How to clean house on moving day

[Mummyk1982]

Hello,

With any luck we are moving a week on Friday- I just wondered how you go about making sure the flat is as clean as possible when you move out? We have a removals company doing all of the removals (obviously!), so I can clean- but how do I do this with loads of people in my flat?!
Should I try my best to do a thorough clean in the days before and then a quick wipe around on the day? I'm not even sure of the practicalities of that with so many boxes everywhere!!
Also, any tips for cleaning the oven? It's too late for me to get a professional cleaner booked.
I was also planning on shampooing the carpets on moving day- we have a one year old an she is fond of wiping her grubby hands on the carpets so would feel bad leaving them without cleaning them- is this something that other people do or is it overkill?

Thank you for your thoughts!

Leave out your Hoover, a cloth and bottle of cleaning spray.

Jon done. Oh and a rubbish bag.

Lakeland oven cleaner. Astonishing

are you selling or is it rented? I would thoroughly clean kitchen, cupboards etc as you pack it up and then you just need to wipe sides down and mop floor on the day. Same with bathroom. then shampoo carpets one room at a time as stuff is removed?

Honestly, I think you're going to have to move thing round and do it beforehand. You will 've pushed for time plus th new owners won't want soggy carpets.

Also, are new people moving in that day? Probably not a good idea to shampoo that day, especially as you'll be frazzled enough as it is. Perhaps shampoo one room now, then use that room to stack all the boxes in. Shampoo and clean the other rooms thoroughly as you empty them into the boxes into the box room, during the week.
Last wipe down as you leave.

I did deeper cleans in the days/weeks leading up to the move and then just did what I could on moving day, which included spending about an hour scrubbing black marks off the carpets left by the removals men's boots.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to cleaning the oven, which I was very embarrassed about but I did leave the new owners a bottle of oven pride along with their champagne and a note saying sorry! The rest of the house was gleaming though so hopefully they weren't too annoyed about that and it wasn't too bad as I do it regularly anyway

Thanks everyone! I've now written myself a list- I have no idea how I'm going to get through it all!! Especially with a clingy one year old who wants to 'help' with everything :-/
Ive attempted a go at the oven this afternoon- it's far from perfect but a lot better than it was. I've jut chucked a load of old stuff from the freezer- do I need to defrost/de- ice it before we go?
I think I've just fixed the house alarm, but I still need to fix the plug in the bath that seemed to top working last night (why does it all happen now?!?!?!)
Unfortunately we don't have a room we can stack stuff in, so I think I'm gonna have to Hoover as we go on the day. Hubby said I should ask buyer via estate agent whether she wants me to shampoo the carpets as she might just be ripping them up anyway- hadn't even thought of that!

I've just posted on another thread about how minging our house was when we moved in last Thursday. I wish our vendors had been as considerate as you.

Years ago we moved when DS1 was about 10 months and I was 5 months along with DS2. The cleaning and packing was hard then but I found that I could give DS1 a duster and he would happily try and do the skirtings while I did a few other bits! He enjoyed crawling round and flapping the duster. It kept him occupied anyway.

Hope your move goes well.

I'd be wary of doing too much in the house you're moving out of. I made sure the house we moved out of was spotless, left champagne, clean oven, fresh carpets, etc...and arrived exhausted at our new house, which was absolutely filthy. They'd obviously decided they didn't need to try once the sale had been agreed, and it hadn't seen a hoover for months. The toilets were disgusting, filthy oven, the lot.

I cleaned the house to the standard I would've done for visitors. DH hoovered each room as it emptied. As sexy says our new house was vile - there were even bits of bacon stuck to the floor (from where they'd been feeding the dog) and was.generally not nice enough to let the kids into. Fortunately they stayed at my mum's so we could cleabm is there anyone who can have 1yo on moving day?

I would love to buy somewhere from someone this considerate! As said by others - moved out of our place which was clean, into somewhere filthy. Exhausting.

Definitely do the oven in advance (oven pride), and clean cupboards etc as you pack. We defrosted freezer overnight before moving day, having chucked our stuff (our new place didn't have a freezer). I'd also run your washing machine and dishwasher on clean cycles before you go if leaving those, and clean the filters. Don't forget to clean bath plugs etc - no one wants your old hair.

On the day it's not that hard to go around after the movers with a hoover and duster - they tend to empty one room at a time. Take cleaning stuff in car with you, as you'll probably have to do it all again at the other end.

Personally unless they were filthy I wouldn't shampoo carpets.

Depends on the conduct of the purchasers.

Thanks everyone. I've started on the freezer- just got rid of stuff we aren't going to eat in the next week or well past it's use by date(only a smallish freezer). Have given the oven a good go and have cleaner on it now.

We're fortunate to be moving in to a new build- so hopefully it'll be clean though I will want to give things a wipe over I should think.

My mum is going to help look after my DD so fingers crossed that'll all be ok :-)