Around this time of year, I start to think about what my house looks like to others. I’m usually happy with it’s ‘Lived in’ look and feel (which could be translated as ‘cluttered’) but over the next couple of months we have more visitors than normal – we have a bonfire party coming up, a birthday party for Mr Frugal which usually involves family and friends who we see once a twice a year, and that’s without even considering all the extra people who will be visiting over Christmas!
We started Operation perfect house a few weeks ago when we had a mass clear out of toys and anything else that could go on eBay or to the car boot sale. I was surprised by the amount of stuff that we’d accumulated that we really didn’t use or need so to get rid of it all and make some money at the same time was brilliant.
The next step in Operation perfect house is the quick blitz! My house is never actually dirty as I do keep on top of the cleaning but things like skirting boards and banisters can (and do) frequently get missed so we have a mad hour or so where we all spend 10 minutes in every room and blitz it – windows, windowsills, corners – everything. We set a timer so at the end of the 10 minutes we move on to the next room.
Once we’ve done this, I look at other things that people who are visiting would notice – things like marks on the walls – and I try to get rid of them. There’s a great guide on How to clean stains around the house online that I use although I always try my Stardrops or bicarb and lemon juice first.
I also hire a carpet cleaner from our local Cleaning hire company to remove a years worth of dirt from my cream carpets although I always cleverly time this for Mr Frugal’s day off work so he can do the hard work – I just supervise!
So by this time we have a clean, clutter free house and I can move on to the more important things – the extra touches that make the house look pretty 
