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I recall some friends who moved, and on their moving day they were delayed because they spent several hours cleaning the house they had just sold and closed on. Huh?
What I'm wondering is if there is any expectation when you move out of a house you just sold?
I've been planning my move in my mind, and I expect to have some stuff here that isn't worth anything, and I intend to move it out to the curb and then call the city and request a pickup. Here in L.A. the city provides free pickup of stuff like this, so it won't be any burden on the new owner.
We also have a large amount of people who drive around neighborhoods and pick up stuff they can maybe yard sale, or perhaps sell metal stuff to scrap recyclers, or maybe use it themselves. It's amazing that anything I don't want I just put it at my curb and it magically disappears within about 1 hour to 1 day. I'm pretty sure many of these people are undocumented immigrants, and this is actually a positive benefit of these people being here.
Then I expect to leave behind some other stuff that I think the new owner might be able to use. I'll just leave it in place and if the new owner doesn't want it they can move it to the curb too.
But what is the deal about cleaning? I thought my friends were crazy! I don't intend to leave any bad messes, but I expect my house is going to look like it usually looks several days after my last housecleaning. Like sinks and toilet need a scrub, mirrors and counters too. I'm sure the rug will need vacuuming although I intend to put in a brand new carpet before I put my house up for sale. I certainly don't expect to spend any time cleaning during my last week because I'll be too busy.
So what is the moving etiquette? Is there any expectation that the departing ex-owner is going to do any house cleaning before they leave? I thought my friends were very nice and considerate, but how often do people do stuff like that?
If you have any moving horror stories related to cleaning you want to share it might add interest to my topic, so go ahead!
Ugh, you're going to be leaving hairs in the tub drain, and toothpaste spatters on the sink? I don't even want to think about the toilet. Nasty.
Yes, the house should be clean when you leave it.
I would hope that most people have the common decency to do the same.
It would be considerate of you to ask your buyers if they actually want any of that stuff you plan to leave. If I walked into a new house and found the owner had left me "stuff," I would probably not be very pleased to have to haul it to the curb.
Yes, the seller is generally expected to leave a clean house. Look at it from the other end - do you really want to have to clean your new place before you move in? Would you accept that if you were renting a new place? Why would you expect your buyer to want to have to clean up your mess before they could move in?
If you don't want to do it yourself, just hire someone to come in and clean.
Yes, there is an expectation that the house will be clean when new owners would move in. Is it required? No. Is it common courtesy? Absolutely. Why do you think new owners should have to clean up your mess?
i have moved many times, and can tell you i am absoultely DISGUSTED to move in somewhere that has not been cleaned, it tells me that the person before me lacks common sense, i have heard that a new home owner on occassion has gotten $$ from previous owner for lack of consideration in cleaning up after themselves. i'm not talking washing walls down i'm meaning clean the bathrooms and vac up, a little common sense will go a long way.
There's only two ways you know how to treat people, how you've been treated yourself, or you ask. It's been some time since I purchased my house, but I recall having to spend several hours the first day cleaning (with some help) but it was still not clean enough that I'd sleep in it, so the next morning I cleaned a few more hours and then moved my stuff in.
As far as leaving stuff behind, I was thinking of things like partial cans of paint that match the interior rooms, for touch up or repair. I was thinking of wood molding and similar stuff used in home improvement, and useful again if any repair is needed. I was thinking of extra sprinkler pipe and sprinkler couplers, elbows, that kind of stuff that always gets used up eventually because sprinklers always break. I was thinking of leaving some large metal shelf units in the garage because they're too big to move, but I guess I can push all the wood and sprinkler pipes and shelves out to the curb and whoever is fastest can have it, or the city will get what's left.
And please excuse my OP not communicating accurately what I meant.
As far as leaving stuff behind, I was thinking of things like partial cans of paint that match the interior rooms, for touch up or repair. I was thinking of wood molding and similar stuff used in home improvement, and useful again if any repair is needed. I was thinking of extra sprinkler pipe and sprinkler couplers, elbows, that kind of stuff that always gets used up eventually because sprinklers always break. I was thinking of leaving some large metal shelf units in the garage because they're too big to move, but I guess I can push all the wood and sprinkler pipes and shelves out to the curb and whoever is fastest can have it, or the city will get what's left.
And please excuse my OP not communicating accurately what I meant.
I still think asking the new owners would be a nice thing to do.
Most people would probably find those things quite useful and be tickled to have them.
Then there are people like me. Since I'm not much of a DIY person as far as most things go, and I'd rather pick up the phone and call someone, stuff like extra pipe and such is wasted on me.
At my former house the owner left lots of cans of paint, that I never would have used, because one of the first things we did was repaint all the rooms. I was left with some odds and ends, like pieces of sheetrock and plywood too. And a big industrial size fan.
I spent a good afternoon cleaning that stuff out of the garage (truthfully not knowing what about half of it was) and the neighborhood scavengers took it off my curb pretty quickly, LOL.
The only thing I found left in my current house was a big 5 gallon bucket of paint for the basement, that the seller had asked me if I wanted to keep.
It most definitely is a lot to do, but the cleaning should be done. When people move in they generally expect it. Even then many people do once over detail before moving things in - especially cabinets and closets. The new owners will have their hands full moving same as you.
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housecleaning
