Ever have one of those assignments that you just dread starting?
One where your heart isn’t into it?
Where you say, “Meh” every time you think of it? Urban Dictionary hits the dirty nail on a landlord’s head with their (my) perception of some past renters.
Dirty is a word that makes me wanna say, “Meh”. I shudder to think back to what we’ve been through over the years. I’m amazed that people can or choose to live in such conditions.
It brings back so many nasty memories of our past renters who have left us with discarded treasures and messes beyond comprehension. The ones that stick (literally) on the walls, floors and every crevice in between stand out to me.
Our most recent one resulted in an eviction last summer. We were shocked that in 3 short months, with absolutely no care or cleaning extended, an unwanted renter can trash a place pretty darn fast. If only the stained-glass windows could talk.
Alright, since you’re now really interested in hearing more. What the heck, I’m in a full on dirty mode, so I’ll list highlights that stick out.
- Multiple piles of garbage in corners of the kitchen placed there long enough to grow mold and the bags to stick to the walls.
- Ghosting on the walls from candles.
- Ovens and stovetops beyond recognition.
- Ferret urine and feces in every corner of every room.
- Cat urine and feces in every corner of every room; or combinations of both.
- Rabbit urine and feces in every floor duct and corner of every room.
- Flooring that sticks as you walk across it – creating a new brownish color over off-white tiles or carpeting no longer recognizable as such.
- Paint on the walls without permission – fluorescent blue and vibrant bright pink.
- Dust so thick you can measure it with a yard-stick.
- Toilet rings surrounded by fruit flies who also congregated in the kitchen and every other room in the house.
- Mold in the shower so thick the whole tub surround had to be replaced.
- Lawn-size garbage bag full of empty little liquor bottles sitting right next to the children’s toys on a deck.
- A dead bird under a refrigerator.
- A couple of dead mice under cabinets and refrigerators.
- Sandwiches and other food dehydrated under stoves, kid’s toys alongside them.
- Bugs…of all kinds…so many creepy crawly bugs.
- Discarded rotisserie chicken parts creating odors that did not smell at all like roses.
- Baby formula spattered on every wall along with baby handprints on every surface.
- Candle wax spills on the walls and carpet.
- Dog paw marks and scratches on inside and outside of doors and frames.
- Pine needles in crevices everywhere.
- Spider webs as big as the scenes in The Monsters hanging directly over where the beds were placed.
- Dark films on windows.
- An occasional plant.
Wait…a live plant, that’s was a good thing, whew!
I was seriously getting depressed thinking about all the dirty situations we’ve dealt with. But, this plant has brought me back to reality.
There is hope. There are clean renters out there. We’ve been blessed with many along the way. Sure, the dirty ones stand out, because of all the work involved to restore places. We always leave each place smelling as clean as a fresh-cut rose, and every window sparkles all ready for someone new to live there. We cross our fingers that they’ll be clean and tidy.
The renter who left this plant (on the right) behind had also left us the gift of the place in excellent condition and requiring us very little maintenance to re-rent. Renters like that restore our faith in the cleanliness of humanity.
Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s #JusJoJan – Dirty (prompt thanks to Jim); and Frank over at Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photography Challenge – Rose, I’m guessing he’ll be considerably impressed with my take this week?!
PS – Was I right, we know the meaning of dirty? How about you, can you imagine living in such conditions? Oy.
Great post 😁
Thank you!
No problem 🙂 check out my blog when you get the chance 😁
This would have also worked for ‘eeeew’ ‘ick’ and portions would have worked for ‘yikes!’
LOL – yes, that’s true, I didn’t even include all the ‘bad’ words spoken along the way either. 😉
That’s three months of destruction?? Geez…
LOL – no that’s a mixture of past finds.
Oh, OK. I mean, that was a whole lot of destruction…
Holy cow! How can people live like that? AND let their children live in that? OMG. No excuse whatsoever. Except pure laziness. Gross.
It is hard to comprehend, that’s for sure!
