*Disclaimer: We were given this end of tenancy clean in return for an open and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Believe me when I say, moving house is one of the most stressful experiences of your life.
We’ve done it three times before, but this time we were moving into a house we would actually own and that came with its own added stresses: Would our offer be accepted? Would our mortgage be approved? How would we afford all of the endless solicitors fees, end of tenancy charges and new stuff we would inevitably need for the house?
One huge stress for me was the thought of having to clean our flat to within an inch of its life so we could attempt to recover some of our deposit back from our letting agents. The flat we had spent the past four years in was more than lived in, with a crazy toddler who spread muesli around the lounge faster than I could vacuum it up and a bike obsessed husband who insisted on keeping his expensive bikes inside the lounge where they couldn’t be stolen, but along with them came oil, grease and a lot of sweat.
Luckily for us, Fantastic Services got in touch to see if we would like an end of tenancy clean and naturally I jumped at the chance meaning it was one less thing off a list that was increasingly getting longer than the distance between our old flat and our new house.
Fantastic Services is a relatively new company started in 2009 by Rune Sovndahl and Anton Skarlatov who had a shared vision for delivering home services. As well as cleaning services, they also offer gardening, removals, handymen and pest control.
End of tenancy cleans start from £93 and involve a team of cleaners who spend as much time as is needed in your property to get it back to the pristine state it was in when you moved in. It includes deep oven cleaning, hot water extraction and wall spot cleaning on request using special detergents to achieve maximum results. I was very excited to see what the results would be.
Being pretty pregnant, suffering with SPD and having a crazy toddler to look after, I was dispatched to our new property on removal day while my husband helped the removal men empty our old flat and get the place in a fit state to welcome the cleaners the following Monday. Imagine my horror when I returned on Monday morning to the flat in even worse condition than I remember with all of the furniture removed and enough muesli crumbs to fill a whole box. (I swear to god I vacuumed every. single. day.)
Not only were there crumbs all over the open plan lounge and kitchen but we had several stains on our carpeted areas from yoghurt, milk and make up spillages and grease stains from my husband’s bikes. The toilets and the sinks were filthy after a week of not being touched and the kitchen splashback was covered in grease from cooking (particularly difficult to clean as it is made from painted grey glass)
Related Post: Our House Buying Journey: Completion!
We welcomed our cleaners at 9am who turned up promptly despite our flat being notoriously difficult to find, and they had a quick inspection of the flat to see if there were any areas they’d be unable to clean. There was one area of carpet I had tried to treat myself a couple of years ago when Dexter spilt a cup of milk which I was informed would probably not get cleaned and she mentioned that any mould or rust found in the bathrooms would also be impossible to clean. The cleaner explained the job would probably take four hours with the last forty minutes taken up by her using the carpet cleaning machine and she’d give me a ring twenty minutes before she was done for me to check the job she and her partner had done.
That left us free to spend our final few hours in Liverpool buying some last minute bits for the new house (John Lewis pillows and a toilet brush!) and soaking in the Scouse culture.
I got the call to go back to the flat a little before 1pm and we walked in to a flat so pristine I could barely believe it was the same one we had left hours earlier. The kitchen surfaces and splashback were spotless and I could see my reflection in them for the first time in years; the carpets looked brand new, although a few stains still remained, the porcelain in the bathrooms gleamed and the chrome on the taps literally *dinged* like they do on cleaning adverts. I was majorly impressed. The cleaner checked every cupboard, nook and cranny with me to ensure I was happy before leaving us to soak in the last few minutes looking out onto Liverpool’s UNESCO heritage waterfront saying our final goodbyes to this wonderful city for good.
Related Post: How to Make Moving House Easy for Your Toddler
Check out the video below which shows the results of our End of Tenancy Clean with Fantastic Services:
Disclaimer: We were offered an End of Tenancy clean by Fantastic Services in return for an honest review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Hayley | Devon Mama
Friday 24th of August 2018
I remember being horrified at the state of our last place once we’d moved the furniture out. It took me forever to clean it up and even then it didn’t look that good! Next time I’ll definitely be going for something like this, it looks amazing and completely stress free!!