When you were house shopping.....

... what kinds of things didn't bother you if they were not clean or perfect?

I am getting overwhelmed having to clean this house top to bottom EVERY SINGLE DAY. Having three kids and going to work makes it VERY hard to keep the house 100% all the time.

What areas do you think I can "slack" on and a potential buyer wouldn't mind? Did you care if the beds were made? Did you care if there were dishes in the sink? Did you care if the garbages were full?

Re: When you were house shopping.....

It makes the house look nicer if things are tidy but I definitely wouldn't say no to a house that I like because the beds aren't made or because dishes are in the sink.

I would try to keep the floor tidy. If the house is cluttered, it may look smaller. And I would try to keep the bathrooms as clean as possible- no hair or globs of toothpaste in the sink.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

as long as it's not grimy im sure you're fine

when there were houses that seemed dirty, we just left right away..but i mean legit dirty

Re: When you were house shopping.....

honestly...what i think makes a house look "unkempt" is just dishes in the sink, full garbage cans (like the bathroom) and dust bunnies. if those are in check, it seems fine to me

Re: When you were house shopping.....

I don't think anyone would care about beds being made.

The garbage and dishes could give off a smell which does create a negative feeling - maybe even subconsciously - I don't mean you need perfectly empty garbage - but nothing overflowing or anything.

I think overall, you want to give an impression that your home is well cared for and maintained. For a buyer, if you look and see the person can't even wipe down their counters, then how well maintained are the gutters/air filters, etc? KWIM ?

You also want to sell that "dream" home. So something that appears to be easy to live in and maintain is attractive to buyers. If it looks like the current owners have difficulty maintaining it, then you start thinking, "how am I going to keep this clean?"

I think a few toys lying here and there and some unmade beds are no problem at all.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

We just wanted the place to look cared for also (like another poster said). Didnt have to be spic and span, but didn't want to see alot of obvious dirt. Didn't even look at trash cans, noticed dishes in the sink, didn't care about toys being about as long as we could walk through. The house we are buying was maintained beautifully and also smelled good, like cookies. That was another thing we noticed when we were looking. One house we looked at smelled so bad of sulfer (it had well water-which is common with that), another one we couldnt even look at b/c it reeked of smoke, another one smelled of animals, etc

Message edited 3/24/2012 9:49:44 PM.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

The kid areas of the house. Playroom toys. We have 3 kids and totally ignored toy messes. Dishes in the sink would be a turn off But not a deal breaker if I loved the house.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

Clutter is what turn me off rather than dirty really. Iw Ould make sure your main living area, kitchen and bathroom are tidy and not cluttered. A quick sweep, wipe down the sinks and a quck dusting

Re: When you were house shopping.....

Its SOOO hard selling while you have kids!!!

We have a toddler, was on the market last year for 8 months and now we are back on for almost 2 months so far.

We keep the house in showin condition I woild say 95% of the time and ITS SOOO HARD, FRSUTRATING and TIRING!!

We have moved all of DD'd toys tot he playroom in the basement and just take up 1-2 things for her a day so that way when we get a call its easier to clean up.
I make my bed automatically when I get up (even on work days when I leave @ 6am).

We have decluttered for one year so it helped.

I pretty much can judge when our showing are. Most likely on the weekends. SO we wont put big projects in the way or I wont start cooking until I am pretty sure no more showings for the day.

When we gt a call someone is coming (and some have been as short as 20 min notice), we quickly put DD's toys away, freshen up bathroom, pass the swiffer through my HW floors. Spray some method spray in the rooms.
I also do laundy now one load at a time meaning instead of having all the dirty clothes in piles in the laundry room I leave them in the hamper and take out the bunch I want to wash, wash them then take out the next. In the past I would have the dirty clothes in the laundry room on my washing clothes day and would have to hurry to clear them out when I had a showing. I am learning now!!

I clean the bathroom everyday to keep it fresh and the do a quick wipe down when someone coming.

I am pretty much a neat freak to begin with so this has put me over the edge!!


ITS TERRIBLE!! I HATE HATE HATE this whole process...as you all know!!!

I am always stressed!!!

Message edited 3/25/2012 9:10:38 AM.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

kids toys and stuff totally didn't bother me, it's understandable. The only thing that bother me were a few houses where it looked like a hurricane came through, where it was so dirty I didn't want to touch anything. There were a couple where it looked like hoarders live there, it was hard to see the house because of all the stuff.

Normal everyday messes did not bother me at all. I went in not caring about that stuff, only about the house.

