Mommy's New Routine

So we've survived another round of house showings this weekend.  I have the utmost sympathy for people who have to do this for months or years while trying to sell their homes.  10 days of getting my house ready to be shown has turned me into a semi obsessive-compulsive cleaner.  You might think that with my type-A personality that this is not unusual.  But trust me, I've never been accused of being a super neat freak.  I've always had the ability to be organized in a messy way (much to the chagrine of my mother).  My disorganization peeked during my last pregnancy to the point where I was encouraged to hire a maid--something that I think is an utter waste of money.  So anyway, this whole keeping-your-house-beautiful thing is rather stressful for me.  And it's a new experience.

Today, however, I was able to do a victory dance.  The realtor who showed our house yesterday informed our realtor that our house was "extremely clean and well staged" so much so that his clients are thinking about making an offer.  Ironically, the only staging that we did was to move a couch and a TV to the garage.  Other than that, the supposed staging is just how we live.  (I abhor clutter and knick knacks.)  The extremely clean part is just the result of my OCD tendecies that are starting to emerge. 

Every morning I go through the same routine.  I dust, vacuum, sweep, spray the bathrooms, wipe the counters, wash the windows, light candles, and do whatever else I feel compelled to do.  Interestingly, my routine has started to get so nuts that some days I even get out the touch-up paint for the walls, spray special cleaner for the floor grout, and scrub my outside gas grill with Clorox.  I know that I'm obsessing over details that nobody really sees. But the longer the house is for sale and the more I clean it, the dirtier it is appearing to me.  Hence the fact that I was bleaching my pantry yesterday.

Needless to say, when the man said that our house was extremely clean, I was shocked.  The first thing I thought of was "Did he see the crayon mark on my son's closet wall?" or "Did he notice the blue speck of paint on the floor in the laundry room?"  My craziness has gotten to the point that I've been having nightmares where people are seeing rooms that have huge spots where I missed paint.  I mean, I'm turning into a nut case!

I've always been somewhat of a germaphobe.  But now that my germaphobe fears are combined with my real estate OCD, a whole new sort of monster is emerging.  Let's hope this monster doesn't go into heart failure when she buys a new home and has to battle with someone else's former mess. Stay tuned...