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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

The big clean in a new house

23 replies

Wineandcakequeen · 31/03/2021 18:56

I am moving house in 2 weeks by mutual exchange with social housing. It’s currently in a terrible state with some mould in the kitchen, nicotine on the walls and it’s generally dirty and unkept.
I’m fine about cleaning it and making it hygienic, but my worry is how to do it on the day before my stuff goes in.
I have booked a removal company but they aren’t willing to wait all day, there is already a risk of delays if the current family take longer to remove their belongings for example, so they won’t wait for me to clean too.
All of the carpets will need ripping up urgently as they are rotten and stained with dog pee.
Has anyone been in this situation and can advise the best way to do this on the day? I can’t afford to store my belongings to be brought back another time unfortunately and we have to move in immediately or we risk losing the tenancy. I love the house and it’s perfect size/location for us, but I can’t let my children in there with those conditions and I know the family won’t clean it before leaving.

OP posts:
RJnomore1 · 31/03/2021 19:02

I remember my mother doing this when I was small. Do you have a couple of friends or family who can help? Scrub one room first put everything in there and then work round as essential eg bathroom then kitchen (you can get takeaway for a day if needed).

That was 40 years ago and she still talks about it but she loved the house once it was done

Lightningrain · 31/03/2021 19:04

You might be best to get as many of your belongings as you can into one place and then you’ve got space to work on one room/area at a time.

If you leave say the kitchen free you can spend time doing a deep clean before you bring anything in there.

You might end up shuffling everything around as you do each room but there isn’t really another way to do it without storage.

You could try and get the carpets out on the day if they’re that bad but you’d presumably need to book a skip and live without carpets until you can get new fitted.

LBOCS2 · 31/03/2021 19:06

I'd put as many boxes as possible into one room, go around ripping up carpets as quickly as I could then put the big furniture in (piled up in the middle of each room) then start cleaning the walls around the furniture. As you finish each room move the appropriate boxes into it, so you're emptying your storage room. You should end up with the storage room needing cleaning but being mostly clear of stuff.

Good luck!

Reinventinganna · 31/03/2021 19:08

I thought social housing did all of this for you? Rip up carpets and fresh paint?

Wineandcakequeen · 31/03/2021 19:13

Thanks everyone that’s a great idea, I will sacrifice my bedroom to begin with and sleep on the sofa so I guess everything could go in there for a while. I’m happy to live in it with bare floor boards as I’d really not like to walk across those carpets. I thought the kitchen Lino was black until her son spilt water on it and realised it’s actually wood effect. It’s really shocking how some people live, but with some tlc it will be a lovely house.
Rein, they only do this for properties that are allocated by the bidding system and they won’t decorate or clean it for you. With exchanges you have to accept it in the condition it’s in sadly.

OP posts:
thebabessavedme · 01/04/2021 10:00

It sounds very exciting, pick a room to store as many of your boxes as will fit for the first few days then a few tips from me would be - buy a very large roll of super strength bin bags and a stanley knife and spare blades + one of those heavy duty decorators masks cos I reckon the carpets will be really manky, cut the carpets into strips, then roll and bag them, tie up the bag and chuck outside until you can dispose of them.

Make sure you have a box of super strength cleaning equipment, incuding your hoover/steam cleaner (I would treat myself to one if I didnt already have one, make sure there is an attachment for doing windows) as you enter the house tip caustic soda down the loos and pulg holes, spray the bath and sink with something like Flash with bleach, then at least it will start to clean itself and smell a bit nicer, do a good scrub a later in the day so that you can maybe have a shower that evening.
Once the carpets are out, open all the windows, hoover the floors and set the kids beds up.
Then start on the kitchen, spray a good de-greaser over counters and sink, scrub with abrasive sponges (get a couple of packets, they never last long) then clean out cupboards, they will smell all lovely and fresh ready for your things.

good luck, I have had to do this a couple of times and the sense of satisfaction when the house looks and smells lovely and is all yours is worth all the hard work and the dealing with other peoples skanky crap.

thebabessavedme · 01/04/2021 10:04

oh, and rubber gloves! loads of them! Grin

SnowdaySewday · 01/04/2021 11:00

Get as many people as possible to help you and allocate them jobs.

