Cleaning house for closing day!

annoyedgal

This might sound odd but I'm wondering how clean should a house be left on closing day before I shut the door and hand over the keys.
My plan is to leave it clean of course but just curious as to whether people scrub oven doors, tile grouting, that sort of thing or is it more just a general good once over!
Remember having to give my current home which I'm selling a good scrub when I moved in.

Atlantic Dawn

New owner will likely rip out the bathroom, I wouldn't waste your time.

I'd make sure the bins were empty and leave it at that.

Panjandrums

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TheAnalyst_

Panjandrums wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's really not expected.

Bananaleaf

annoyedgal wrote: »

This might sound odd but I'm wondering how clean should a house be left on closing day before I shut the door and hand over the keys.
My plan is to leave it clean of course but just curious as to whether people scrub oven doors, tile grouting, that sort of thing or is it more just a general good once over!
Remember having to give my current home which I'm selling a good scrub when I moved in.

I had to pick bits of the previous owner's dinner out of the sink when we moved into our place!! :eek: The kitchen def needed a good clean, but the other rooms were fine thank god.

The sale is done now and it's a sellers market so I'm pretty sure however you leave it there won't be an issue, so long as it's superficially clean (don't leave your food in the sink!!)

Just don't dump all your old cabinets etc on the new owners - that was the one thing we would have gone crazy about in our pre-sale inspection.

A superficial cleaning and all rubbish gone would be sufficient. Anyone who is mindful of cleanliness will do their own clean of the place anyway so I wouldn't get a professional cleaner

uberwolf

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

It's really not expected.

a bit of decency goes a long way.

(though my expectation of some form of token is obviously completely misplaced :P )

Jellybaby1

annoyedgal wrote: »

This might sound odd but I'm wondering how clean should a house be left on closing day before I shut the door and hand over the keys.
My plan is to leave it clean of course but just curious as to whether people scrub oven doors, tile grouting, that sort of thing or is it more just a general good once over!
Remember having to give my current home which I'm selling a good scrub when I moved in.

Have to say that I scrubbed the house until I was happy it was as clean as I could make it. The woman who bought our house rang me later to thank me for leaving it so clean and she didn't have to any cleaning when they moved in. The house we moved into was not so clean. Under the toilet rim was absolutely filthy, the place was covered in nicotine and I had a lot of scrubbing to do to get it off windows and paintwork. Would you really want the new residents saying 'the previous people were filthy' to your old neighbours? Just my experience, and its up to you of course what you do.

April 73

annoyedgal wrote: »

This might sound odd but I'm wondering how clean should a house be left on closing day before I shut the door and hand over the keys.
My plan is to leave it clean of course but just curious as to whether people scrub oven doors, tile grouting, that sort of thing or is it more just a general good once over!
Remember having to give my current home which I'm selling a good scrub when I moved in.

Honestly - if you have any self-respect you will leave the house properly cleaned for the new owners not just a general once-over.
When we moved into our house three years ago it was superficially clean at first inspection but after a day there I realised it was deep down filthy. The doors were manky, light switches were black, radiators full of dog hair, the wall behind the toilet crusty from bad aims.

Why would you not have enough respect for the person who has spent hundreds of thousands of euros on your house to leave it clean?

April 73

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Have to say that I scrubbed the house until I was happy it was as clean as I could make it. The woman who bought our house rang me later to thank me for leaving it so clean and she didn't have to any cleaning when they moved in. The house we moved into was not so clean. Under the toilet rim was absolutely filthy, the place was covered in nicotine and I had a lot of scrubbing to do to get it off windows and paintwork. Would you really want the new residents saying 'the previous people were filthy' to your old neighbours? Just my experience, and its up to you of course what you do.

Totally agree with you.

Ghekko

If I was moving into a house I'd most likely organise a cleaner to go in before I moved in, so I wouldn't expect it to be meticulously cleaned by the seller.

Addle

Ghekko wrote: »

If I was moving into a house I'd most likely organise a cleaner to go in before I moved in, so I wouldn't expect it to be meticulously cleaned by the seller.

This. You'd only be comfortable after you've cleaned your house yourself anyways.

TheAnalyst_

Exactly so you’re wasting your time doing a big job on it.

April 73

This thread is going to go one of two ways:
1. “Of course you should clean the house for the next owners”
2. “Why would you bother?”

Bananaleaf

April 73 wrote: »

This thread is going to go one of two ways:
1. “Of course you should clean the house for the next owners”
2. “Why would you bother?”

Yes. And they are going to buy it either way so it comes down to two things:

1. You want to leave it in a reasonable condition for them
2. You don't

CollyFlower

I wouldn't worry about having a deep cleaning.. I know of some filthy scum bag who deliberately left the toilet bowel full of ****e.

Bananaleaf

Bananaleaf wrote: »

Yes. And they are going to buy it either way so it comes down to two things:

1. You want to leave it in a reasonable condition for them
2. You don't

You're a decent person or
You're not.

annoyedgal

Just to clarify there's no question that I'll leave the house clean, was wondering if people do an oven clean, scrub tiles, doors, skirtings and walls, windows etc.

Gael23

annoyedgal wrote: »

Just to clarify there's no question that I'll leave the house clean, was wondering if people do an oven clean, scrub tiles, doors, skirtings and walls, windows etc.

