Clearing Military Housing | PCS Time Take 2 | My Hot Mess

The movers came.

The movers packed.

The movers loaded the truck.

And the movers left.

Now what do we do? We still have 4 days to stay in the home and figure out how to keep the kids busy, get the home to military housing cleaning standards, care for an old ass dog that is sneezing blood everywhere, and oh, yeah - say goodbye to everyone.

First things first - I put the kids to work. I made them scrub the walls. Yep. I'm that mom. I was next to them the entire time telling them to go over the spots again. Surprisingly - they both did a great job.

I also got super lucky to have awesome neighbors who let the boys hang out at their place while the packers and loaders were here. So they pretty much were out of my hair for the majority of the packing portion. I may have bribed them a tad to clean properly, but hey - it got done.

The tablets also came in handy. I loath the electronics. I really do. Especially the tantrums that follow electronic time because they're "not ready" or "just one more minute mom?" I hate the tablets but the tablets helped out mom and dad in ensuring the kids were out of the way and we were able to clean the rest of the home.

Keeping the kiddos busy was the hard part. So we broke down the cleaning into a few days so that we cleaned in the morning and the afternoons were saved for fun stuff to do.

We went to our fair share of movies.

Had FroYo a little too much

Enjoyed the many splash pads.

When inspection came, we were nervous. We had spent 2-3 days (off and on) scrubbing that home. But there were things we weren't sure if we were going to get away with. For instance the hole in the rug that was there before we got there (and annotated on our move in slip), but had heard numerous horror stories about having to pay a fortune on things that weren't our fault.

We lucked out. The woman said that new flooring was being put in so we didn't have to pay the carpet cleaning and we had done such a good job cleaning, we didn't have to pay a cleaning fee. SCORE!!! That's $300+ we have extra in our pockets now!

What did we clean to ensure no fees?

• used the vacuum attachment to suck up all the dust on the baseboards (I know, gross. But that's not something I did on a regular basis) 

• scrubbed the walls -- we used magic erasers (but those fell apart real quick) and the yellow and green sponges with water and soap. We scrubbed the walls and baseboards. Like on our hands and knees scrubbing.

• wiped the top of the doors down 

• cleaned the doors and the crevices of the doors 

• swept/vacuumed the floors like 5 million times 

• mopped the floors with Pinesole (if it's one thing the Army taught me, it's as long as it smalls clean - it's clean) 

• scrubbed the stove and used the self cleaning option 3 times to ensure an easy wipe down of the oven 

• bleached and scrubbed the fridge (inside and outside). I didn't even know the fridge came apart in so many pieces until my husband started pulling pieces out. I was in awe. I really don't see a need to step up my fridge scrubbing skills with him around. 

• wiped/magic eraser down the window sills 

• power washed the porch and the garage - not to mention the front stoop 

• paid a teen to mow and weed-eat the backyard (and pick up dog poop) 

• cleaned the windows - figured out that the windows are an easy open to clean both inside and outside quickly. Again, didn't know that until husband showed me. Why isn't he doing more of the cleaning in the home on a regular basis?? lol 

• vacuumed and wiped down the ceiling fans 

• vacuumed the inside of all the drawers in kitchen and bathrooms 

• bleached the shit out of the toilets and showers 

• wiped down all counters (bathroom and kitchen) 

• crossed out fingers that we did everything that would be inspected.

Again, we got lucky with the carpets. Since it was the original carpeting (BARF) it was time for it to be ripped out and replaced. So, you're welcome newcomers.

We also moved at a good time since military housing has been in the news as of late. The whole "they expect us to keep the homes in mint condition and then charge us for things they should be doing for upkeep" bullshit. We moved at a great time - to say the least.

Hopefully, with all the backlash the military housing has been getting from media and now, the government - moving will continue to be easier for military families who are forced to move so often.

I also hope this post gives a little insight and what you should clean for an easy move out inspection and how to keep the kiddos busy!

Till next time,