Tomorrow morning at 9am an estate agent is coming to photograph our house

[listsandbudgets]

And it looks like a bomb has hit it. I've had a dislocated shoulder for 2 weeks which was only put right on Monday when GP realised what it was so can't move heavy things. DP at work, children at school so just me.

At the moment I've bagged loads of stuff up - toys mainly and I'm going to ask DP to put it in the cellar tonight. Shoved some more stuff in cupboards. If they want to take photos in cellar or cupboards I'm stuffed

I've got a doctors appointment in a bit then I can come back and clean and hoover floors.

I will put throws over falling apart sofa and arm chair, there are flowers on mantle piece and kitchen table.

Kitchen surfaces and hob clean and uncluttered, dishes all either in cupboards or dishwasher.

Bathroom neeeds a clean :(

I'll make beds and make sure there's no washing hanging about in the morning (unless stuffed in laundry basket.

What else. Garden isn't at its best but hope this is allowed in January

[MaisieDotes]

I used to be an EA. Sounds like you've done the bulk of it.

The best thing is to have floors and surfaces as free from clutter as possible. In practice this can mean going from room to room with the EA and just shoving stuff out of shot. Get them to do any heavy stuff, obviously.

They won't want to photograph inside your cupboards, don't worry

[CMOTDibbler]

Iron the duvet covers, and put the plainest possible ones on.
Put everything in the bathroom away and polish mirror
Make sure all the lightbulbs are working
Put as many toys and stuff in cellar/car/cupboard as possible
Push curtains back as far as possible
Put side tables/ kids chairs and so on out of sight
Take a quick picture in each room and look at it critically - do you see the best of the room in each picture, does it look like you have enough storage, does it look cramped?

[Wiifitmama]

Ours was done recently and I have the most uncluttered tidy home ever which I had made even tidier that day. In spite of this, the photographer asked me to move things. Which was great. He knew exactly how to move furniture to maximise the space in the room and spotted stuff to move out of the rooms which I hadnt (very nice bin from the kitchen etc). So go along with whatever they tell you to do. In the meantime, I would clear every surface you possibly can. My kids were told by me to do a massive tidy away in their rooms. You want every surface to look as uncluttered as possible.

[JT05]

If the EA photographer is any good they should advise you at the time. However, the advice given by others is good.

Ours removed tea towels, door mat and bath mat. My personal hate is to see cleaning materials in the bathroom and of course, toilet seats should be down!

They won't want to do every room or inside the garage, so dump stuff there.

[listsandbudgets]

Thank you everyone for your advise.

Looks like poor dp is going to have a busy night moving things under my instruction. I've just come back from the doctor who's instructed me to avoid lifting anything heavier than 4 pints of milk until the end of the month to find lots of moving furniture suggestions.

Would it be wise to phone estate agents now to advise them that if they need anything vaguely heavy moved I won't be able to do it or will need a lot of help or would that be insane?

[Borninthe60s]

Please put the toilet seat down to omit amazes me how many EA's don't do this!

[CMOTDibbler]

I wouldn't phone them - they'll either be helpful or not tbh.

Another thing is to have a look at pictures of houses local to you in the same size/price range and see what looks good or not in those. Sometimes its easier to see what makes a good photo when you look at other peoples!

Oh, and decide what the highlights of your house are and make sure they get good shots of those - if the kitchen has a spacious diner area, don't let them just stand at that end to take the kitchen shot and miss showing the diner!

[didireallysaythat]

We put stuff in boxes and eg moved them into room 2 when they took photos of room 1 and vice versa if you get what I mean.

[wowfudge]

There is so much you don't/can't see on photos - it's viewings where you have to go into super tidying mode. I've never ironed a duvet cover yet though! Do ask the person taking the photos to move what they need to and if you can see the shots they've taken. Ours took a, frankly, stupid shot of the front of the house which showed more car on drive than house.

[listsandbudgets]

Well he came and he was very helpful.

I managed to box every thing up and my friend came over and hoovered everything for me (I owe her a meal I think) so when he turned up at 10 all that was left to do was move a few boxes out the way, move the cat who was determined to be in every photo and take one piece of furniture off the landing which he did with ease. I thought the photos actually looked quite nice. He didn't do external photos as it was pouring with rain but said he'd pop up when the sun was shining and do the front of the house.

I'm sitting in my super tidy living room trying not to think about the contents of drawers, cupboards and boxes.

[listsandbudgets]

And where are my manners. Thank you all of you for your help and suggestions

[wowfudge]

Good luck with it all. My advice is to proof read the details before they let them loose on t'internet.