Swiss Clean

I had little idea when leaving the UK to live in Switzerland how obsessed with cleaning they are.  The streets are tidy, the hedges are pruned back to regulation height (you get in trouble with your neighbours if they brush past your hedge and they get wet...) and there is very little litter anywhere. Inside houses are immaculate too.  On handover of our rented property to us in Switzerland, every nook and cranny had been polished, and even though the house was 13 years old and the appliances were showing their age, they were still cleaned to within an inch of their lives. When we moved after 4 years, I heard rumours of the dreaded handover, where the agency work through the house cataloguing every new scratch and mark on the walls, floors and appliances.  Every chip and stain is noted, and there is nowhere to hide, they are ruthless. The longer you live in one place, the more they tend to some degree of leniency, but do not expect that much!  I considered my house on handover spotless, (after mum and I had taken 3 days to clean every inch, then it should have been!) but they were still about to start up over a sun fade mark where the rug had lain on the floor for 4 years.  They reluctantly said that they would redo the floors after the caretaker stuck up for me.   I only had to pay for a dishwasher service, one soap dish (deemed to cloudy) and some holes in the walls left by paintings.

This is where I need to revise my standards.  We too rented out our property in the UK whilst abroad, and left it in a state that someone could live in relative comfort.  The oven was only a year old and the carpets were still in good shape, the bathrooms were sanitary.  We arrived last week to our current rental to find cobwebs in the corners of the rooms, that I can deal with I thought, I can remove those.  Then the layer of yellow turmeric grease left on the surfaces and walls around the extraction hood.  Too many Indian fry-ups had taken their toll.  The extractor I found does not extract, it merely recirculates the greasy air. So today I noticed there is a yellow line of turmeric grease on the ceiling where the air has been blown onto the paintwork above....tasty.

However, I had to draw a line at the mellow-yellow toilet seat.  There is something about your own yellow that can be tolerated in most cases, but someone elses....? It's something that makes my stomach feel a little queasy.  Not wishing to wait any longer, I purchased a soft close anti bac seat from Argos, no more loo seat crashing, and no more yellow for us!  My first victorious DIY job that I completed myself (much to the disappointment of my husband).  The toilet is now worthy to be sat on.  Well, now I have cleaned the rest of the underside too.....

So that's todays readjustment, UK professional clean is not quite Swiss professional clean.