Garden Gnome at Home

Well, now that the house is officially listed, I have a whole new daily routine. Much of this is based on what I don't like when house hunting. So I sat down and made a list of what I don't like then created a to-do list to help me achieve the things I like to see in a house. On my list of what I want to see in no particular order are cleanliness, sparkle, homey feeling and order. What I don't want to see is clutter, dust, pets, mess, dirty laundry or dirty dishes. The problem is while our house is up for sale, we are still living in it and that means certain activities have to continue. For that reason I have developed a couple of strategies. To see how I'm dealing with meals and the possibility of a showing during the dinner hour, check out my cooking blog, Mom's Cafe Home Cooking. I'll focus on my modified daily routine.

For awhile I tried Flylady techniques mainly because some of her tips make good sense. While I found it was a little too structured now that I'm home all the time, I still use some of her tips like a once a week 27 Fling Boogie and my dailies. She breaks home cleaning into zones but I had already developed my schedule. I also kept her idea of a 15 minute hot spot declutter. It works well for me. Most days I only need 5 minutes.

So I have a morning routine consisting of 5 morning dailies and an evening routine of 5 things I do before retiring for the night. Some of these things change depending on the season but for the most part most don't. These just make the house run smoother but for selling the house I needed something more so I've added 3 tasks to the morning routine and 2 to the evening routine. In the evening I set out the swiffer duster, 1:1 vinegar solution in spray bottle, 3-4 white terrycloth washcloths, vacuum cleaner and bring down whatever load of laundry I will do next. With the front loader I'm doing a load about every 10 days for dark and colours and once every 8 days for whites. What I do is put as much as possible for that load into the washer but leave the door ajar unless the house is being shown. In the morning, I do my regular routine then go through the house with the vinegar solution (shines & deodourizes) shining every possible surface including appliances. The swiffer duster makes quick work for keep dust under control. Then I vacuum and by then the house is ready at very little notice for showing. I think at most I'm spending an extra half hour in the mornings and about 5 minutes in the evening which isn't that bad if it helps sell the house. The other change I made was to try to run the washer, dryer and dishwasher in the late evenings so they aren't running during the times the house is most likely to be shown. This may sound like a lot of work but really it isn't and if it helps sell the house, it will be well worth it!

Garden Gnome
© 2007