Dishes. If you have pets, vacuuming each day would be in order.

There are definitely folks that cannot look past clutter. There are people who cannot look past dirt. Making your house as tidy as possible is wonderful, but don't make yourself crazy over it. Remember to hide or take out of the house prescription drugs, fine jewelry and any cash you may have laying about.

I agree get everything off your counters and sink. People don't want to think anyone is living there. Keep a small bucket in your bathroom and before you leave clean everything off the the sink and tub (toothbrushes, shampoo soap, razors) and stash in closet or under sink. When my house was for sale I stored boxes of personal decorative stuff in the garage (didnt have to pack it later :). If you have time look at a furnished model home. Make it look as much like that as possible. Clutter wise I mean. It's a hassle I know but worth it. We sold our last house in 1 week. I also almost did'nt buy a house because I could not see past the Chicago Bulls theme decor. (Everything and I mean Everything was black and red). Good luck.

I staged my house so I had some items that I would put away or not use while I we lived in the house.
I had a 2 hour notice for showings. Working 1 mile away, p-time sure helped ;)
I'm assuming that you've already cleaned your house with a toothbrush, including the basement & garage (organized & made them look neat). You've decluttered, removed extra furniture, extra clothes & things from closets, drawers, cabinets, leaving them only half full ;) This gives the buyers the feeling that you have LOTS of storage.

I had a list of what "to do" minutes before the showing. DH really hated to be staged. He thought all the extra things for staging were ridiculous. I am 100% certain that it helped sell the house fairly quickly in a horrible market.
I know it sounds silly to have a last minute list, but you'd be surprised how many things you can forget to do. When you live in your house, you don't notice things. Every detail on the list helps when you're stressed & in a hurry.

The things on the list were:
-make the beds
-Unroll the Oriental rug in MB. Sheesh I didn't use an Oriental rug in the Master bathroom. It was totally impractical, but it sure made the bathroom look like a million bucks for staging-lol
Also, I was too lazy to vacuum everything , everyday. I would vacuum really well once a week. Just before the showing, I would quickly make some vacuum marks as though the entire house was just vacuumed. Call me lazy, but the house was over 3300 sqft & I cleaned it by myself!!!!
-hide dog beds/bowls.
-Unroll/place NEW towels in all baths. Cripe, we used regular towels when showering. The fresh, fluffy ones were for staging.
-put out fresh fruit in kitchen. I kept green apples for staging only. I threw them out every week, but kept them in the fridge in between showings.
-put out the paintings along the kitchen counters. Paintings were impractical along the cabinet walls, esp. were the stove was; could catch on fire. These covered the FORMICA, wich went all the way under the cabs!
-mop the kitchen floor.
-pour some Pinesol into the bathroom drains. Made the bathrooms smell freshly clean.
-spray inside closets with Fabreeze...etc.

You can clean your house really well 1x or 2x a week. Then if you can get up 1 hour earlier each morning, you can go through a similar list that I had & the house will look wonderful

The best thing I did was to stop going in to rooms I didn't need to use except to clean them once a week. Mentally close off your dining room, extra bedrooms, etc. Only use one bathroom. Always have a dustrag in your back pocket and get in the habit of wiping surfaces as you go past them.

Every night I cleaned the rugs and swept as needed and chose two other projects to do such as cleaning the windows, wiping down the siding and lights around the front entry, raking the flower beds, etc.

In the mornings I would wipe down everything in the bathroom while I brushed my teeth. While my coffee was brewing I wiped down the kitchen cabinets, counters, sink, table and the patio furniture. Then while I drank my morning cup I walked around the house spraying a light air freshener, straightening pillows and rugs and making sure everything was perfect. I usually damp mopped right before I left and swept the deck, stairs and walkway to the house as I walked out to my car for work. It is amazing how much dirt you can keep out of your house if you sweep the walkway daily.

This simple routine worked for me, but I was also careful to put things away as soon as I used them, wash dishes immediately and just straighten up as I walked around my house as part of my daily life.