Ripping up carpet
Washing down walls
Child care
Meals and refreshments
etc.

You will need plenty of hot water to clean effectively. If you can, find out in advance where the boost switch is for the boiler or how to over-ride the timer. Or borrow some extra kettles.

Make sure your mobile phone is charged and you have the Council/ HA number and out of hours repairs line in your contacts in case you find a major problem like a leak when you get inside.

Arrange to change the locks ASAP - another thing usually done in-between social housing tenancies.

Pythonesque · 01/04/2021 15:50

Maybe go on freecycle or freegle or similar and see if anyone can offer you an old tarpaulin or similar to put down in a room under your stuff to protect it while you deal with other rooms? Good luck getting on top of it and making the place lovely.

STARmyarse · 01/04/2021 15:53

Can you afford to pay someone to do it? Sorry if you mentioned it already.

We did it when we moved into our current house.

ThebirdsAndBeesWhereThere · 01/04/2021 16:05

Sort your bedroom out in terms of ripping out carpet and cleaning wall. Kids then sleep in there. Clean kitchen and bathroom. Rip up all other flooring. Store everything else in one or two rooms down stairs.

Don't bother moving stuff into rooms until they are painted and carpeted.

Wineandcakequeen · 01/04/2021 19:10

Thanks everyone some great ideas I will definitely use! Tarpaulin everywhere temporarily is perfect for protecting our things from the carpets. I’m happy to pay someone to do it but there wouldn’t be time to let them in before my things need to be brought inside unfortunately. It will then be difficult for them to get to important areas with all the boxes in the way. It will be so worth it and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.

OP posts:
ConfusedBear · 02/04/2021 00:13

Some councils will collect rolls of carpet so worth checking before you cut it up. My council does one visit of up to three items a year for no cost and for a small fee will make another visit to collect up to three more items.

IndigoJasmine · 02/04/2021 07:08

Exciting times OP.

We just moved house and I changed the locks myself from following YouTube videos, you can’t buy the locks until you’ve measured the door though so it was a day 2 job.

Top tip buy a bulk load of drain/plughole unblocker if the previous residents haven’t been taking any care of anything! Took me multiple rounds to get the sinks to properly drain.

Do you have to sleep in the property on night 1? Could you stay in a nearby travel lodge for 1-2 nights so you don’t need to set up beds or anything immediately. Then you could get in, get carpets up in 1-2 rooms enough space for piling all of your things in there, and then start work on the rest of the house room by room (or pay someone!) and ‘unpack’ into the cleaned rooms over the first few days, bit less pressured than having to clean and set up a bedroom/bathroom/kitchen all in a few hours.

Preparation is key. Start packing way sooner then you think is really necessary, label boxes not just with room it’s for but what’s in the box. Declutter massively before packing. I did NOT do this (didn’t leave myself enough time) and really regret it!

muddledmidget · 02/04/2021 07:13

I agree with the poster who said about possibly booking a travelodge for a night so you're not trying to set up beds/clean the kitchen and bathroom/rip up carpets all at once. Also it's worth asking your removal company for a quote to keep your stuff on the truck for 24 hours, sometimes it's not as much as you think it will be

dudsville · 02/04/2021 07:30

Could you put your things in storage for a month? It's been decades since I last did this so I've no idea if that's a pricey venture or not. The last time we moved we got a property with a garage so all our stuff went in there.

JerryMoreIceCream · 02/04/2021 07:40

Best thing for mould is HG mould spray but it is very strong smelling. You need to ventilate and you will smell it for a few days afterwards but it is the absolute best thing.

If you were my friend I would be round to help rip up carpet etc. Be prepared, gloves, strong bin bags, tape for holding carpet in rolls when you have ripped it up. Disinfectant, bucket, cloths and sponges you can machine wash later or just bin. Drain unblocker, get that down those plug holes as soon as possible. And as they seem to be available again now a proper face mask so you don't breathe anything in as you take stuff up.