I would leave the house as I would like to find it. I would clean all the above apart from skirtings and walls. But if there is any obvious dirt then clean that off.

Lumen

annoyedgal wrote: »

Just to clarify there's no question that I'll leave the house clean, was wondering if people do an oven clean, scrub tiles, doors, skirtings and walls, windows etc.

No, I wouldn't. Just do the stuff that's obvious. When you empty a house it looks much dirtier anyway, so if you're a reasonable person you'll see a load of obviously manky stuff to hoover up and wipe down.

The people we bought our house from wrote left post-it notes around the place for what all the switches were for, and left a couple of A4 pages with some maintenance tips and recommendations for local gardeners, handy men etc. That was much more appreciated than whether the oven was clean or not (it was though, I think).

ted1

Ghekko wrote: »

If I was moving into a house I'd most likely organise a cleaner to go in before I moved in, so I wouldn't expect it to be meticulously cleaned by the seller.

Many people are smashed after buying a new house and can’t afford a cleaner

TheAnalyst_

What kind of dirtbag would rely on someone elses cleaning? Between any refurbishments and moving furniture in you will have to clean the place anyway.

This thread is split between two camps.

1, Dirty and lazy people that rely on others
2. Responsible clean people that look after their new house.

GingerLily

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

What kind of dirtbag would rely on someone elses cleaning? Between any refurbishments and moving furniture in you will have to clean the place anyway.

This thread is split between two camps.

1, Dirty and lazy people that rely on others
2. Responsible clean people that look after their new house.

Its easier to clean a clean house - it's easier to mop a floor not covered in dirt already, it's easier to disinfectant a toilet that's not doesn't need to be scrubbed etc.

Your comment is ridiculous frankly.

forgodssake

Clean definitely . When we purhased our home the previous owner left it immaculate . I cant tell you the relief beimg heavily pregnant moving in to have that off my mind . I think its a decent thing to do .

Addle

It's definitely the decent thing to do.
But you'd still give it a once over before living in it yourself.

TheAnalyst_

Addle wrote: »

It's definitely the decent thing to do.
But you'd still give it a once over before living in it yourself.

Not a once over you will or at least should be giving it a deep clean.
The previous condition will make little or no difference to the effort in a deep clean. We're talking about an empty shell of a house that needs all its surfaces cleaned.

annoyedgal

annoyedgal wrote: »

Just to clarify there's no question that I'll leave the house clean, was wondering if people do an oven clean, scrub tiles, doors, skirtings and walls, windows etc.

Oven certainly. Nothing worse than turning it on and the house filling with the smell of somebody elses old burnt fat....

Cushie Butterfield

OP, don’t worry. Just going on the fact that you asked the question suggests that you wouldn’t have been living in squalor in the first place. When you have it emptied out just do a quick cleanaround e.g. bathroom, inside kitchen cupboards, clean inside fridge, leave no greasy grill pans in cooker, mop/vacumn floors & clear any cobwebs. That’s all that you really need to do. Some people don’t bother but it’s nice to be nice imo.

tricky D

I want to be sure that stuff like post gets forwarded in an orderly fashion. A postal redirect might not always be 100% reliable and there might be a gap in addresses during a move eg. moving to a friends house for a few weeks.

With that in mind I'd leave the house moderately clean. It had a deep clean a few months before it went to market, so a hoover and surface wipe should do.

ted1 wrote: »

Many people are smashed after buying a new house and can’t afford a cleaner

And on the flip side, many are going to rip out kitchens and bathrooms, and some will gut the whole property, so the level of desirable cleaning varies. Our purchaser had the whole place gutted and we knew that, but we still did the basic tidy and had some damaged plaster which was fine by them.

Anyway, it seems the decent thing to do imho.

annoyedgal

Thats what I'm thinking. I'm pretty sure they will be painting at least and possibly extending so I'll give it a good surface clean and leave it at that.
Moving into a vacant house that looks pretty clean but I'll still be scrubbing it when I get there.


quote="Cushie Butterfield;106175960"]OP, don’t worry. Just going on the fact that you asked the question suggests that you wouldn’t have been living in squalor in the first place. When you have it emptied out just do a quick cleanaround e.g. bathroom, inside kitchen cupboards, clean inside fridge, leave no greasy grill pans in cooker, mop/vacumn floors & clear any cobwebs. That’s all that you really need to do. Some people don’t bother but it’s nice to be nice imo.[/quote]

fg1406

I just posted recently that I moved into my new home just after New Years and the previous owners left the place in a disgusting state. Food was mashed into carpets, kids drawings in marker on the walls, sticky floors etc and the smell was so bad it took a week of airing it out to get rid of the stench. I was absolutely horrified that we had to move into a house in that state. They had left us high and dry and dragged out the sale for months and to leave the house in such a state was the final insult. I made a complaint to the EA but I doubt they could do anything. We had to pay contract cleaners to come in and do a job on the place as it was so bad. We had already left our previous accommodation because the vendors missed the previous closing date by 3 weeks so we had to move in when we got the keys.

annoyedgal

Thats really awful. Did you have any clue from the house viewings that the owners were so messy? Just curious! It's not a nice way to start off in your new home. Our solicitor arranging a walk through before closing. Maybe should be standard practice, would give an incentive to leave the place decent!