Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Reality Check

Tomorrow The Realtor comes to examine our house. I am a bit frightened. Because remember? Remember how I proscrastinate doing 5 minute jobs? Well, NOW I have about a week's worth of 5 minute jobs. To accomplish before a nearly complete stranger will be judging how we live and how I keep house at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon. Or at the very latest, March, when we hope to put our house on the market. When many actually complete strangers will be judging how we live and how I keep house. The thought of which is COMPLETELY TERRIFYING.

I just realized why those professional house sellers are called REALTORs...they make you face the reality of your home/ house. For instance, the baby potty chair in the bathroom? Not so attractive. Ditto for piles #1, #2, and #3 upstairs. And my favorite vinyl tablecloth? Not the height of fashion (but SOO much easier to clean after glitter has been introduced).

I can't protest any longer that "I'll get to it!" - the day of reckoning has come. So where to start? I'm thinking the overflowing stack of give away/garage sale items in the laundry room should probably be boxed and put in the garage. It is seriously a safety hazard, and OSHA would strongly object. And really, why not start with stuff that I've already decided to get rid of? WHY IS IT STILL IN THE HOUSE IN THE FIRST PLACE? Aaron is working tonight, so maybe I'll be able to accomplish this and other tasks. Of course, that means I'll have to resist the lure of television AND Emma. Hmm. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

5 comments:

Noel said...

It's really hard to resist TV on Tuesday night when Nova and Frontline are on ;-)

When we did our renovation and had to move stuff out to storage AND back, it was a good opportunity to apply the 10 year rule: if we hadn't used it in 10 years and wouldn't use it in another 10 years, it was gone. You may want to pick a smaller number than 10. We also learned the value of small, light family heirlooms vs large, heavy ones. Finally, it was an opportunity to prune down my collection of computer magazines dating back 20+ years. We also went through several paper shreaders with all the stuff from the 1980s printed with our social security numbers (eg student ID numbers grades were posted by SSNs in those days...such a simpler and innocent time).

As for OSHA, today I had web-based fire safety training to comply with some OSHA requirement. The immediate application for this fine blog is that when your house is being shown by the REALTOR, your kids should not be smoking in the garage while filling the lawn mower with gasoline. Remember, heat + fuel + oxygen = fire.

Aaron said...

I think the baby pottie is cute.

1 Craaazy Mamma! said...

Oh dear Liz! I didn't know it would be so soon..

I've compiled a list of suggestions from my latest tv addiction, HGTV.. I'll email it to you so you can ponder it, and even print it!

Good luck..

. said...

hey, instead of saving for a garage sale, it's time to give it away or donate it. you're not going to want to organize a garage sale if you're looking at houses this summer...

Lyz said...

Thanks, Ruth, for the guilt trip! Actually, I do donate adult clothing, but I am selfish. I organize a neighborhood garage sale, and MOMS club also does one...and I sell stuff to fund my garage sale habit for the rest of the summer. It's a good system.

We'll see how I feel about it in a couple months...it all may get donated after all.