Departing ALT's and cleaning your APT.

[Joanna_IshikawaPA]

I'd like to emphasize that you should get rid of any recycling, metal garbage, large garbage or anything you can't put out once or twice a week on your town's regular schedule.

My apartment seemed like it was okay when I arrived, but the two closets and the whole balcony were full of useless junk that it took me almost a year to dispose of. Some of it was garbage in the sense that it was broken/rusted/useless, but a lot of it was just stuff that I definitely would've requested my pred throw away if he'd ever bothered to contact me (I really didn't need a broken lawn chair, a broken water gun, some wooden Chinese trunk, a garbage bag of baby clothes and a broken fan, for example). A lot of the surfaces of the house were dusty or sticky upon closer inspection, so be sure to give everything a once-over!

[histgirl]

I had a beautifully clean apartment... so clean in fact it had NOTHING in it. The ALTs in my town however were awesome and pitched in to buy me a few basics.

Absolute Basics You Want to Have in Your New Home After an Exhausting Journey

- toilet paper
- towel
- futon/bed... something to sleep on other than tatami


Beyond the Basics
- eating utensils, plates, cups
- snacks, dry food, ice cream
- drinks, alcoholic or other
- laundry detergent, dish soap, cleaning supplies
- paper towels
- hangers
- fan (since it's august)

[totty137]

I have to agree with the getting rid of useless junk. My apartment was pretty clean when I came, but it was quite cluttered. There was TONS of things placed in the bookshelf and the 2 closets. As a newly arrived JET I had no desire to try and go through all that and try and figure out what type of garbage it is.

But during spring break, my husband and I went through and got rid of all the useless stuff and organized all the rest. There is still a lot of stuff that I am never going to use (a sewing machine, about 100 books, paint supplies, etc) but we organized it in the closet to be out of the way and available if the next ALT is interested in sewing or painting.

My BOE was pretty adamant about making me go to the grocery store when I first arrived, and there made sure to provide me with a fresh pillow case and some towels. But anything left over from your pred is nice as long as it isn't old stuff. Try and go through the clutter and minimize is my advice. Your successor will appreciate some paper towels and some generic all purpose cleaner but not an entire cabinet filled with all the various types of cleaning supplies you could ever need.

Also a great thing to keep in mind is to find out how much Japanese your successor speaks. Having a small written guide for how to work my air con with a drawn diagram of the remote and where the buttons where was AMAZING. As well as the little guides for the buttons on the oven and washer I inherited.

[jerseywonder]

My apartment seemed relatively clean when I first arrived, but on closer inspection I realised it was very dusty and cluttered - the cupboards were filled with lots of junk dating back for several years ... I found a family photo of my pred's pred's pred stuffed at the back! Haha I couldn't believe that two subsequent ALTs had lived there and apparently not gone through what had been left behind. The first thing I did was have a massive sort out and clean everything from top to bottom ... I'm lucky enough to have a big garage so I just put all the junk I didn't want into boxes and stored it in there. I love my apartment now; it looks totally different and I know exactly what I have in it.

Gross as some of the stuff I found was (a straw hat crawling with little flea-like insects, for example!), I actually found it fun going through everything and deciding what was useful and what needed to be chucked. I think I'd rather move in somewhere and have things to sort through than arrive and have nothing and need to buy everything from scratch. However, I would have appreciated it if my predecessor had chucked some of the totally useless crap before I arrived - like a broken clothes horse, a lamp that didn't work, broken photo frames etc. ... surely it must have been obvious that no one would want to inherit this!

And yeah, bedding - make sure you at least leave some clean bedding and a futon for your successor! I didn't actually have a futon in my apartment for the first week and my supervisor didn't help me, so I ended up sleeping on a musty pile of blankets until I could get to the shops that weekend! This memory makes me laugh now but it was a bit depressing at the time.

[scarreddragon]

I think I got pretty lucky in that a) my BOE cleaned the apartment before I moved in, and b) not only did my pred leave some useful things, the BOE got me a new futon and some basics as well.

However, last year my bf and I decided to move into a house together, and my apartment became the home of an incoming ALT since it was the cleanest. I had left him a lot of stuff like shelves, cleaning supplies, and kitchen utensils that were doubles from what me and the bf had, but when the BOE went into the apartment, they threw all that away and he had to buy a lot of it new. So now I tell everyone that if they know their BOE cleans the apartment, if you can, leave any stuff you want your successor to have with someone else, otherwise your BOE might throw it away!