Thanks so much! That's exactly what I needed. We've already cleaned/organized, and I'm not much of a clutter person anyway so there wasn't anything to declutter. It's going to be an adjustment! The thing I'm most scared about is if the house is still on the market come summertime (my husband is a teacher and has off during the summer), my husband will be responsible for making sure the house is in top shape if we get a call for a showing! I'll have to make him a list of things to check before the showings.

Every single thing off the counters~not even the coffee maker~NO dish towel hanging on the oven handle, and NO dishcloth over the sink~those were my pet peeves. I threw everything in the dishwasher. You want the house to look like a model, as if no one lives there. No newpapers/magazines laying around. A couple of family pictures are okay, but keep them small. Swiffer the floors everday, especially if you have pets. I stuck to 'the rules' and sold in a horrendous market in CA within 3 months.

After the initial de-clutter and putting things into storage, I had a 20-minute system for tidying my apartment. I had a ready-to-go cleaning bucket with Windex, Pledge and Fantastik spray, plus a couple of rags, and I went from one end of the apartment to the other. Kitchen: wipe and dry sink, wipe countertops, empty garbage. Dining room: clean any clutter off table (usually mail or magazines, which went into a plastic shoebox that was stored in the closet), dust. Living room: put newspapers and books in magazine racks, swipe coffee table surface with Pledge'd rag. Bedrooms: make beds well, fluff pillows, swipe-dust as needed. Bathrooms: wipe and dry sinks and shower curtains, empty trash, wipe mirrors and fixtures with Windex.

I did a full vacuum twice a week, a full scrubbing of the bathrooms and kitchen once a week, and we lived very lightly in the place when it was on the market: threw out our recyclables and junk mail every day, didn't buy my husband's favorite putrid-smelling cheeses, didn't cook fish, garlic or onions the night before a showing, put everything away as soon as it came in the house (i.e. no shoes sitting in the entryway, no bags of nonperishables on the floor of the pantry waiting for me to get to them when I could).

Make sure to open up all the curtains and blinds to let the light shine in.
You'd be surprise how much more attractive a property is if it looks like it's bathed in sunlight.
Make sure the lids are on the trash cans and they are out of sight as much as possible.
Make sure the front porch is swept clean and the welcome mat looks inviting.
Be very careful about what you cook. Last nights fish could turn off today's shoppers. Make the house smell as good as you can.

Have a really honest friend with a critical eye come in and look around. What may not seem cluttered to you because you see it everyday may seem quite cluttered to someone else.

Also do a search of other threads here. There were some great similar threads when were selling our house last year.

Oh, one more thing, if you have glass shower doors, there's a product out there, dang I can't remember the name that works like Rain-X, but you don't want to suggest Rain-x here or you might get skewered. LOL! Anyway, that concept and a squeegee can make life much simpler too.

Good luck, selling your home can be a stressful time. It helped me to have plenty of Pinot Grigio on hand.

mcbird h, one more thing, if you have glass shower doors, there's a product out there, dang I can't remember the name that works like Rain-X, but you don't want to suggest Rain-x here or you might get skewered. LOL! Anyway, that concept and a squeegee can make life much simpler too.

The shower door cleaner we use is called Invisible Glass Shield Protector 2000 by Clean-X. When our glass doors were installed the guy that came out to give the quote recommended this stuff and the squeegee. He said we'd never have to clean them again if we squeegeed daily. While not entirely accurate, I will say we don't clean the doors very often. It was one of the best recommendations we've ever had. Now if only we could get my son to be as diligent on the glass doors in his shower.

Karen - I had to laugh when I read your concern about leaving your husband in charge of the picking up.

Years ago, when I was shopping for a home, I went to an open house. The house was as neat as a pin, postively immaculate. The kitchen shined. The carpet and hardwoods looked brand new. I was so impressed. Then I walked into the master bedroom, and laying in the middle of the neatly made bed were a crumpled up pair of men's briefs. No doubt tossed there by a husband in a rush.