I second putting a tarpaulin down in your bedroom and put as much stuff in there as possible.

Good luck with the move.

UhtredRagnarson · 02/04/2021 07:49

If possible I would book a travel lodge for the first night. That will allow you to clean and ventilate properly before moving in.

Shopping list

Elbow grease
Rubber gloves
Thick gardening type gloves for pulling carpet up
Astonish or HG mould spray
Sturdy black bin bags
Scourers
Star drops/washing up liquid
Plenty of cleaning cloths and mop heads that you’re prepared to dump.
Paper roll- like the blue stuff or lots of cheap kitchen roll.
Hand soap. Lots of it.
Masks to stop you breathing in the dust, mould and cleaning fumes.

tortoiselover100 · 02/04/2021 08:44

I would pay a local cleaning company to get in there as soon as the other party leave. Pay a local handyman to rip up the carpets, etc so when you get there less needs doing.

3littlemonkeys82 · 02/04/2021 12:23

We had this exact situation around 4 years ago. Undertook a mutual exchange from a tiny house that we had fully decorated carpeted and importantly kept clean, to a much needed larger house.

The house we exchanged too was soaked in aninal urine and a fair amount of (hidden behind furniture) faeces.

We eventually figured out the black dots covering the walls were fly poo! New neighbours still give me a strange look after watching me mop the walls with bleach 🤣

On moving day it transpired they hadn't actually bothered hiring a van or arranging any help so we not only moved us in but moved them out. Most rooms were still full with furniture despite the fact we'd been in communication all along and they'd assured us they were moving things downstairs and packing up etc for ease.

They tried to leave a loft and shed full of stuff to collect at a later date! We helpfully delivered it all to them the next day.

You have to accept the house in the condition it is in and we were also advised we could not request any repairs for 2 years unless emergency such as gas and electrical. There was a broken window, a smashed sink and a leak in the kitchen that we had to repair ourselves.

We thankfully arranged for the children (toddlers) to stay out overnight as it would have been unsafe for them to be there.

We piled everything we owned into 1 room. Literally like it was still in a van. We lived from a suitcase packed with clothes and bare essentials.

Removed all carpets (hired a skip in advance, but they'd also left us a full one!) Anything that didnt fit in the skip was put in the front garden.

I hadn't realised just how bad the house smelt on viewing it (all windows open and liberal air freshener I expect) I nipped to tesco and blew an extortionate amount on plug ins and automatic air fresheners for every room just to make it bearable.

We slept on a mattress in the room we'd managed to strip back the best. We woke up covered in flea bites! We went out and bought flea bombs set one off in each room and left the door shut whilst we dealt with the other rooms.

The bathroom was black with mould. I scrubbed it with a mould spray and probably a toxic amount of chemicals tbh.

We took all blinds and any metal fixtures out of the house, they were all rusty it really was disgusting.

We had thankfully both booked 2 weeks off work and managed to do 16 hour days just stripping everything out and giving the whole place a whitewash. We'd already saved up for (cheap) flooring throughout the upstairs and paid slightly more for someone to fit a decent laminate throughout the downstairs.

Looking back at photos now I'm not sure how we did it all! We both cried on the first night wondering what on earth we had done, but 4 years on and pretty much every room has been redecorated and its bloody lovely. It was worth the work and I'm really hoping to buy it in the next few years.

As well as the suggestions listed by PP make sure you have a number of screwdrivers and tools to hand.

I hope your swappers at least arrange their own van!

Good luck!

UhtredRagnarson · 02/04/2021 12:34

@3littlemonkeys82 that is utterly vile!! How can people leave a house like that for someone to move into! Assholes

3littlemonkeys82 · 02/04/2021 13:12

@UhtredRagnarson we've since found out this is their third exchange. I'm wondering if they take a house in a good condition in exchange for the one they've left to rot for 4 or 5 years. I know my old neighbours have complained about the state of the garden there now.

UhtredRagnarson · 02/04/2021 13:19

awful! Surely there should be some sort of mechanism within the housing authority to prevent them doing another swap?

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