What do the following five intriguing items have in common?

• A cardboard box full of ashes

• A collection of Voodoo dolls full of pins

• A clean chicken carcass under a pile of magazines

• A jewellery box full of ladies fingernails

• An elephant’s foot

You’ll be pleased to know they aren’t the findings relating to the title of this blog post.

These bizarre items are identified by domestic cleaners as their weirdest finds.

Thankfully, business premises are a lot less creepy.

But still, did you know insufficient cleaning is the number one reason for a landlord withholding your deposit when you move on from a business premises?

Who wants to throw that money down the drain? And regardless of the actual cold hard cash, who wants a reputation for a load of mess at the end of a tenancy?

That’s where our dilapidation service comes in.

We go much further than simply deep cleaning a building, we can also get stuff fixed and redecorated where needed.

Maybe you need some property repairs, fixtures and fittings back as how they were, a refit of furniture or electrical works.

Our expert, trusted, minimum-fuss help can prove invaluable.

But believe us when we say, it’s still the cleaning aspect that is the most unforgettable, sometimes making us shudder just a little.

Here are five things we often discover –and some advice about how to safely clear them up before we set foot on a no longer used workspace.

Food

Please avoid this by making sure you give your fridge and kitchen cupboards a final check before you go. Then there’s the desk drawers where colleagues gave shoved forgotten lunch debris and by now, rotten fruit. Just ew. Please take your rubbish with you.

Clothes

Long forgotten coats and jumpers are found on hooks and in cupboards – they could easily be recycled or taken home before we’re on the scene.

Chargers

If we had a pound for every charger left behind, we’d have a lot of pounds. How annoying is it when you just can’t remember where one is? Clue: You might have left it in the office – the one that you have left for good. Make sure you have a good check *everywhere* before you go.

Office equipment

More bulky items such as redundant printers, fax machines and PCs may often be abandoned. You can contact your local council to get them picked up or enquire about recycling schemes. Is there a charity that could make use of them or someone  starting out? Maybe you could sell it? One thing’s for sure, if you leave it behind and we have to deal with it, then that’s going to add to our workload. You may want to think about this when you’re allocating budget to your move

Furniture

There’s so much that can be done with old furniture, just because it has ended its life with you doesn’t mean you have to give up on it. Lots of very successful companies deal in second-hand office furniture these days, not to mention all the wonderfully creative people turning unwanted tables, chairs and desks into works of art.

Money

Yes, lots of it is left behind. We gather it together and ask what the owner wants to do with it. Cash has been found in drawers, under carpets and behind radiators. We’re not talking about whopping sums that could get us to Rio – but believe us, there’s plenty of it, look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves, that’s what we say.

Of course these things by themselves aren’t the sort of mess that is going to traumatise a team like ours – not compared to an elephant’s foot or box of fingernails. That would be a talking point for years! Add a toilet in a dreadful state, outside areas full of rubbish or a an occasional random horror like those left behind when people move home and we can still make things right. We get on with it and sort it – bringing you peace of mind.

You can rest easy that your move goes smoothly with the right amount of planning and confidence your next premises will be a perfect fit – unlike any random clothing left behind.