I've always wondered whatever happened to that man :)

I had to chuckle - our house officially went on the market the day after Christmas - but no nibbles or showings until last week because of the holidays. This is the first house DH and I have sold together, and it's been quite a learning experience for us in regard to each other LOL. He was just shocked on Saturday when I informed him that proper etiquette is that we be OUT of the house when it is shown. He thinks that's just silly, as is my daily vacuuming and floor mopping--but golly, we have a dog, not only that, one who sheds year-round. His mantra in regard to my other efforts at "staging" has become "but we LIVE here."

THis too shall pass...

Wow - boxers on the bed. Yeah, I bet he was in trouble later! Question: our realtors said people really don't do open houses anymore, due to the ease of being able to see photos online, that they really just end up being a chance for your neighbors to come in and look at your house. (We live in Indiana). Has anyone else found this to be the case?

Karen_76 the the benefits of Open Houses are regional. In my area of NYS, OH sell houses. There are pages and pages of them listed weekly, mobs of people come through and they do sell houses. When we sold we had an open house and were sold less than a week later.

Check your local market yourself. Look at the OH listings and attend a few in your area. If they are well attended make certain you have your Realtor schedule a few. Do not discount lookie-loos and the neighbors as you never know who knows someone looking for a house in your area/price range. If the OH you attend are dead, I'd still schedule at least one because, hey, you never know.

I was also careful to put things away as soon as I used them, wash dishes immediately and just straighten up as I walked around my house as part of my daily life.

Exactly. The neater you can keep it every day, the easier it will be.

The thing I'm most scared about is if the house is still on the market come summertime (my husband is a teacher and has off during the summer), my husband will be responsible for making sure the house is in top shape if we get a call for a showing! I'll have to make him a list of things to check before the showings.

We get 2 hours notice, and I give mine credit, he's pretty good about getting ready in under 2 hours. They always seem to call when we let our guard down. We do it together, so far it's been on Saturday's when we have stuff going on.. my teenage daughter will be home, her room is never the neatest. We'll also be working in the garden / outside when they call, another was when I was finishing up painting the kitchen after we'd put in new counter tops, thankfully I had 24 hours notice on that one.

What you'll want to do is go over it with him so that he knows what to do.

Every single thing off the counters~not even the coffee maker~NO dish towel hanging on the oven handle, and NO dishcloth over the sink~those were my pet peeves. I threw everything in the dishwasher.

If I was a buyer, the things I am tempted to open are dishwashers & ovens. lol Knowing this, I never stash stuff in either and about the only thing I will stash in the washer / dryer is laundry. Everything goes in the cars.

Not sure if I sent you the link to the model of our new house.. here's the kitchen if you look close, under the microwave, there is a coffee maker, in this one they are displaying a cook book. We have the very same coffee maker they have displayed in another model home, and since it's a $100 piece of garbage, I can't unplug it to put it away every day because the clock is going & hard to set. I just bought a few props, some nice coffee mugs to go with it, hoping I can arrange everything to make it look nice.

Our house will be on the market next week, and never having going through this before, I'm assuming I would make sure everything is straightened and cleaned each night so all I have to do in the morning is make our bed and clean up the bathroom before we both leave for work. Is that about right? Anything else I need to do in case people come look at the house while we're at work? Anyone have a system that works well? TIA!

The kitchen & bathrooms are the biggest. As was said, do dishes regularly. I also try to keep up on laundry. The bathrooms are always decent, if I know there's a showing I make sure mirrors are clean, showers don't have any (body) hairs (this is the same for the floor, especially if it's light) and the toilet is clean, even lifting the seat. I can't tell you how many houses I walked where there were hairs & a nasty toilet (won't go into detail)

Once a week I will have my son run the vac. He has off during the week, so I plan the dusting / edging around that. I try to sweep every day. Heavy cleaning (bathrooms) is on Sunday when I have help. Mopping is usually done Mondays when everyone clears out of the house.

I will also go around and put any personal items away, this is including my calendar.