(In their defense, maybe they thought it was junk or old or something, but I thought a lot of the kitchen stuff especially would have been handy, and I know he ended up re-buying a lot of stuff that I had initially told him was in there. If I had known I would have kept those things with me and given it to him directly!)

[temoshi]

Now that I read some other people's comments, I remember that my apartment wasn't actually all that clean. I mean, my predecessor at least attempted to clean up. But there were still tons of things that I threw away, like rusty kitchen utensils and some gross bedding that had been there for who knows how many years. When you have someone coming to replace you, I think it's only decent to try to help them be comfortable. As I said, household items are generally useful and you can leave it up to them to keep or throw out, but make sure it's something actually usable. Also, things like towels, toilet paper, etc. are definitely good to leave behind (especially for someone who doesn't yet know where to buy anything).

[patorioto]

I think it's reasonable to expect that anything the pred has purchased on their own and the successor did not agree to buy should be gone. Definitely should be given a thorough cleaning especially the bathroom (mold is such a problem) and kitchen need to be given a severe cleaning.

My situation (which I don't think is all that uncommon unfortunately) was coming into an old quite dirty and disgusting apartment. Most JETs in my town had stayed one year and done (except one guy) and coupled with a BOE who obviously didn't give a crap about the place, it got into BAD shape. I threw out tons of old moldy, musty stuff and it was still in bad condition. The worst was the kitchen area, which probably hadn't been cleaned in 15 years.

Basically I did what I felt was reasonable in the situation (I can't be responsible for paying to throw out the bigger furniture, even though I did pay to have some stuff taken away). The BOE got a new supervisor and they finally came over to see and realized how bad they had let it go. So they got a big group of obasans to come in and just tear through the place. I dunno how my successor feels about it (I hope he doesn't think I was a slob) but I did my best. I think some in my situation just get the "it's beyond repair" mentality though. ESID right..

[thanh]

It is sad that we can't expect to inherit a clean living space due to irresponsible preds.

I was so thankful my predecessor and base school cleaned up the place before I came. I only really needed to dusk/scrub the minor things. This year I'm changing base schools and apartments, and I will probably leave the place even cleaner than when I first arrived.

Tip: Don't know what to do with some of your junk or recycling days aren't convenient? Ask the school where their recycling area is, and on a free afternoon, bring the items there. They should already have bins or some kind of separated area for you to organize stuff you want to throw away. Don't have a car? Ask someone for help.

I think the school would be glad to know that you're doing your best to keep the place clean, and would direct you to the right place if you express some strong desire to clean and recycle.

Taking care of your junk and leaving a place clean before you depart is part of being an adult. If an adult can't even do something like that, then you shouldn't be living without your mother or a maid in the first place.

[word]

Hindsight is 20/20; if you find yourself in a situation where you've put off cleaning for far too long, please please please please don't just leave it. Someone's gonna have to deal with it, and it is ridiculous of you to force someone else to go through the process of cleaning all that sh*t for you.

Got mounds of trash piled up? Figure out where the disposal centers are; don't wait for your inconvenient trash pick-up. There are disposal centers that can take burnable and non-burnable trash for a small fee; find them! Ask your coworkers/blockies/whatever.

Oh... and please try to be be honest with yourself. That coffee maker is a broken, mineral-encrusted piece of sh*t; nobody wants it, f*cking get rid of it. Nobody wants your moldy lesson plans. Nobody wants that mysterious bag of beans that's been under your kitchen sink since you arrived. Nobody wants an expired jar of vitamins.

Also... are you a hoarder? 'Cause at least two of my blockies were. Their homes required special help. If you need help, let someone know. Do not leave that sh*t. It has the potential to be seriously psychologically (not to mention physically) damaging to your successor.

[Industrious_Ant]

I think it took me a good 3 years to figure out just how accessible the garbage center was in our town.
In the beginning it seemed almost impossible to get rid of large garbage items (like broken furniture, old clothes, ect).
Thankfully, we figured out that we can cart all the random junk from our home, as well as overdue garbage and recycling bags, to the center for a very minimal fee. It's usually about 200 yen for the firs 50 kilos. Just today we carted over two broken floor chairs for 200 yen, and the apartment feels so much cleaner and roomier for it.

I definitely agree that having paper towels and some basic cleaners on hand for your successor would be helpful (along with a note on what each is used for). Something for kitchen/window surfaces and bathroom surfaces is essential. Tatami cleaner is a bonus gift.