OK, I’m admittedly a bit of a clean freak, but GEEZ. My skin is crawling looking at some of that. I can’t imagine how anyone lives like that, and the smell of a dead bird? Or animal poop? YIKES. One of my old bosses was a landlord and he described someone disassembling a motorcycle on the living room rug in one of his places. Awful, but at least it wasn’t a carcass. You must have a stronger stomach than I. But I enjoy the post for some reason. 😂
LOL – we haven’t had a motorcycle disassembled before, that’s a new one. We have had someone pass away, that wasn’t pleasant. Glad you enjoyed my take on finding the silver lining in the adventures!
I totally sympathize with you. I rented my first and last time at the same time. What a nightmare. I even took them to court where the judge stated you cant convict people for the filth they leave behind, even when I proved this couple had a history of destroying rental property. Nightmare. So very sorry. You have a braver and stronger resolve than I do. I wish you the best in finding a good renter and yes they are out there as you and I were both renters at one time.
Thank you for the support – I guess after such a long time, we’re no longer surprised by what we find. I’m knocking on wood as I type that though!
Thank you for this post. Shelley, I have thought long and hard about making this kind of investment. I have been afraid because of the very things you have shown us.
You’re welcome. There are many moments where everything goes well for a very long time, and then this kind of stuff happens, or pipes freeze, or the toilet stops working, or an appliance conks out and those moments are usually in the middle of the night or holidays. We’ve gotten used to all of those things, but it has taken years to do so.
I imagine it has taken quite a bit of patience.
And a lot of learning – we do almost all of the work ourselves. Or I should say, Mr. does. When it comes to the cleaning, though, we both take on the task. Ferrets are the enemy…never again will they be allowed.
My parents had three rent houses as a 2nd source of income. Unfortunately I have seen that and worse first hand. Mom, dad and us kids would be the cleaning crew after a move out or sometimes a sneak out in arrears. I shudder from the memories. And to answer your question, no I cannot imagine living like that.
You know what I’m talking about, that’s for sure! We’ve had that too. It is hard to comprehend, yet it still happens.
Like J-Dub, my parents had rental properties that were not treated with the care you’d hope for. I don’t remember the messiness as much as I remember things being stolen from the apartments. Things like light fixtures and door hardware and faucets. I don’t know what goes through some renters’ minds that they can live like they do.
Wow – we’ve been fortunate that things haven’t been stolen, but we tend to buy budget retro looking stuff, so that there isn’t the temptation to steal it. I often wonder the same thing – what is going on in some of their minds?
I have no words – how in the world … what in the world?
I can top your landlord nightmares (not that I want to, believe me). My parents were landlords (as is my sister and brother) Me? I’d rather stick needles in my eyes than be a landlord.
Anyway, here’s the topper: one of my parents tenants, nice family……..however, their teenage son hung himself in his bedroom.
I rest my case.
Yikes, that is really bad. We did have a tenant pass away, three days before discovery, and that’s when the ferrets and cats left so many extra treasures for us. Landlording isn’t for sissies.
Ok. You beat me. 3 days? How sad.
I grew up with my parents as landlords over 5 apartments. Awful stories. My sister has 4 tenants. She’s always on the phone with them. One tenant reported her to Department of Housing. She got hit with $30,000 preposterous un-needed repairs. No thanks.
Kudos to you.
Yeah, it was sad. There are many horror stories, thankfully, for the most part, we’ve been lucky with great tenants. We’ve never been reported like your sister (knock on wood!). That’s a shut-down operations kind of fee! Yowsers!
The tenant who did that to my sister was a tenant for 14 years! My sister NEVER raised the rent. Can you imagine? But when she finally did, the woman reported her to the DoH. Amazing. My sister did the repairs but the woman still refused to pay the increase. My sister had her evicted. It was a nightmare.
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like fun at all. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that something like that doesn’t happen to us!
Ugh! I should note that most of the households in my neighbourhood are Indian, as is my wife. Indian cooking does not lend itself to the sort of “sealed box”, that is the typical North Eastern American home. Overtime, curries and spices become infused to the walls. This makes selling the homes challenging unless your next buyer is also Indian.
Oh, my, I bet that does make it hard to clean. Thank you for sharing – we have yet to encounter that, most of our cooking clean-ups are due to frozen pizzas melting and burning on the stoves. Ewe.