Our tenants moved out on the last day of February, so Craig and I spent March 1st (a gorgeous Saturday, luckily!) cleaning up our little townhouse. It's so funny with that place, because I think I go through the same cycle every time we need a new renter: I step inside and say, "Oh, this isn't bad at all!" And then as soon as I begin cleaning, I'm quickly so grossed out by how dirty the place is. And then, after a full day of vacuuming, mopping, and just general scrubbing, I'm back to, "Oh, this place is great, I could totally live here!"
Each time, I'm reminded that:
-Other people's messes are grosser than your own. A hair in the sink, dust on the baseboards, mildew on the bathroom ceiling... I can ignore that kind of thing in my own house for much longer than I'd care to admit. (Sorry, Grandma Bentley, I know you're disappointed!) But in someone else's house, it's absolutely revolting!
-You can't necessarily see the mess-- it's almost as if you can feel it. You just know it's not very clean. Even just running a vacuum along the baseboards and getting the cobwebs out of the corners makes SUCH a huge difference. I definitely can't see all that stuff? But you know it's there, just the same.
-Dog fur is really the grossest thing ever. And our latest tenants' dog must have been particularly furry because there was just so much fur everywhere. If I was even the slightest bit tempted to get a dog, this day of cleaning killed it. I'm surprised the HVAC was even working, there were sheets of fur covering the intake... Blurgh.
Anyway, we got it all cleaned up with one full day of hard work. Props to Craig and I! I showed it a bunch and it looks like we have new renters, although I'm a little bummed that they don't want to move in until mid-April. But they seem like lovely people and I think this will work out well for both parties, so it's all good.
Life as a landlord-- it's an adventure!
1 comment:
I have, much to my surprise, softened ever so slightly to the idea of a dog (NOT to cats - they creep me out and I hate them climbing in my lap or rubbing against my legs), but every time I start to think maybe it wouldn't be that bad I'm reminded of something like this. That much dog hair sounds sooo gross. And they smell awful when wet (which would happen a lot here in Seattle!) and then you have to find a sitter/kennel for when you want to travel and you have to deal with vet stuff. After reminding myself of all that any inkling I had that maybe I'd like having a dog dissipates quickly.
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