Did you clean your old house before you moved out?

My house was clean too...

I cleaned each room as the removers took everything out. I would have hated the new owners to come into a dirty house. Mind you over did it and was exhausted.

My bungalow was clean when I got the keys pity they left the mice and didn't warn me about them. So first job was get pest control in. Soon got rid off them . But since moving 2 years had a Squirrel in the loft and a mouse. Roofers made the roof rodent proof. Had to have pest control in but soon sorted. I have 4 large electronic pest controllers going 24/7. All outer doors have to be firmly shut as now paranoid about mice.

Blocked every hole I could find in the garden . Unfortunately the little pests can climb. But no sign of any . Other gardens with bird feeders are easy pickings.

I have always cleaned my rented flats before I moved out, and left them as I would want to find the one I moved into.

tidyskatemum, same here! I made sure everything was squeaky clean. The new owners even sent a note to thank me for their stress-free arrival, saying it just wasn't like moving at all. Maybe us house proud cleaners are in the minority?

We arrived here and, oh dear - ingrained dirt everywhere, things had never had a proper clean. We lived out of boxes for ages, as we couldn't put anything away until the cupboards were washed out. Dust (and sticky dirt) was thick on every skirting board, door top and curtain rail - even the light bulbs were smothered!

When I've moved I've paid a cleaning company to come and do a move out clean in the old home. I've also paid them to do a move in clean in the new home. Both when it is empty.

My DH had decorated throughout when we put our last home up for sale, it sold quickly, so hope it still looked great!

I certainly made sure everywhere was very clean as we sold to local people. Didn’t want everyone saying “ You should have seen what a state Calendargirl left her house in!”.

Reading through the comments about dirty net curtains etc in the new home, was this not noted when you viewed the property? It would have made me wonder how clean it was.

I realise if it was a rental, this might not be the same scenario.

When I’ve moved I made sure the house was clean. Just moved in to a house that was ‘clean ‘ but some things weren’t. A few kitchen cupboards had remnants of food in and the oven wasn’t too good.
I also left a rental property that I had to clean before I moved in as it was grubby, and professionally cleaned when I left. Still battling some two months later to get my full deposit back as on the check out inventory there was one cobweb and one item if debris/dirt.

I cried when I moved house many years ago. We left a modern house which I had cleaned thoroughly.
Our ‘new ‘ house was an old Victorian place with loads of potential. It was filthy. We threw out the oven/cooker immediately and spent a year living in it , cleaning, before we started building work.
The lady who we bought from was a friend of a friend who we had socialised with.‘Awkward! She wasn’t elderly and only had one son living with her.

Always! in fact a deep clean. Oven cleaner came in just prior to completion. When we moved into our last house, having left our previous home immaculate, once in this house, we discovered it had only received a cursory clean and there was broken glass in the garage. We were later to discover, some discarded rubbish in the loft as well.

We left ours spotless. Moved in to a filthy bungalow. Removal man said ‘don’t go in there until I’ve hovered for you’! We immediately cleaned /scrubbed loos/sinks/bedroom for that night and then set to the next day. Oven cleaner spent all day on the filthy range cooker the next day.
Within the week we’d also painted several walls - washing didn’t help much. Bought from 40 yr olds - We know it was filthy when viewed. Guess some people don’t do cleaning

Yes, I’ve always cleaned thoroughly before moving, even once when the children were young I resorted to paying a company to come in and do it for us as it was all too much.
When young and moving out of our first house we did commit a major error though - my husband (who was the world’s worst at DIY) took out the washing machine on the morning we were moving without switching off the water first, and flooded the kitchen. The people moving in were sat on the drive waiting while I frantically mopped the water out of the door.

Hetty58 your new house sounds just like this one. And there are assorted cables hanging out of the walls that we have no idea what they are for. The previous owner apparently ran a microbrewery from the shed - I wouldn't have fancied drinking any of his product having seen the state of his workplace!

We moved into rented the day before my father’s funeral. The previous tenants had free flying birds and there was bird poo everywhere and the kitchen was thick with grease. I sat down and cried. We’ve always had professional cleaners in each rented property we’ve left.

Only moved once but it was left spotless.Sent apologies as couldn't get lounge carpet cleaned within time frame.In fact I was washing the garage(integral)floor when new owners called.
Left card,bottle wine and boxed file of instruction leaflets,diagrams,receipts,previous plans and anything regarding house, garden fixtures and fittings.
Moved into smaller property where the elderly owners had employed a cleaner to do the same.
Also delivered card and flowers to their sheltered housing home.
A very smooth uncomplicated move maybe different had the new property needed a deep clean.

When we moved from a flat to a house, I was working full time & had 2 young children. After putting the children to bed, I made sure everthing would be spotless for the next occupant.
When we arrived at the next house it was filthy, I sat down cried.
So again, when the children were in bed I had to start cleaning again.
I was exhausted.

