When You Move To a New Place ... ?

Your friend is Right....I did the same thing when I moved to a new place(plus I would BLEACH the bathroom-the Kitchen), and PINE SOL all the walls and baseboards.

[quote]PINE SOL all the walls and baseboards

That's more than a little disgusting. I hope you stay there for the year it will take until your place no longer reeks.

Toilet seat yes, keys no because the super needs a set.

All of that, plus a professional cleaning and painting.

Absolutely, and I wash the walls (not Pine Sol, though), buy a new fire extinguisher and smoke/CO2 detector. Before moving shit in I check for and plug any holes under the sink and in the cabinets. I clean the shit out of the toilet bowl and degunk the tub drain. I like a splash of color on the walls and I add some shelving. This way I move in and things are fresh.

I schedule the alarm company to come out first thing, so as soon as the closing is on-record, they're installing the system. Then I re-key the locks, and the cleaners take care of the rest.

^^ Absolutely, most real estate agents provide deep down cleaning when you buy a house, but you should always re-key the locks. You have no idea who has keys to your house

I’m glad my home is new. I’m the only one whose lived here. Hee hee.

^^Lots of people will only buy brand new houses because they don't want cooties from the previous owners

That's why Teresa Guidice built her mcmansion.

I have a friend like that, r9. And he always ends up selling for less than he paid.

Wow! He must really stink up a house!

Definitely re-key. If the superintendent needs to have the locks on a master key system, ask him to re-key. You don't know how many keys the previous tenant handed out to friends, relatives, crazy ex lovers, dog walkers, cleaning services, etc.

For $25, replace the damn toilet seat. No amount of Lysol will get it as clean as I would want it. Also, run the dishwasher and w/d a few times before using. The previous tenant may have washed all their sex toys before departing the premises.

Also reset the garage door opener; past users may have kept one.

I always dredge the new home's surrounding moat and have the neighboring parents living within a 10-miles radius around me sterilized immediately.

I don't want to perch my posterior on a nasty toilet seat where a former home owner has been squnching out turds.

None of y’all use public bathrooms?

[quote]I clean the shit out of the toilet bowl

You know you could just flush. It might be a little less messy.

[quote] I’m the only one whose lived here.

Oh, dear!

Thanks for all these suggestions. What else?

Before you call the cable company for a hookup at your new place, wait! and connect your television to a cable outlet in your new digs.

Many cable companies don't bother to send a tech out to do a disconnect, hoping instead the new owner will become a customer.

Free cable -- at least for a time!

What kind of indestructible germs do you people think are living on toilet seats? The previous occupants were unlikely to have been smearing smallpox all over the seat two minutes before you walked in.

You people are insane.

Burn sage in each room of the house to get rid of bad energy left behind from previous owners/tenants.

And here’s r23 to prove r22’s point.

[quote]Many cable companies don't bother to send a tech out to do a disconnect, hoping instead the new owner will become a customer. Free cable -- at least for a time!

^^ True fact! My sister had free cable for almost a year for this exact reason.

I didn’t think rekeying was necessary but my partner insisted, but I’m more willing to take risks than he is. He locks the door when he walks to the mailbox. It cost a fucking fortune and I was tired of bleeding money as you do through the whole house selling and buying process.

[quote] It cost a fucking fortune

To rekey the door?

All you need to do is buy a new doorknob/deadbolt combo. They’re cheap.

Personally, I prefer these. Used one for years and don’t need to fumble for my keys, you can give people their own codes (service people, relatives) and then quickly change it while maintaining your own personal code that you never change.

I've moved home several times and I've never really thought of changing the locks. I'm also pretty sure I've never heard of anyone being burgled because they didn't.

^^ Just leave your house wide open then. Just because you never heard of someone being robbed by someone who had keys from a former owner doesn't mean it never happen. I don't know anyone who died in a plane crash, but I know people have

As we have learned courtesy of the pandemic, some DLers are more afraid of everything, it seems, than others.

I did replace the turlet seat!

