I hate hate hate cleaning the house for viewings

[FlossingTheCat]

The situation has got so bad I lie awake for a couple of days before each viewing dreading the task that's ahead, and making endless mental lists. I have a cleaner and I usually get her in for hours on the day or day before, which costs a fortune. My mother also comes up. There are so many things going thru my head as I'm cleaning/sobbing: rage that I'm about to be judged negatively, a determination to make everything perfect so I can't be judged, a determination to sell the house on this occasion, and also rage that I give a shit and that I'm this friggin sad. DH doesn't get it. He even thinks it's fine to leave cat shit in the litter tray outside the door. Which of course we don't. Oh, and we have three kids! We have a viewing tomorrow and I know i won't sleep and I'm really close to cancelling. Any tips?

Any clean freaks out there?

Well, when we were trying to sell our last place, we moved a lot of stuff into storage so the place looked bigger and tidier from the start.

But obviously it costs money, depending how long your place is on the market (we ended up in a six-month rental as a stopgap, so the stuff was in storage for 9 months or so in the end!). And you'll have to decide what books/DVDs/toys/furniture etc you can live without for the foreseeable...

I'm afraid I can't really advise on the cleaning or the stress, as I'm one of those people who lives in filth without noticing or caring

Seems like your DH could be more supportive though, have you been to view many houses yet? so he can understand the general 'look' you're going for...or trying to avoid!

I know this is hard but you need to chill out - this level of stress is not in proportion - honestly. As long as the rooms are reasonably clean and tidy the presence/absence of a piece of cat shit is not going to derail a serious purchaser.

If you're finding it seriously stressful what about trying to go away for a few days and asking your agent to cram as many viewings as possible into that window?

Unless you live in a real midden, do you need to employ a cleaner for hours before viewings? I would make sure things were tidy and bright and just keep things reasonably clean with an hour's extra work before the viewing (polish bath taps and kitchen surfaces, that sort of thing). Especially if you have small children (don't know if you do), I don't think anyone expects surgical level of hygiene. Try not to get het up, it is frustrating but, ultimately, you do get to live in a nicer house if it's tidier and looking at its best and may help to sell it. Certainly not worth lying awake over. Completely agree with Heathen that decluttering (if necessary) will make a bigger difference than obsessive cleaning.

Do think that the cat litter needs emptying though

Yes, I do agree the cat litter needs emptying!

But really what I meant was that most people don't even notice details like that - they might clock a giant turd on the living room rug, but mostly they go around in a daze and just register vague things like "nice and bright, good size, hmm wouldn't have chosen that carpet, we'll have to change that, I wonder if our sofa would fit there..."

I've failed to notice all kinds of HUGE things when house viewing! A few thumb prints is neither here nor there - it's major clutter that you want to avoid.

Thanks everyone. I am going to experiment with not cleaning anything except the obvious, and see how it goes. I may have a wee glass of wine with my breakfast to take the edge off the desire to clean and then head out. i think it 's all probably mislaid frustrations anyway.

I really sympathise. We sold our house earlier in the year and I also found the process miserable. I have two DCs who are 5 and 2, which made it really tough as they seemed to untidy as fast as I tidied up.

You will sell, try not to be too stressed about it. Hopefully it will only be for a short time and I am also of the view that people are more interested in the space and dimension of your rooms than checking the house is spotless.

I've got three children and about to put house on market and dreading it as they make such a mess. Have you thought about doing an open day? You would only have to clean the house for one big event and agents could organise all the viewings for that day.

Big wicker baskets (look classier than plastic stacking boxes but those will do the job just as well) in each room in a discreet corner to stuff full of junk 5 minutes before viewers arrive (keep aspirational crap such as expensive wooden toys or still fluffy soft toy at top of basket so there's a bit of an "aaah!" factor).

If you didn't have 3 kids, I'd think you were my DMiL!

