The Arguement: Moving and Nail Holes

[Pembo]

Check my countdown to Moving Day!

My parents keep asking us if we are going to patch all the nail holes and wall anchors before we move.

I say NO!!! That's the new owners job. If I filled them in, she would just have to repaint anyway?!

My parents also seem to think I need to clean the house beyond the normal vacuuming and dusting.

Again, I say NO!!!!!

So what is proper moving etiquette????????? My parents haven't moved since 1964.









Pembo's MOVING!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thinkerbell]

We did not patch nail holes-- and we had a bunch of them. I was like you. If I had patched the nail holes then I would have felt like I needed to paint the walls. The folks that bought our house knw how much stuff we had on the walls.
I also didn't do any special cleaning beyond making sure the floors and bathrooms were scrubbed good.
On the moving into another house side of things, I scrubbed everything down good because I wasn't taking for granted that it had been cleaned good.

 

[CathyCanada]

I agree with the nail holes, that is up to the new owners for when they paint, etc.

I would give the house a pretty good cleaning though, just because that is what I would want someone to do if I moved in.

I know you must have a ton of things to do already though. All the best with the move!
Cathy

 

[sharbear]

When we bought our first house I was 8 months pregant with our second child. The homeowner did a through cleaning of the house so we just had to move in. I really appreciated that. When we sold that house, moving gave me a bad asthma attack so I hired servicemasters to clean the house. I don't think the new owners appreciated it because they had to wait a day to move in. The house I live in now was a pig sty but the owner died and we bought it from the estate.

To answer your question, we did not fill in the holes where pictures hung.

 

[Tony-NJ]

and when we moved last year - we cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen, vacumed and that was it. Why the heck we vacumed, I have no Idea since the carpeting was getting replaced the next day LOL. We knew our new house was clean, the woman who owned it kept it spotless! She had the cleanest windows I've ever seen! We could never keep jouse like her LOL. When we did our walk through in the morning, this 86 year old woman was mopping the kitchen floor . We told her to stop since moving people would be all over the house. But anyway - good luck with the move.

 

[RUDisney]

We cannot say enough nice things about the people who sold us our house 9 years ago. Not only did they patch the holes, they painted the walls. The house was spotless and I just had to do the obligatory pre-moving cleanup... like the cabinets, bathrooms, etc.

OTOH, friends of ours moved into the dirtiest house they had ever seen. They'd have been happy if it was just nail holes. The former owners didn't clean the bathtubs or run a sweeper. Nothing to even give the semblance of a clean house.

So, IMO, nail holes are one thing, but leaving things at least tidy is the mandatory thing you should do.

 

[RUDisney]

I just thought of something else. Leave your old extra paint. That way, if the new owner doesn't want to have to paint the whole wall, they can at least paint the patched hole.

 

[Pembo]

Thanks for solving that!

RUDisney-I had already planned to leave all the old paint.

I plan to give the house a quick cleaning. When we moved in here the house was SPOTLESS! I remember starting to wipe down shelves and the rag was clean!

As for our new house, it is new construction and I expect it to be CLEAN! Of course I'll give the bathrooms the once over when we get there! LOL!!!

 

[AirForceRocks]

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't think of leaving a house full of holes for people to patch.

I also would leave the house in the same condition, cleaning-wise, that it was when I arrived, but maybe that's just me...

 

[tiggerlover]

As a person who has moved many times (mind you I have never bought a place, we are military and perpetual renters), I always leave my homes in the condition I would like to find a home if I were moving in. Some places I patched the nail holes and some places I didn't, it depended on if I knew if the home was being painted or not as to whether I patched or not.

 

[gepetto]

I think the house should be left clean and the nail holes patched and painted.

 

[jfulcer]

If you patch holes like my dad patches holes, I'd rather you left the holes if I were moving into your house. I'd leave the holes.

 

[pumba]

get a small tube of white toothpaste and dab each hole a wee bit....

 

[AirForceRocks]

Originally posted by pumba
get a small tube of white toothpaste and dab each hole a wee bit....

I guess the question is, would YOU like to move into a house full of holes that hadn't been properly cleaned?

It's that whole "Do unto others..." concept.

 

[Scratch42]

I was told by her that all I had to do was make sure all the junk was removed and maybe do a light sweeping to get rid of any dust bunnies.

I specifically asked if I had to wash the walls, patch, etc.

Like she said, they will probably want to do it themselves, they bought the house as is!

So that's all I'm gonna do.

I know myself that I would not move into a place without ME doing the cleaning myself! EWWWWW!

Hope this helps.

Scratch

 

[piratesmate]

In the "been there done that" category . . . if I were moving in, I'd rather you didn't use toothpaste to fill the holes. It just doesn't hold up & there's nothing worse than painting & having someone's old nail holes open up AFTER you're done! I'd rather the nails were left in - I've often used nails from the last person. If the spot was a good one for a picture before, it probably will be again. JMHO

Deb