Duly chatistized for not caring about lock rekeying . It’s done now so I ended up on the right side of history. It cost $600 for 4 doors, which was about twice what I expected.

Re-keying or new locksets, r32?

If the former, locksmiths in your area are making a killing!

If I were a self-respecting burglar, I'd make sure to go back to my previous abode and use my old key to let myself in, because that wouldn't point any fingers in my direction at all.

It’s not the former owner people are concerned about. It’s whoever else s/he gave a key to.

So, no, it wouldn’t put eyes on you. As the former owner you could say you gave out keys to every person whoever entered your house such as the plumber, electrician, friends, lovers, etc.

“Why, Detective, I must’ve given out hundreds of keys the whole time I was living there.”

I bring a Catholic priest in to bless the house. I then bring a Shaman in to read the spiritual energy of the place. One time he detected some evil spiritual energy emanating from the bathroom off the second floor hallway. He said it was a Santorum, but after flushing the toilet three times while hot water ran in the shower, the Santorum was gone, and I could safely use the toilet.

One time I lived in a very old house (I'm talking 150 years plus). I asked Shirley MacLaine to stop by to see if she lived in the house during one of her past lives. She hadn't, but she had visited once and used the privy outside. I obtained a Blue Plaque for it.

R22 has chancres all over his ass.

He should replaced his toilet seats. Now he has terminal syph.

Bye, r22. No one wants your chancre-y stuff, I’m sure!

R36 See, now this is perfectly sensible.

Didn't rekey the locks in my condo but replaced the toilet. Actually, gutted the entire condo and replaced everything. Still stinks though.

I asked my landlord to have a deadbolt installed and he complied. I like having the deadbolt.

When I first moved into my place (rental), there was a bunch of wires that I reorganized. I also plugged all computer-related stuff into one power strip. When I left for work in the morning, I would turn off the power strip.

My next-door neighbor said, hey, I was in a Wi-Fi sharing situation with the previous renter. I was meaning to tell you that we should split the cable bill, blah blah blah. I said never mind, I'll pay my own bill. (When I turned off the power switch, I cut his line on the Wi-Fi.)

[quote] My next-door neighbor said, hey, I was in a Wi-Fi sharing situation with the previous renter.

Was her name Penny by any chance?

I should have replaced the toilet seat in the last place I lived because it was in terrible shape, but I never bothered and stayed there less than two years.

I never change the locks but I do have a security system.

I never retrieve my house keys from my pet sitters. Most of them seemed perfectly reliable, nothing to worry about. There was one psycho though who used to hide my personal belongings around the house when I was gone. A real nut.

We had one like that too, r42.

Her name was Marg-yoorite.

You toilet seat changers -- what do you do in hotels and motels?

As someone who works in security field, I’m delighted to hear so many people are so trusting of their keys and locks. That kind of naïveté keeps me employed. It’s the equivalent of having all your digital and personal passwords floating around out there compromised and not changing them.

Toilet seats can be sanitised on the other hand.

Isn't it routine for a super to change the locks when someone new moves in?

I rekey the locks even when I'm just looky-looing.

And you should see the toilet seats I leave behind!

It's not so much the ongoing germ issue, but when it comes to a toilet seat, I want one that is new. Would you buy a used toilet seat? You buy a new one when you move in. In a hotel or in public you wither don't worry about it or maybe you line it with TP before you squat down on it... but either way, it's not yours. The toilet in your house is yours... just get a new seat.

wither = either -- sorry.

" .. line it with TP ... " -- you can buy what we called at my job "ass gaskets" for home use off the internet.

Are you guys eating off the toilet seat or just sitting on it with your own ass?

Come on R51 it’s your new home! Don’t you want you nice shiny néw white toilet seat?!

I believe you are able to produce better, more soul-satisfying BMs on new toilet seat. It's a good thing.

As someone who installs new toilet seats when I move, let me clarify that I'm not changing them because I think they're not clean, it's because they are usually cracked or worn and their hardware corroded. And yes, I always rekey the locks. And change the air filters in the a/c, and the water filter on the ice maker, and wash the exhaust fan's filter, and and and....