We are listing our house in the next couple of weeks, and I’m so nerve-racked about it. So much to do and such little time.
First we have to clean everything up. For normal people, probably not a big deal. For people who have a lot of clutter, a very big deal. So fine, we’ll clean up. We’re actually pretty good on that front. But that’s the visible clutter.
Then there’s the closet clutter. To effectively show your house, you have to be neat and tidy in places that you’d never even consider being neat and tidy. The thought of it just makes me shudder. It’s such an overwhelming job to tackle. It’s my snake.
Have you seen “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”? It’s one of my husband’s favorite movies from when we were kids. There’s a scene when the pet store is on fire and Pee Wee is rescuing all of the animals. He keeps looking at the tank of snakes, but keeps walking by and getting all of the other animals first. After he’s rescued all of the other animals in the entire building, and when the snakes are the only ones left, he finally rescues the snakes. Now when there is a task one of us doesn’t want to do, we refer to it as “snakes”.
Emptying and organizing our closets is my snake. I’ve done everything else that I can do already, and I’m still looking for other jobs. But I will motivate myself because the snake isn’t going to rescue itself.
After I buckle down and everything’s neat and tidy, and our pictures are taken and the house is listed, we will have to put up with showings. Again, for normal people, probably not a big deal. But when you have a husband who has a crazy work schedule, a six month old baby and a dog to contend with, it starts getting a little overwhelming. What am I supposed to do if someone wants to see the house and Baby Love is napping? Or what happens if the weather is atrocious and I have to shuttle the dog and the baby into the car on short notice?
And then there’s the biggest reality check. Frankly, my house will not ever look as spotless and spic-n-span as the homes on “House Hunters” or “My First Place” because we are real people, with real lives and we still live here!
I guess I need to give myself a pep-talk. I need to remind myself that my house is my home and it won’t be perfect for every single person who views it and it will never be perfectly, 100% neat and tidy all the time. And that’s okay, because people in the real world expect real people to live in their homes.
Now to rescue those snakes…
