Did you clean your old house before you moved out?

I have always thoroughly cleaned every house before I left with one exception. That was because I knew the builders were moving in to start work the next day. The new owner demanded money for removing stuff that I didn't want stacked outside in the front garden. However, before he took me to court, as he threatened, the removal that I had already booked – two days after moving – had been completed.

I left our house in Holland on my knees going backwards cleaning the floor as I went. The new owners complimented me on how spotless it was!

Well, when I moved, I made sure the house was clean -but did not go overboard about this - as I knew the new owners were getting in builders for all sorts of changes. And, they did for the first four months they did not live there.

TBH, I think it is more important to leave useful information for new occupiers - such as window cleaners, lists of local buses, GP surgeries, and dentists etc. along with any original information on any items being left - multi-boiler, built-in oven. etc. etc.

Flowers, wine etc. may make the leaver feel good, but not everyone likes alcohol and some people cannot have real flowers, etc. A GOOD LUCK IN YOUR NEW HOME card with all the information, and keys left neatly and labelled is much more useful.

Surely, most people moving in clean everywhere as their first job.

Every wife I’ve ever known has left her (military quarters)house “absolutely spotless” to march-in to a house “absolutely filthy
I agree. No experience of military living, and I have only moved into new houses. but so many women like to complain in martyred tones that their new home, even holiday let, is filthy and they have had to clean it from top to bottom.
More about 'not meeting my exacting standards' I think.

When I moved from my old home it was cleaned thoroughly, my new house was absolutely filthy, including rabbit droppings, I took weeks to get clean and had to be decorated I did know it would need decorating it was also full of rubbish which I had to get removed, appalling

Yes. Top to bottom. Every time I’ve moved out of anywhere. Least I can do for next occupants. Moving house is very stressful!

Ex military had to be done moved 14 times only upside next house had passed same inspection

I am an absolute slatten re housework, but I used to move every 18-24 months because of my husband's job, always left place spotless with soap/loo roll/new toilet brush in each loo, booze in the fridge and of course light bulbs (although I look the expensive ones and left plain ones) Always seemed the place I move into hadn't been cleaned in years eg net curtains that stood up unaided, it was particularly gross when previous tenants had been smokers. Settled in a council house now, it was spotless but completely empty when we moved in only had carpets, no curtians/white goods

We moved several times, always left the house clean Plus made sure the light bulbs were working and there was toilet rolls in place as well. Though it wasn't always the same for us. One house was so bad we had to stay else where before we could move in.

Amberone

Living in military accommodation meant everything was inspected before we left after each posting, so everything had to be spick and span. That's stayed with me always, so yes, the house is spotless when we move out.

Oh God, the dreaded March Out, making a frying pan you've used for 6 years look brand new, though I think they've stopped providing as much stuff.

Yes, of course. Shampooed the carpets too and left a card snd a bottle of wine.

Yes always leave clean etc, got my oven professionally cleaned at my last property and a friend helped me do the rest, pity the same couldn't be said for where I moved into! Bathroom was awlful and because the person renting here had already moved out the gas had been cut off which I didn't know about until I went to switch the hot water on!! Trying to clean a bathroom with hot water from a kettle mixed with some cold wasn't easy and we couldn't have a shower until the next day when the gas company sent someone out!!!

Yes, once the removal men had left the old house and GH at new house I cleaned it top to bottom and easy to do as empty. Left flowers and welcome to your new home card for new owner.

eazybee

*Every wife I’ve ever known has left her (military quarters)house “absolutely spotless” to march-in to a house “absolutely filthy*
I agree. No experience of military living, and I have only moved into new houses. but so many women like to complain in martyred tones that their new home, even holiday let, is filthy and they have had to clean it from top to bottom.
More about 'not meeting my exacting standards' I think.

Even in military quarters I've heard women complaining about the filth, not meeting their standards. It used to be an almost Olympic sport, who could claim the highest standards.
For anyone who hasn't lived in quarters and gone through this we're taalking about passing a piece of string through a lock and being told it was greasy, having someone go down on her hands and knees, running her fingernails along the underside of the cooker and claiming it hadn't been cleaned! There's a book of horror stories out there if someone wants to write one.

