We're moving at the end of the month

I think of it more as changing apartments, since we're staying in the same building, but I guess it is actually moving since although we're only going 30 meters up the street we will be hiring - and paying - movers (because yes, we have that much stuff and you can be sure I won't be lifting any of it at almost 26 weeks pregnant). We will also be hiring - and paying - cleaners. When it comes to cleanliness standards at apartment-handover time the Swiss live up to the obsessive neatness and order stereotype; only the brave undertake cleaning themselves; only the optimistic hire cleaners who do not insure (yes, insure, as in financial insurance) that any apartment they clean will pass inspection.

Now I've never actually done this before, but I've heard stories. We left the house in Small Village nice and clean but since R's brother was the one moving into it we did not clean the electric outlets with a Q-Tip. Yes, that's one story I've heard. Cleaning every slat of every blind and shutter goes without saying. (Have I mentioned our windows go floor to ceiling in every room?) Decalcing the inside of the toilet water tank is expected (remind me to write a post about the calc in the water), though I know one woman who managed to worm her way out of that one somehow. I know people who were told they needed to take the windows out of the frames, clean all the glass, and clean the slots into which the windows fit. A friend of mine fought for six months to get their full deposit back over one cracked tile in the bathroom. Maybe they're all horror stories, maybe my friends just have really bad luck, maybe rental companies try to screw the foreigners (you think?),but I'm extremely curious as to just how exacting our move-out inspection is going to be. And I'm vaguely excited at having something so. very. Swiss. to blog about.

Oh, and why exactly are we going to all this trouble just to move 30 meters up the street? Because we have finally gotten into one of the long coveted garden units with five rooms!