! We’ve done the same for our buyers each move since, and made sure everything was clean. We’ve never redecorated at moving- out time, though: most new owners want to rip everything out and redo the deco, anyway. The most we’ve done on that front is to repaint scuffed walls and woodwork before putting the property on the market, so the buyers generally get a reasonably freshly-painted house from that. However, we’ve always been lucky to have sold and moved very shortly after marketing our properties…

TYbakedpotato · 08/03/2022 12:08

Honestly, the best gift would be a note of which brands/shades you used for the different walls, so if they need to touch up (because they can't be bothered changing the colours), they know which tester pot to buy. If you're feeling even more generous, also a note of which day is bin day. Apart from that, a basic clean and empty.

I'd always arrange my own deep clean anyway, and change the locks.

Original poster

dozyjosie44 · 08/03/2022 12:08

Thanks feel much better now. I certainly wouldn't be doing full paint jobs I just meant patching up scuffs where furniture has been but not sure if there will even be time or motivation for that. But I will definitely make sure everything is clean and empty.

OP posts:

Crunchymum · 08/03/2022 12:12

Do you live alone? Some of what you are saying you can't manage could be done by someone else? (agree a lot of it isn't needed though)

SBAM · 08/03/2022 12:14

Leave it clean and label paint cans if you still have them but don’t paint yourself, they may be planning to decorate more or less immediately.
As long as the garden isn’t vastly different from when they viewed then leave it.

BlueGlassOfDoom · 08/03/2022 12:28

Agree that clean and tidy, with a card/bottle, is the way to go, but when I sold my mother’s house after she died, the things that went down well were the really practical ones, such as printing out the bin collection schedule and I also labelled one set of keys as I’d found them confusing myself, not being my house, and it having resembled Fort Knox - had a lovely message from the buyers about that!

And if doing these things just because they’re nice gestures isn’t enough in itself, there is also the goodwill element, which means that most reasonable people will hopefully overlook any minor issues that you couldn’t address, such as touching up paint.

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 08/03/2022 12:30

A good clean is an absolute minimum. I wouldn't bother with retouching paint, but leaving labelled cans of paint in the garage can be very helpful. We were lucky, no only did our seller leave the house spotless, she also left a manual with instructions and appliance guarantees, also a bottle of champagne. We did meet her before exchange though as we needed instructions on a couple of things, we brought her wine and she asked us if we wanted her to leave behind the fire pit and massive gas bbq! She also bought us a new dishwasher as she told us she felt bad leaving her crappy old one! I guess we were pretty lucky!

allmysons · 08/03/2022 13:11

Just a standard clean I think.
One thing that was helpful when we moved once is that the previous owners left a note saying who their utilities providers were and a note on how the boiler worked as there was no manual.
Maybe a note about where the meters and stopcock are if not obvious.

RidingMyBike · 08/03/2022 13:45

Definitely clean and double check all cupboards, she'd etc that you've got everything out. A trip to the tip is not fun as a new owner!

Basic info re house and local area - manuals for any appliances, what time post comes, name of neighbours, any local services (takeaways, garage, taxi, GP/dentist). What colour paint is where! I wouldn't bother with touching up though.

When we moved into our current house we appreciated that there was a loo roll and soap in each loo. And that it was clean.

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