dust and go

One of the most frustrating things about selling your house is that you have to be ready to show it at a moment's notice. At exactly noon today, my husband texted me that he had received a call requesting a showing today between 4:45 - 5:45. This is my first week back at work, so I wasn't home to do the requisite before-showing cleaning and had to hurry to the house during my lunch break to perform a little dust-and-go. Thank goodness I decided to check in on the place (side note: Alex was the last to leave the house this morning) because the state in which I found the house was less than ideal.

Nevermind the gym bag and flip-flops sitting by the front door, this is exactly what Alex's closet looked like when I walked into the bedroom. The main complaint we hear about our house is that "it's too small," so showcasing that fact with a closet spewing forth its contents wouldn't be a great idea. And what's with all the cords piled up on the corner of the desk?

In our "small" kitchen, we don't really have room for a trashcan, so we're in the habit of loading up plastic bags by the windowsill that we take out two or three times a day. It's sort of an unwritten rule that the last person to leave the house in the morning takes the garbage out. On second thought, it's an actual rule that when my husband is home, he's in charge of the trash (it's "man's" work). Yes, those are dirty diapers poking out of the bag that didn't quite make it out of the house this morning. But the lucky bamboo in the background is a nice touch, don't you think?

This is just an example of a pile of clutter left lying on the washing machine, which happens to be crammed into our small kitchen. No one wants to see your unorganized stack of mail.

Toilet seat up--need I say more? Oh, that is toilet paper that you see in the bowl. I actually emptied the trash before I took this picture, but the overflow would have told a nice story.

Did I mention earlier that one of the most frustrating things about selling your house is that it needs to be "show ready" at any given moment? I forgot to add that it's also frustrating to go through the trouble of preparing your house for a showing only to find out the prospective buyers are a no-show, because that's exactly what happened today. While it's nice to have the house clutter-free for a day or two, it's also hard work to retrace my hurried steps and remember where I hid my husband's media guide that he needs for the football game he's working this weekend. Which reminds me, I need to go track that down for him...