How to keep my house 'viewing-ready'?!?

[IAmRubyLennox]

Well after quite a lot of deliberating over part-ex of our house, we're having a bit of a rethink and are putting it on the market ourselves (rationale for this is a whoooole other thread ).

I'm knocking myself out this weekend cleaning and decluttering ready for the agent to come tomorrow.

However, I do realise that I have to maintain the facade of good housekeeping for as long as it take to secure a buyer. But I've got 3 DC (5,7 & 8), pets, no DH most of the time as he works away, plus I'm not exactly Aggie Mackenzie myself.

Many days you'd be forgiven for thinking we'd been burgled.

Please can experienced vendors give me some really good ideas for how to keep the house 'viewing-ready', and / or get it ready with about an hour's notice? All cheats and time-savers gratefully received .

Have an empty basket ready so you can quickly scoop up any toys, stuff, etc.

Last time we sold up we had little kids 4 and 2 and house resembled a playgroup on a good day and a bomb site most other times.

We arranged for the agent to call us in advance of viewings.

I gathered a collection of plastic crates and boxes. Each a different colour for different rooms.

In a cupboard close to the bathroom I had one with pretty coloured liquid filled bottle, flash wipes, roll of kitchen roll and new fluffy towels.

This enabled me to quickly gived the bathroom a wipe around, put out the pretty stuff and bung everything else into the bathroom box in about 5 minutes (maybe less). Swap it all back after the viewing. This transforms a bathroom - taking away the everyday shower gel, shower puff, spare loo roll etc etc. Makes the crappest bathroom look neater.

Each room had a coloured crate and all the loose messy stuff/crap to be quickly bunged into - so the room was able to be made tidy very quickly indeed at the same time as keepingh the crap organised - you knew that lounge stuff was in the lounge box and kids bedroom stuff was in the their appropiate boxes as well for later. I used to pile the boxes up either in a cupboard in my hallway and even in our garage. Just bunged a blanket over the top to hide my shame of the amount of crap we owned.

This clears the crap which then enables you to whack that vacume around, make the beds, or clear up anything else.

As soon as the viewing is over swap back your nice bathroom stuff so it does not become used and shabby .

Really though you do have to keep ontop of general housework. If the bathroom mirror is splatterd with toothpaste - a flash wipe will just smear, so when you have 5 minutes keep get the windolene out and keep ontop of jobs like that.

Also clear out built in cupboards and wardrobes as viewers open everything. Hence the crates and not all just bunged in the cupboard under the stairs! I think we spent 3 days decluttering and deep cleaning at the start and then kept ontop of it with quick but regular housework bursts.

Good luck

I've just done this for three years!

It was too much like hard work trying to keep it 'viewing ready' all the time.

In the end, I emptied as much cupboard space as poss, so there was room to just chuck everything behind closed doors. And then threw an all-nighter cleaning the night before the viewing.

I found that the viewings were often at short notice ("Mrs B is in the area today and would like to take a quick look this afternoon"). And my kids are able to trash my lovely clean/tidy house in 20mins

Good luck

i think the key thing is to move as much stuff out as you can, so you have room to shove things in cupboards at the last minute.
anything you can live without - kitchen blender, any spare crockery, spare bedding, winter clothes, at least half of your books/CDs/DVDs - box up and put in your attic or garage. Or better, someone else's attic, to show off all the space in yours. You feel a bit like you're in a holiday home, but it's hopefully not for long.

Ya know, having just read charlottes post, I've had a thought.

In three years and literally hundreds of viewings, not one person wanted to see the loft space. Despite me offering each time and explaining that it had a ladder/lights.

I always look in lofts/cellars/garages/cupboards. Sorry.

You've been trying to sell for three years ramble?? . Shocked.

Oh God, now you are really scaring me. The last time I sold somewhere was when I was 22 and sold my one bed flat to move in with DH. I can distinctly remember hiding dirty dishes in the oven because there wasn't time to wash them!!

I have already bought a set of fluffy new towels that will be purely for show purposes in the bathroom!

DH, who is evidently in total denial, is still asleep. I have cleaned all the windows in the conservatory and am about to start on the floors & skirtings.

Hadn't banked on clearing out my hellish linen cupboard though, had better build that into the panic plan.

I had thought of maybe buying two new doormats (front & back) and chucking them down when a viewer is coming, rather than the well-used ones. What do you think?

Thanks all.

OP can you afford around thirty pounds s month for storage? Chuck a load of stuff in there.
Makes it soo much easier to be tidy.

grobags - it is now sold - hurrah

The house had ishooos, so got to exchange of contracts 4 times and then fell through.

But blimey, were can you get storage for 30 quid? Mine cost 370 per calendar month and I did some serious shopping around. (Was 20 for the first month though iirc)

rubylennox - yy to the doormats, first impressions count

Also petsmells, that was one thing that put me off as a buyer.

Guess it depends how much you have to store? We used kelly's storage and they were very cheap and did pick up and drop off...£370 `PCM! You could rent a flat in some areas for that.......

rent a storage ubit and declutter into it. worth the £40 a month and so much easier to keep house tidy.

aim for 1hr from viewing ready. buff all sinks and basins and tap with a towel too!

I would heavily advise (as someone about to exchange on Thursday) you Declutter now

Can you hire any storage space nearby for the duration of the viewing/sale? That way you can declutter to a huge extent, which makes it easier to keep on top of cleaning. If you find you haven't missed anything you put into storage then you can either sell it or dump it.

Also - when the kids go to bed you can run round and get plenty of housework done.

i find the 'yell at my kids, let them play outside far too long, get really stressed and clean in an obsessive and furious manner' way is working at the moment..

at least for the house. I'm a wreck!

@ Edless - this is exactly the approach I'm taking at the moment. Only then they have the audacity to want to come in and walk on my freshly mopped conservatory floor.