Normally, these last two weeks in
October, at least until the day of Halloween, is a time when I get to take a
deep breath and relax before the insanity of the holiday season, which for me
starts on Halloween and ends January 2. Alas, not so this year.
I am not naturally organized. My
husband swears there is no such thing as an organization gene, but I disagree. I
put things down in random places, collect important papers in piles I mean to
sort through some day and place multiple craft supplies, writing utensils and
my computer out in the open within easy reach in case I get a yen to work with
any of them. I need at least one cache of disorganization somewhere in my house
to feel comfortable.
As of today, October 27, my house
has been on the market for 21 days. The problem with having your house for sale
is that it must stay in show-worthy condition. Open pockets of disorganization
are frowned upon by real estate agents. The sheer neatness is driving me crazy.
Every time someone looks at the
house, we are supposed to move the dog beds and carriers out of the house into
the garage in advance, on the theory that some people don’t like pets in the
house and if they see accoutrements relating to pets, they will decide not to
like the house. I’m thinking the big plastic bin of dog food in the kitchen
might be a dead give-away, regardless of the dog beds, but maybe not.
My daughter has the least
enviable job. When a showing is imminent, her job is to load all three dogs in
her car and drive around with them until the showing is over. It wouldn’t be such
a bad job except that our oldest dog, Daisy, tends to get car sick on twisty
backroads and my daughter loves driving on twisty backroads.
I try to remind myself of all the
the blessings to be thankful for while we go through this process—my husband
has a new job, we have a house to sell, my firm will work with me once we move
so I can continue to be employed by it, and we will buy a house in our new
location once this house sells. That helps, as does my constant reminder to
myself that I am selling a home, not a museum, so minor imperfections are okay.
Meanwhile, I’ll console myself for the state of uncommon organization in my
household with thoughts of the glorious chaos that will exist after we sell
this house and move into the next one. Three weeks into that process, I expect I’ll
look fondly back on this oasis of organization as a Golden Age.
The idea of trying to stay organized in my condo to sell the place drives me insane, and I'm not thinking about moving at all.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to you in your move. I'm sure you'll be happy to have it all behind you.
Thank you. I'll be happy to have it behind me too!
DeleteI've lived in my house since 1983 and can't even imagine moving! As for organization? Forget about it. I try to declutter and organize, take a moment to admire my handiwork, but by the next week, it's back where it started. If there's a gene, it skipped me for sure!
ReplyDeleteSee - empirical evidence that there IS an organization gene!
DeleteGood to know!
DeleteI'm laughing as my daughter's house went on the market yesterday - the pictures (42) make the house look great -- why, because they moved the clutter to the other side of the room when the pix were snapped or drove it to their new home and piled it in one room. The house has never looked so good. To keep it that way, they've moved into the new house, with their kids, on air mattresses for the next few days. Hopefully, it will sell by the end of the weekend, or they are going to be in your boat - driving the dog around, etc. Good luck with your move, Nancy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debra! We used the garage as a temporary staging area for a little while, but alas, it too had to be cleaned out the other weekend.
ReplyDeleteI have further proof there is an organization gene -- not in me, mind you, but in my partner, Jan. My line is that when I get up in the middle of the night to use the facilities, when I come back, my side of the bed is straightened.
ReplyDeleteIt only takes one buyer, but it does take one buyer. Hope yours shows up today.
Thanks Jim! My mother-in-law, who I loved dearly, had the organization gene in spades; she could find receipts for furniture she bought 30 years earlier in five minutes or less! Her brother always claimed he couldn't finish drying off with a towel before she was trying to whisk it off to be washed.
DeleteSounds like my office, too. I'm always trying to stay neatly organized, but it's a losing battle with so many projects. Wishing you a swift and profitable sale of your house. Where are you moving?
ReplyDeleteHuntsville, about 2 hours north.
Deletegood luck! My best house selling story: 8:55pm, three kids sound asleep, phone rings. Customer leaving town the next morning and had to see my house. And no, he wouldn't skip the bedrooms. I loaded three kids and the dog into my van and found a spot in the park across the street where I could keep an eye on things. Customer spent less than five minutes in the house. After that incident, I declined all showings after 7pm.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! I don't blame you; I'd decline them as well in that situation.
DeleteI remember when our house was for sale, my mom encouraged me to play with the dishes she planned to use for dinner that night so that I wouldn't get my toys out everywhere. Luckily, our house was only on the market for a week!
ReplyDeleteWe've had quick sales and not so quick sales. I definitely prefer the quick ones!
DeleteThis, too, shall pass.
ReplyDeleteTrying to organize things just makes me lose them. Maybe because I'm intent on the organization rather than the objects themselves.
Right now, I can tell you that my wallet is in the gym bag, the new jar of peanut butter is under the front seat of my car, my check book is next to the mum in the entryway, and the ink for the printer is in a bag under the bathroom sink along with the new supplies of toothpaste and mouthwash.
If I put them all "away," I might never find them.
So what I'm hearing is that you ARE organized, just in an unconventional way. :)
DeleteLOL! I don't have the organizational gene, but I do have a photographic memory. It comes in so handy. When I remember to turn it on and press the shutter!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the sale and the move, Nancy. May your buyer arrive post haste.
Thank you! A photographic memory must be awesome.
DeleteGood luck, Nancy! When we were selling our house out in the woods of Tennessee we tidied a lot, but we didn't take the children's rock collection from the window sills in the screen porch. Every single inch of window sill all around three sides of a good-sized porch was covered with rocks and fossils - a nice touch, we thought. The realtor hated it and begged us to get them out of there. The guy who bought the house told me the final touch that sold him on it (besides being surrounded with 80 foot trees with roaming deer and bears) was all those rocks on the window sills. House staging is in the eye of the beholder.
ReplyDeleteBut we didn't let him have the rocks.
DeleteOf course not; those rocks were your kids' rocks!
DeleteI hope your house sells quickly and you are comfortably settled in your new home soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete