The End is Near!

I am SO tired of cleaning someone else's house. Boy oh boy, had I let the rental house cleaning go during the last few months of chaos. It got to the point that we just gave up and figured it would be best to do a massive cleaning after all our junk was out of the house. That may have been the case, but wow. Just wow.

I have spent the last FOUR AND A HALF days at the rental house:

Cleaning up the yard - weeding, raking, mulching, piling blocks in one location, minor pruning, gathering all our garden and yard equipment, hauling old pallets out to the curb (where no-one has picked them up so I'll have to load them up to go to the dump), taking down the shadecloth/bird netting contraption set up for the container garden, moving the big pile of burnable pruned branches to clean up underneath it, sweeping the patio, and on and on.

Hubby sorted the garage stuff into trash, ours, and owners. I dealt with the trash and sweeping up, cleaned the windows (carefully as several have been cracked since we moved in), and changed the lock.

Cleaning the house has taken the most time because I do a thorough job. I am so good that I have only lost part of a security deposit for a rental once, in my entire history of renting, and that was due to corruption on the part of the rental agency. (We didn't use the carpet cleaning service they recommended. I chose one that was listed with Better Business Bureau; he did a great job and guaranteed his work. The jerks kept $176 for "carpet cleaning" anyway.)

So, back in the rental house, I have spent HOURS getting it spiffed up: spackling holes in the wall (including ones that were there when we moved in), dusting the walls and window sills and window blinds, dusting off the ceiling fans and closet shelves, cleaning the wall smudges, cleaning all the inside windows and hosing down the outsides, cleaning mirrors and switchplates and doorknobs, thoroughly vacuuming - yes with the edge tool too, cleaning baseboards, scrubbing toilets and sinks and tub/showers, sweeping and mopping floors - on my hands and knees, scrubbing kitchen counters (a total pain because of the wide rough grout lines between the tiles), cleaning every inch of the refrigerator finally getting off some of the sticky residue that was there when we moved in, doing the oven cleaning thing, scrubbing the stovetop (60 years old and a pain to get clean), cleaning the kitchen cabinets inside and out, polishing the kitchen sink and faucet, and more.

Today I got to the point of really resenting all the cleaning I was doing. The house is 10 times cleaner now than when we moved in. It was like a bad April Fool's joke; we signed the lease on April 1. The refrigerator was gross and had to be scrubbed before we could put food in it. The tan kitchen tiles had weird white splotches like someone had dropped bleach on them; it turned out the tiles were actually white and the splotches were where hot water had dropped on it. Took lots of scrubbing to get them clean. The owner had left clutter I had to beg her to come take away so we could use the garage we were paying rent for.

I am finally done down there. Tomorrow the carpets are professionally cleaned and then I'm turning in the keys. It's time to focus on my house and my future, not someone else's money-
making house!

Do I sound tired? Bitter? Frustrated and a little angry?

Yeah, well I am. Get over it or come help me. There's a ton of work left to do at the new place!