Is that really necessary?

My son has just moved into a new flat, and it was left absolutely filthy. I had to arrange professional cleaners, and two of them spent 8 hours each scrubbing it. £320! Even then we're still finding odd bits and pieces of grot. The worst culprit was the previous owner's lurcher - black dog hair everywhere.

When we moved 4 years ago I left our house sparkling clean and expected the house we were moving to to be the same. However it was filthy, absolutely no effort had been made to even wipe out a cupboard. It took me nearly a week to go from room to room cleaning and I sustained myself by repeating filthy b.... as a mantra. My house is now clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy 😊

The last time I moved was 22 years ago. We had to put much of our furniture in storage as we were renting until the chain was complete. We left our old house and moved, but the completion was a week or so away so we went back at the weekend and had a party in the empty house to say goodbye to friends and neighbours. Everone brought garden chairs if they wanted to sit down! At the end of the evening cleaning the empty house was relatively easy. I don't expect it was spotless but it certainly wasn't filthy!

When I leave my current house I expect anyone who buys it will be ripping everything out to do a major update. I couldn't cope with cleaning it to a decent standard but I can't imagine anyone would want to move straight in as the house is in a sorry state. I haven't been able to afford proper upkeep and will be selling to move to a cheaper area and downsize. Hopefully when I get more decluttering done I'll be able to do some of the cleaning but I doubt I can make it fit to move into. It wasn't perfect when we moved here and having separated from my ex within a year, all the things we'd planned to do didn't happen as I became a single mum on a low income. I only managed to keep the house by doing a good deal when I divorced and inheriting from my mum around the same time enabling me to pay down the mortgage. Threadbare carpets, ancient kitchen and bathroom etc will need to be ripped out before anyone would want to move in. I expect it will go to a developer. I may even end up having to sell at auction. It's the only house we ever bought that wasn't a new build. I just hope whatever I eventually buy will be relatively problem free.

I moved from Hampshire to jersey, when my first baby was barely 10 weeks old. We had a bank house as we were nit allowed to buy.
The previous tenants, also bank employees, knew the situation as DH had asked to delay starting work for a week as our baby was due then! He left for jersey and came home weekends, sea fog permitting.
The previous tenants not only left everything filthy but also removed every solitary lightbulb. I sat down on the floor and cried.
After that experience, I not only cleaned the house, but also left loo paper, information about rubbish collection, doctors, plumbers, etc.
it was never reciprocated. Most houses I moved into after were never especially clean, but useable.

Jocork
What a warm and honest post.
I do hope you find something lovely and easy to live in.
I hope you will be very happy in your new home.

Interesting to see this post resurrected.

We moved out of our home on the 21st March, and after a couple of months of living between our daughters and a holiday let we own we moved in to our new home on May 16th.

Our new home was immaculate when we moved in.
I was so grateful.

All the stress and hard work has been pretty much forgotten now, we are incredibly happy in our new home and have a different way of life.

To anyone going through the upheaval, it will all be worth it!

When I bought this house following divorce I was temporarily living with my parents and we were all desperate for me to move out. This house was perfect for me so I offered the asking price on the understanding that I could move in by a specific date. The day arrived and everything looked as though it was going ahead. My furniture was taken out of storage and put in the removal van and we waited. Eventually someone (can’t recall who) contacted the sellers who said they couldn’t move as they couldn’t take the time off work. My stuff went back into storage and I got a big bill from the removal company. The date was reset for a fortnight later and the same thing happened. I instructed my solicitor to tell them that I had to be in the house by the following Friday or I would withdraw, and I meant it. They did move out at the third attempt but left it until the last minute. The sale agreement stipulated them leaving the carpets, curtains and lampshades. When I went into the house they had left curtains, but ones that did not fit the windows, they’d cut the light fittings off leaving bare wires, removed the fuses from the fuse box, broken the gas oven, broken the gas fire (both of which had been working) had spilled something on the living room and bedroom carpets leaving awful, damp stains that hadn’t been there previously and the bath suddenly had a huge crack in it.
I had planned to replace all these things anyway but the sheer nastiness of this really shocked me.
When I opened the oven that first night I found the most dirty, horrible chip pan filled with solid grey grease. I threw it in the bin thinking no one could possibly want something as evil looking as that. An hour later the previous owner arrived at the door sheepishly demanding his chip pan.
It took weeks to make things right but in all it was a good move and I am very happy in my little home.