Comments on: Swing Low

By: JIllybean

JIllybean — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:26:34 +0000

This is what worked for us.
(quite by accident, we didn’t plan it this way)

Get a bunch of moving boxes and scatter them throughout the house. Fill them half way full of stuff. Whenever someone comes to see the house, start packing more stuff in the boxes and say “Please excuse the mess, we’re moving and right now we’re in the middle of the packing mess.”

Most people were very understanding and just carefully waded through all of our crap.
Except for one stupid realtor who kept asking (multiple times) where we had all of that stuff put away. “I can’t believe that you were able to get all that stuff stowed away in the amount of closet space you have here.”
I felt like telling him “THERE’S NO CLOSET SPACE IN THIS HOUSE YOU MORON! THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WE ARE MOVING! WE NEED MORE ROOM FOR ALL OF OUR CRAP!”
But instead I said “You would be surprised what you can fit in the closets here.” which wasn’t exactly a lie because when we took all the junk out of the closets and put them in boxes, I was very surprised to see just how much junk we really had crammed inside the minimal closet space we did have.
And on every flat surface of the house.

We ended up getting two offers that day.

Our new house was larger than the old one (and has way more closet space, AND a storage room) so when we moved all our crap into it, it didn’t look that messy, because the mess just got spread out. Unfortunately, since we have lived here, we’ve just acquired more crap which is now covering every flat surface in our home.

You are not alone.

And also, that new DI? It is right across the street from where we used to live. It opened up two weeks AFTER we moved, so while we were moving, we had to drive the 20 minutes to the other location to donate the stuff we didn’t want to move.

By: Brittany Marie

Brittany Marie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:14:06 +0000

We used to drop stuff off at that old DI location. Now we are happy to drive to the new one just so we won’t get asked for money by people with 1 tooth.

I’m also glad they built that new DI because our LDSFS location moved from a creepy location to that one (in the new building).

By: LisAway

LisAway — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:44:27 +0000

I hate clutter, but we have it, too. The coffee table is perfectly clean a few times a day and sometimes we go days without clutter on the window sills, but that’s about it.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:54:47 +0000

I don’t have many piles but I’m afraid that happy little reality is going to come crashing in once my first kid starts school this fall.

And now I must admit that while I don’t have many piles at all, I do have several drawers and closets stuffed full of crap-ola.

By: Jami

Jami — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:41:03 +0000

I keep thinking burning my house to the ground would take care of the clutter, but I know that then I’d just have charred clutter and jail time.

I got rid of a lot of horizontal surfaces and now we have baskets and boxes and piles of crapola all over the place. I’m thinking closets and a garage would solve a lot of that for us.

By: Migillicutty

Migillicutty — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:57:46 +0000

I have no cleaning advice. Whatsoever. Ask my Mom.

By: bythelbs

bythelbs — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:25:25 +0000

I will likely live in this house forever for this very reason.

By: Jaime

Jaime — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:10:11 +0000

I’m also fascinated with houses that don’t have crap in every corner, every surface. I truly wonder how they do it. I can’t. I have tried. I even did it for four days last week. I felt so triumphant. All gone now. Back to clutter central.

I wish you luck.

By: Mother of the Wild Boys

Mother of the Wild Boys — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:21:46 +0000

What are abs, and how do I get some?