We came to Japan and were greeted by an empty apartment...our preds had broken their contract, so we started from scratch. Even so, our apartment needed a wipe down, and then we had the job of furnishing it. The best part of furnishing an empty place is that all the stuff you get is clean and new, so in a way, it was blessing in disguise. Alternatively, I heard horror stories from our BOE ALT's who found out last minute what a disaster one of their fellow ALT's left their apartment...and all of them teamed up together and went over there the day before to clean it up for the new person.
Honestly, if you feel like cleaning your apartment is going to be a job that is too big for you to handle, be honest and get your friends together to help you do it. Many hands make light work

[HerrKaiser]

I totally agree with William MacDonald's post. Cleaning if done on a regular basis does not take a lot of your time, but the moment you start putting it off it takes forever.

Also, cleaning doesn't have to be something to dread. There are all sorts of ways to make it more enjoyable. The most obvious is that for any other new JETs like myself moving into a new place, take pride in your new home. If you genuinely care and put interest in your new place, cleaning it is going to be WAY easier. Turn it into a space that you are proud to bring friends over to. Nothing is worse than bringing people home to a dump, it's embarrassing to say the least.

While I am not encouraging leaving JETs to leave the place a dump, if that is your lot upon arrival, just remember how fortunate we are to even HAVE a place that is set-up for us to begin with (plus if it is a dump, chances are your pred left you a tonne of stuff that WILL be useful and save you money. Even if your pred is charging you some money, chances are you are getting it cheaper than if you were to go out and buy it all anyway. You are also being saved the time of having to run out and find everything yourself.)

Essentially, I am just trying to remind everyone to look on the bright side of things, there is always a silver lining (sometimes a GOLD one ) if you are willing to see it. It is a choice that is up to you!

I know it will be a long trip and a busy time, but I personally am looking forward to seeing everything my awesome pred has left me. And if he runs out of time to throw everything out and clean everything up, that's ok. I will deal with it and enjoy learning how to do things in Japan. Gotta figure it out sometime, may as well be right away.

[word]

Hooray, Captain Hindsight!



Yeah, cleaning is not that hard. If you failed to do it, though, knowing this fact is not gonna help you now.

Clean it. Do not leave a bunch of garbage for your successor.

[HerrKaiser]

I keep a change jar where I drop all my 1 and 5 yens. Inevitably I find these coins on my floor when I'm cleaning or in my pockets before I put clothes in the wash. If your predecessory was lousy at cleaning then keep an eye out for coins! There could literally be a silver lining to all that cleaning ... but chances are you'll just find enough for a couple of riceballs... but still, free food, right?

Yeah, I have heard that keeping a change jar is enormously important. It is SO easy to go through the 500yen coins (or so I have been told)

[Keshu]

Another thing worth attention.

If you are already paying monthly for maintenance (but you think they don't actually do anything...). Keep your place clean and in good condition. If the school needs to replace something when you leave (replacing tatami, big repairs...) they will take it from that. The rest? They give it back to you. A leaving JET just got 8man back (after 3 years of being here). Of course it doesn't work like this everywhere but you might be rewarded if you keep things in good condition. If not by money, by the next JET who'll probably be grateful.

I agree with asking the BOE or school (I'm a prefectural JET with a base school, never met the BOE people aside from Orientation and conferences... the schools take care of appartments here) if they throw things out or do repairs before you arrive. Sometimes, the previous JET leaves the day before you arrive; in some case the same day. They don't always have time to go check things out. Don't be afraid to tell them and take pictures to show them what you are talking about (but stay polite, no one wants the new ALT who will whine all the time). If things are in really bad conditions and will cost good money to fix, tell them.

If your pred sold you stuff, try to give him/her half the payment till after you see the place. It often happens that it's a way to sell stuff as well as leave all the old junk behind.

[Lianwen]

I keep a change jar where I drop all my 1 and 5 yens. Inevitably I find these coins on my floor when I'm cleaning or in my pockets before I put clothes in the wash. If your predecessory was lousy at cleaning then keep an eye out for coins! There could literally be a silver lining to all that cleaning ... but chances are you'll just find enough for a couple of riceballs... but still, free food, right?

Yeah, I have heard that keeping a change jar is enormously important. It is SO easy to go through the 500yen coins (or so I have been told)

The first few months I was here, 500yen coins seemed to pile up (my own) because it felt a lot easier to break a bill than to reach into my coin purse. I had about 3man worth at one point.

So, yeah. A little OT, but those coins will certainly add up over time.