We have had nine houses and I have always cleaned them thoroughly before we moved out. My parents moved house a lot because my father was in the police force and had a lot of promotions. My mother was very house proud and left each house very clean but she wasn’t as fortunate with the ones she move into. One house was newly built and the front and back gardens were full of builders’ rubble. My Dad loved gardening and planted potatoes in the front garden the first year to prepare the ground, then he put grass seed down and planted flowering shrubs. Then he set to work in the back garden which was huge and he planted all sorts of fruit and vegetables. We were only there for three years and the lucky person who moved in had a spotless house and beautiful garden. We have had six new builds and the three other houses have been reasonably clean but a friend of mine has recently moved house, the house looked lovely on line and when they did two viewings but I spoke to her soon after they moved in and the house is very dirty, especially the kitchen, she has has to remove and soak all the handles on the kitchen units because they are so greasy. Four weeks later she is still cleaning room by room but she is hoping it will be their last move. I don’t think I could face moving again either.

This topic has brought back memories of when we moved house a number of years ago. I found many many toenail clippings which had been trapped in the nylon bedroom carpet. Yuk!

Mogsmaw I agree that, with two notable exceptions, the houses I moved into on camp were in good order, but moving into civvy street was a completely different story. ?

Two houses I moved into had not one single lightbulb in place and no toilet paper in any of the loos. Now I know they’re not strictly ‘fixtures and fittings’, but who does that? I always leave such things - and usually a bottle of wine and a welcome card for the new owners.

I have a client who sold a house unwillingly (due to debt) and deliberately sabotaged it. I won’t give all the details because they’re identifying, but amongst other things she left things hidden that would smell badly and be hard to find and deliberately spilt things on carpets. She and her husband eventually became homeless and her husband thinks it’s karma.

Nearly 40 years ago we moved from one council house to another. We hadn`t seen inside, but it was the same design as our previous house, so thought we knew what to expect. When we got the keys, I could have cried. There was decorating and repairs to be done, the council hadn`t had time to see to it, so they left us 2 large tins of white emulsion. The place was filthy, the walk in food cupboard in the kitchen was absolutely grotty, and the toilet was so disgusting I wouldn`t even go in there. To their credit, my kids got down to it and gave the place a good clean.

Yes thoroughly. Cleaned cupboards and inside of wardrobes as we took things out, hoovered, dusted and washed paintwork. Left card and flowers for new occupants as well as information file on what days bins were collected, contact details for electrician, plumber and other local services. When we arrived at our new home the people their had done exactly the same and the place was pristine. They were a really lovely couple.

Yes I clean before I move out. I do a deep clean to get ready for sale and then clean as we pack and final vacuum and wipe down as removal men empty a room.

Given the number of times we've moved I think I've been lucky

I have moved into a couple of houses we've bought, this one included, that needed scourers to clean the windows and cupboards. I replaced the cookers in both rather than clean them. This one we bought from a Paediatrician and a Psychiatrist the other one had been empty and took a long time to sell so I knew what I was getting with the first one, this one was a surprise.

I do have some horror stories of cleaning houses after tenants have moved out but I put that down to it's part of being a Landlord.

I'm another ex-military wife so I've done some march out cleaning :-) Only charged once for a lost spoon, don't know what happened but it was in the days when they provided lots of things, I put their stuff away and when I unpacked one spoon missing.

I moved into two questionable quarters with-in a week, not down to the out going tenants though.

1st one was a marched in by Families Officer as we were on route from Germany and to be fair it had been clean but the workmen had a party in it between march-in and us getting there. I reported it and was happy to do some bits of cleaning and the Families Officer arranged to have the vomit covered bedding replaced (until mine arrived) and the vomit covered carpet cleaned.

However, on our first night the water tank in the loft sprang a leak. There was an interesting waterfall down the stairs so they offered us a choice of two other quarters.

One was ready to go and one needed new flooring throughout and the garden doing but I took it as I liked the house and it's location better :-) All was sorted before our things arrived so it worked out well.

I didn't clean our old house when we moved out and it was pretty grotty. However, this is because I knew it was going to be ripped to pieces as it was all being remodelled. The new owners made a fantastic job and the house was almost unrecognisable when we were invited back to see it.
Obviously, the price we asked reflected the work that needed to be done. We were happy to be able to walk away and the new owners were glad of a bargain.

I have always left houses very clean for the next owners, and fortunately have always moved into clean houses too.Like others though, we have found that many people take lightbulbs with them, and sometimes leave bare wires, so wrong to do that.Also, a few times, the garden plants seem to have vanished as well.

My neighbour has just moved out and he's taking his plants. Front garden is full of buckets and washing baskets full of them ready for the next collection.