Good Luck!

Re: When you were house shopping.....

As some previous posters said, I would above all make sure your house smells good. I looked at some houses that smelled so strongly of cat that I was too distracted to even look at the house.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

Anything that is directly out in the open should be tidy IMO... So yes to beds and dishes... Garbage I wouldnt be looking at... I dont really care about dust bc my house is dusty itself and I know how hard it is to maintain that... Basically I dont want to see clutter around the house or things out of place... Makes the place look smaller

Re: When you were house shopping.....

People are attracted to a home not just because of the home itself, but because of the lifestyle they can see themselves living there. And most people have a fantasy or ideal of having everything be clean, organized, entertainment-ready (if they didn't, magazines such as Real Simple and Better Homes & Gardens wouldn't sell so well!).

So my honest answer is -- yes, people care about beds being made, the sink being clear of dirty dishes, counters being cleared off. If they are not, it can just distract from the positive features of the home. Most people want to see a bedroom, for example, as a restful sanctuary. But it's hard for it to feel inviting and restful if the bed is unmade and rumpled. And kitchens and baths really sell a house, so they should be reasonably clean at all times (I mean, the tub doesn't need to be scrubbed and the floors don't need to sparkle, but I would definitely wipe down counters and sinks, put out fresh towels, clear off countertop clutter, etc.).

It might not be convenient, and it's definitely harder with kids -- but if it takes 5 minutes to make a bed or stick the dishes in the dishwasher, it is definitely worth it if it can net you thousands more and a quicker sale of your home!

Of course, no one expects you to live like your home is a museum. If there are toys and stuff around, that's fine and totally understandable. I think it helps to corral toys and a lot of the kids' things to certain areas (e.g., basement, playroom, even kids' bedrooms) instead of having them strewn about the living room.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

honestly I never minded seeing kids toys/artwork/etc around. We knew we wanted kids so I didn't find those bad.

Unmade beds, sinks in dishes, laundry left around would bother me.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

The people I bought from we're so lazy, they stopped cleaning after we went into contract. It was gross. Plus they never cleaned the windows we had to buy all new blinds because i wasn't going to spend days cleaning them. Keep up with landscaping. When we moved in it was a jungle. I should have said something at the walk through because they should have maintained the property.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

To be honest, I have an issue with unmade beds. To me, it makes the whole bedroom look messy. If you can just do that, it doesn't matter if there are toys all over the place.

I know it's so hard to keep the house clean every day! I had showings Saturday, Sunday and tonight again! I hope these people are "the one".

Re: When you were house shopping.....

You know my answer considering what my house looked like when we bought it.

But I think I would at least make the beds b/c that can make a big difference and its pretty quick to do.

Dishes I wouldn't worry too much about unless of course the sink is full. Same thing with the garbage, as long as it doesn't smell

Re: When you were house shopping.....

People tend to get too caught up in the supericial aestetics of a house when they're house hunting. We saw houses that were absolute pig pens and we still made offers. I would say, make the beds, make sure there's no dishes in the sink, and just pick up clthes and stuff off the floors. Other than that, you dont need to go crazy. No one is going to be checking the tabletops for dust or walking out because you didnt vaccuum.

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Re: When you were house shopping.....

For me, I hated seeing other people shit all over the place. One house had a ladies undies on the floor. Total turn off on a house I would have thought about. Make nbeds, pick up toys and get animals out if you have any. And if you have cats, clean the litter box, nothing worse then looking at a house that smells like cat crap.

Re: When you were house shopping.....

I was just on CNN.com catching up on the news and they had this article and I thought of this thread! I thought it had some good ideas.

How to fake clean a house

Re: When you were house shopping.....

Re: When you were house shopping.....

As a seller of 3 kids (10 months, 4 and 5 years old) and a buyer..I cared what the house looked like.
Its not easy to keep a house in order but I did it. I made sure I had at least an hour notice if someone was coming. I usually had 24 hours. I was on top of my kids to put away the stuff when they weren't playing with it and was constantly on top of everything. My house was ready to show 24 hours a day. Was it easy..no way but it was important to me. I didn't want potential buyers to think that I didn't care about the house. I think it gives an impression to buyers.

As a buyer when I was looking, I will be honest, I didn't like it when a house was messy or the beds weren't made. I looked at EVERYTHING. To me a clean house means the sellers take pride in there home and it is maintained. I also wanted to know how much time I needed to spend scrubbing everything if we bought the house.