I expect we would all say that we clean and leave things in a good state. But many house sales occur when older people die, maybe there is nobody to clean the house.

It is fairly obvious when viewing a potential home to purchase whether the occupiers were "clean" or "dirty". Muck doesn't accumulate in the few months between viewing and purchase. If it was mucky when viewing - then odds are that it will be mucky when they leave.

Moved several times and always left the house as clean as I would hope to find it. Heard after one move that the new owner had said she had never moved into a house so clean. A pity it was not like that when we moved in with our 14 month old baby and me pregnant. Arrived about 4pm to discover the owners had employed a 'Man with a Van'. Half their furniture was still in the house and the woman was having a bath (she did not clean it afterwards)! Our removal men promptly put all their furniture in the garage so we could at least organise getting the baby to bed. Discovered the kitchen was filthy. Sticky rings where jam jars etc had been removed and the vinyl floor was not plain brown but mustard with a brown pattern. Plus side was they never emptied the loft and we discovered an old fashioned type wooden sledge. The children had many hours of fun with it.

Every house we've moved into has been OK too and DH always cleans before we leave a house. It's certainly what I would expect.
Our current flat had an elderly lady living in it before she went into a home and her family had cleaned and had it painted while. The kitchen was not great, especially the oven, but we'll be replacing it soon. The bathroom was clean but smelly, I think it's the floor and we've done all we can. I think we'll have to remove and replace the floor which is pebbles embedded in a lot of very grotty grout.

Every time I have moved my house has been clinically clean and the cooker cleaned. I never wanted anyone to be able to say to the neighbours how dirty the house was afterwards. Lol

The last house we moved in to the bath was completely covered in scum, there were used makeup pads in the drawer beneath the sink. They had obviously broken eggs in one of the kitchen cupboards and instead of cleaning it up they waited for it to dry and then turned the shelf over. It took me ages to scrub that house, it broke my heart because it was supposed to be our forever home and it was tainted by it. We moved to this house in March and I feel a lot happier now.

We left our house spotlessly clean. The new buyer was very difficult, for example criticising a broken window pane which had only just happened recently. When I had a drive by the house after three years of not going down that road, I was shocked. The windows had not been cleaned, the cracked window was still there and the house looked uncared for.

I always clean before we move out and the house looks better than it ever did when we lived in it! I always end up cleaning again when we move in because although I am not a very good housewife, I don't want to live in other people's dirt and they never seem to clean as they move out. Perhaps it is Karma that I get two lots of deep cleaning in quick succession to make up for my tardiness the rest of the time.

We moved 22 years ago but I blitzed the place beforehand and had an oven cleaning Co round to scrub the oven so it was spotless

When we moved out last Oct our house had been cleaned from attic to ground floor - I was cleaning as the removal men were emptying each room too. It looked lovely even after 35 years there!

We've just sold the renovation project we bought 3 years ago and which we lived in for 6 months between sales - the lady who has moved in said how clean it was. The property we bought was ok but the oven was something else and took me the best part of a week to finally clean whatever had been burned on the bottom of it. The previous owner had done nothing at all to the property as we could see from the photos from the sale before them so we had a month of decorating before we moved in.

OH was abroad when we last moved. Mum came over and helped clean. We could have eaten off the floor, we left the place spotless. A different story at the new house. They had taken all the curtain rails and light bulbs and swopped the carpets for ill- fitting old ones. Mum was having to clean all the cupboards out before putting anything away. Nightmare.

Ive never yet moved to one that doesn't need a clean down- even a new build bought many many years ago had builders dust etc in it.! I think the reason there's a trend for removing bulbs now is because they are mostly the very expensive LED types of energy saving bulbs nowadays, which last at least 2years, and are VERY expensive- so they will want to keep them.Its rare to find the very cheap just plug in '4 for a £1' bulbs these days that folk didn't think worth taking with them?

Our house was spotless when we moved. Like others, the house we moved into was disgusting. It took 4 cleaners 4 hours just to get it looking respectable. But the icing on the cake was a fridge complete with opened tin of dog food and fork stuck in it. I doubt the fridge had been cleaned for years!