Apart from you and my DMiL, no-one is getting in cleaners before viewings and sobbing about the state of the house. On the other hand, I know that DMiL feels just the same mix of rage, upset and determination that you seem to.

I think that people like you and DMiL who have this type of worry tend to have much higher standards than the vast majority of people, so you're worrying about things that your viewers won't notice. Viewers do just wander round in a hopeless haze going 'oh, I've got that book too', and 'I wonder where they are in that photo'. There are times when DH and I wonder if we bought our current house as we got distracted by a bookshelf at the top of the stairs which had a lot of books in that we remembered from childhood.

If you do just cleaning the 'obvious', I suspect it will be 'very neat' by your viewers' standards.

The other thing I would advise is to actually do some house viewings yourself of properties you might like to buy. You will be amazed at the state some people allow viewings of their house and might help to get things in perspective.

Actually I think a cat litter tray would very off putting (but then I hate cats!) - I went to a viewing recently and their dog had used the garden ....... and it hadn't been cleared up ! Yuk.

I've got myself into a nice routine now before a viewing.

• quickly surface clean the bathrooms, straighten towels etc
• quickly surface clean the kitchen, wash the kitchen floor, make sure everything is put away.
• run round, "tidy" (aka hide a lot of stuff in a box in the garage), hoover without moving furniture.

and that's done.

Kitchens and bathrooms are far the most important in terms of impression. And a tidy house looks cleaner than a non-tidy house. Takes me around 2 hours being fairly slow and leisurely - could probably condense it to an hour if given very little notice.

I've looked at loads of houses and am happy to ignore the normal, run of the mill general clutter and mild dirt that they come with. What you need to bear in mind is what YOU notice when you're looking at other people's houses and then take that on board for your own.

What I didn't like was - washing up, really dirty (sticky) floors, and dirty bathrooms. A certain level of stuff around and about is perfectly acceptable, you're selling a home, not a surgical environment.

When we have viewings I make sure dog beds are aired and dogs shut away, animal food bowls washed and away. Kitchen sides/sink clean, loos and bathrooms clean. Cushions fluffed up and stuff piled tidily - newspapers/remotes/books etc. Beds made, toys away and not scattered across the floor, but it's not a show home. Anyway if it smells too clean they might be suspicious.

Don't get stressed about it, buying/selling is bad enough without worrying about your home being immaculate. It's no fun, but it doesn't need to make you gloomy. Good luck.

Dear OP

I totally synpathise with the way you feel. We have moved twice this year and DP also didn't get the issue about the house being clean for viewings. DCs are fed up of me telling them not to do things which create mess just before leaving for school that I would then have to spend ages tidying up. My life has become one long round of tidying, cleaning etc etc. The more you have to do it the more obsessed its easy to become as once you have done one thing you notcie a million others that need doing. All this madness has been fuelled by too many property sale programmes on TV where all the viewed houses look immaculate.

Constantly shoving things into baskets for tidy ups have driven me crazy as can no longer find anything and it then creates even more mess as DCs rifle through every basket looking for some tiny piece of plastic crap that in needed NOW for whatever they are doing.

There's lots of good advice on here and having now found and almost moved into a lovely house I can confirm that on viewing I did not notice a miriad of dirt/ stains/ broken door handles/ mouse poisin under the sink. Its looked lovely when we viewed it.

Try to restrict yourself to a time limit for the pre viewing clean up and then go out of the house to your nearest coffee shop and chill out. In the end the big stuff counts like how big the rooms are, where the house is located, whether it has the right number of rooms. I found that even having viewed a house I could hardly rememberwhat colour the walls were let alone whether they were clean or dirty.

SO yes - declutter, make the bathroom and kitchen smell nice, put some flowers around the place and don't sweat the small stuff.

Easy to say but hard to do, especially if you have a really pressing reason to move quickly. A few months after you have sold and moved the whole hideous nightmare will seem like a dream (a bit like childbirth!)

Good luck