On Monday I wrote about the power of photographing your mess. I just wanted you to know 20 minutes is all the time it actually took. I only got one space done, and yes, there are some phone notes and folders I haven’t found a better home for, but I resisted the temptation to start painting the other stool black! Staying focused is always a problem in the home clean-up area, but all the items found a real home(or the trash basket) and are not just out of sight, but put where I would be most likely to use or find them. Hooray! The clean picture will serve as a reminder, posted in a drawer nearby. Next?

One of the best ways I can help people get ready to put their house on the market is to take digital pictures. In fact, most times I ask them to take their own the week before we take the official ones to market it. By shooting different places, like the refrigerator (full of magnets) and the counter tops, they often notice how things they have become accustomed to seeing (and tend to look right past) will show up in a picture.

This is enough incentive to clean up, and eliminates the need for me to mention it. I often go home and shoot a few of my own home, alarming myself sufficiently to get cracking on the obvious! It is amazing how bad things look in a picture that don’t seem to bother me at all in person. Imagine putting your home on the market next week and take some pictures to see how it will look online. I think I will find twenty minutes to tackle these two spaces this week!