I have 2 back to back sits in the LA area, because I need to be here for personal reasons. The HO is a single father and teen daughter. So not super clean. Two dogs, sweeping and vacuming is not the issue. I don’t mind doing a clean on the bathroom – which is what the daughter uses, but it is full of stuff. There are boxes of fake eyelashes kind of stuff. I texted him that I was going to move her toiletries so I could clean, so I am going to just put them outside her room and put some back before I leave. But the bathroom has not seen a good scrub and wipe down for a little while. Not disgusting – well maybe the bath mats – which I just threw in the laundry. This is my 4th sit, first time where it wasn’t clean. Not horrible, so I need to leave, but not clean. What is your experience that you needed to clean upon arrival. He did say he didn’t expect me to clean before I leave, which is cool. I figure if I do a deep clean in the bathroom now, it will be cleaner than when I leave in 12 days.
@Huronbase
This is what Ive done and my suggestion.
Since you plan to complete the sit,
Clean and move things to make yourself comfortable to stay there.
Before you leave, pickup after yourself as you think is appropriate.
You can make mention of it , accurately, in the review if you think you would like to have known the home wasn’t as clean as you would like.
If we have to do a “deep” clean of the house and areas that we will be occupying…we probably would do the clean, but definitely mention it in the review. If it is in need of a “deep” clean than 4 stars for cleanliness. If it is just light cleaning needed, ie, pet hair random places, counters aren’t sparkling clean, mild dust in places, etc…then wouldn’t deduct a star.
We have had over 30 sits and probably 3 of them required a ‘deep’ cleaning just for us to be comfortable. Don’t think this is the norm as most HO should leave a home where you don’t have to clean when you get there!
Are the other areas of the home clean and it is just the bathroom? If so, than chalk that up to sitting for a family with a teenage kid, especially if you know ahead of time that you will be staying where the children do.
We typically don’t house sit for families with children if we know that we will be getting the kids’ rooms.
Some people just are not aware of the mess around them. I agree with ExploreDreamDiscover - use the review to be honest. Maybe the HO would appreciate the input.
I’ve had to clean a couple times at the start of a sit, its annoying, but I personally prefer a clean space to live in. I still clean before I leave because that’s good manners and I’d do that anyway if it was my own home. Maybe if we saw it as little acts of kindness or random acts of kindness, cleaning wouldn’t seem so bad… but, I do understand, it is really annoying that people dont feel a guest is worth cleaning up for.
Probably my idea of deep clean, may be different. Could I use it? Yes, but not comfortably. And my kid is coming for 1 week. And I wouldn’t let my kid use it in this condition. He is letting me stay in the master so my daughter is staying in the guest room. I am not using the master suite, I figure we will both use the one bathroom. The bath mats were disgusting, in my opinion. I washed those. Deep cleaning like stains in the bathtub, no. But it hasn’t been cleaned thoroughly for a while, yes. I am not busy. I can clean. And as I said, once I clean it, it will be cleaner when I leave than when I came. I think the daughter will think I just cleaned it. I will swiffer the floors and that is good enough. The place is not disgustingly dirty. Just not clean in the way my other sits were.
I would use the «clean as I found it» - if I would do a thourough clean at arrival it would be «better than I found it» with just for instance mopping the floors when I leave. I think I would make sure I had a comfortable stay and leave it at that. Agree with the star dinging mentioned over. Some pet hairs in the couch can be unavailable, for instance.
@Huronbase
We wouldn’t do any deep cleaning if the HO didn’t bother, we are there as housesitters not house cleaners. We would just alter our living style, eat out more, takeaways etc if we didn’t fancy using the oven for example.
Spend more time outside is another option.
Just clean what you feel you need to, everyone will have differing standards of tolerance.
As others already mentioned:
I would clean it now and at the end of the sit just do a swipe/ the basic things.
As you already mentioned:
It would be cleaner at the end than at the start.
So perfect.
Thanks for the support. Doing sits in people’s homes where they do things differently than you do is sometimes awkward. I washed the bath mats, which were bad, but one was already fraying along the edge. Now, really frayed, but looks good, just put frayed part under.
Almost all our sits were long term (2-3 months) and usually HOs are having the cleaners before our arrival. On a couple of occasions the house was nicely clean but the fridge was gross and full of moldy food. Or dirty oven/ washing machine.
It’s always a disappointment and of course, not a sitter job to clean but we can sort it out, especially when we are staying for a few months there.
Only once we actually requested the cleaner when we arrived - the house was close to the beach in a very hot country, multiple dogs. The owner warned us before confirming about lots of dust/sand in the house coming from the beach, also we knew it’s not fancy and the living room is a bit cluttered. But when we arrived, it looked like the owner didn’t hoover and mop for ages and the kitchen was full of the little black bugs, dead and alive. They kept their two old, little dogs in the house and the floor was covered in old stains, and it wasn’t just from the food! I know everyone has a different definition of cleanliness or are not aware of the mess around them like @Nojam said but that was just on the different level! The HO wasn’t happy at all but they got someone to come and clean for 3 hours before they left. But what can you clean in 3 hours when the house needs a proper deep scrub? It ended up with with the young lady from the village (not a professional cleaner) cleaning the bathroom and the living room while we sorted out the kitchen. It took us actually a few days, dealing with bugs in the kitchen needs some work. In this kind of conditions you just need to be careful, if you leave some crumbs it will attract the bugs in a few minutes. Fortunately the HO took the small dogs with her and the bigger ones stayed in the garden, we only had two easy cats in the house. It wasn’t a big deal to keep the cleanliness there after all, regular hoovering and mopping did the magic! It was the first time HO on TH and she apologised later for the conditions in the house & asked for advice for the future. I can see she had a couple of sitters since and they all left good reviews. Overall, it was eye - opening experience and not in a bad way, we had a good time.
@Huronbase I’d do exactly what others said, if you decided to stay - clean to feel comfortable/what you feel you need to but also leave accurate review.
@Huronbase We would do an immediate blitz of all the areas of the house we want to use. I’d rather invest a couple of hours of deep cleaning (maybe with a bit of teeth nashing involved!
) than do nothing -on principle -and feel uncomfortable the whole time & choose to eat out like @Hallt64
That’s not our way of living. But each to their own! We are home bods and prefer cooking at home.
When leaving- the house is likely to be still cleaner than on our arrival so I’d do the barest minimum. Quick vacuum, wipe surfaces etc. Hosts like that will likely not notice anyway!
Occasionally I clean some windows on a sit. And if so I do it at the beginning of the sit. The hubby always says why not do it at the end in the final clean up? And I always tell him I’m doing it now! For our enjoyment during the sit! And for the hosts enjoyment on their return (if they even notice!!
)
I found cleaning stuff and I had brought my own gloves. But the tub need a brush, you know around the edges. Looked everywhere. Nothing. No wonder it needed it along the edges. I found a free toothbrush in my toiletries. Something from a hotel , that I kept as a back up or use on overnight flights. That is what I had to use. But done. Good enough.
now you can reap your own rewards 
