At long last

After 12 years of living in this house and 'getting ready' to move out of this house, it's finally happening.  We put it on the market last weekend. No bites yet, but I'm staying hopeful. It was amazing that after all of this time, it came together so quickly at the end. We couldn't have pulled it together without the help of friends and family. Really. So thank you, all of you.  I'm already frustrated in looking for our 'dream home'. You know when you picture your 'forever' house in your head...how it will look to live your daily lives in it? Where you will store your precious belongings? Well, I'm not encouraged by what I see yet.  I'm hopeful though.

So, in order to sell this home, I need to keep it clean right? Well, you all now I fight that battle daily. I'm not the neatest person in the world.  I have found what is working for me *for now* though. I can honestly say that most of the time, I can be out of the house for a showing in 30  minutes.  It may require me throwing some things in the back of my car, but I can pull it off. How am I doing it?? Read on...

By far, the  most helpful thing I have done is box up our clutter. We are paying for a storage unit to hold all of our crap. Literally. I have only gone to reach for things in it MAYBE 2 times since it has been boxed up. It's pretty much telling me that I can go through those boxes once again and get rid of a ton of stuff out of them. Everybody in the house has comment on how easy it is to keep the house clean. It is SO freeing.

The next thing I have done is create a schedule for cleaning. Every night, both sides of the sink will be emptied. I will get out of bed the next morning to NO dishes to clean or put away. It sure gets you up in a good mood when you see that clean sink! Next, right after dinner (which has been happening at dusk lately), we ALL get up and clean up the house for 20 minutes or so. Pick up shoes, straighten couch cushions,  check laundry, clean up in the kitchen, spot check all of the bedrooms, clean off 'cluttery' surfaces (dining room table and my desk being the 2 main ones).

I also made a daily list of things that need to be done. We focus on one room a day. This has been a huge help because if I see that my dresser is dusty and it's not a Saturday, I walk by it without a second glance. I don't get stressed because every surface is not dusted, every baseboard not cleaned.  That dresser will get dusted on Saturday and that is that. What I did was walk from room to room in my head and note what needed to be done on weekly basis:
Bathrooms: bleach shower, clean toilet, wipe down baseboards, shine knobs, etc. Each job has a line item that I can scratch off. I highlight the things Raelee can do. I do the rest and when Todd is home, he will get a highlighter color and I'll ask him to complete some of the tasks for me. I'm finding that in a very messy room, it takes me about 30 minutes to do everything. Not too bad! Now I still have things like clean floors daily, make sure kitchen is cleaned up at bedtime. Those are all line items also...love scratching them off as I get things done!

I hope to carry some of these habits with us when we move. I keep hoping our space is better utilized in the next house but now I'm not so sure it will be. *sigh*  Wish us luck!!