Attention to Detail. When people come to your home what is the first thing you want them to see and why?

That's easy. I want them to see a clean house, despite my daughter being a little tornado. I make sure the dishes are done, the floors are vacuumed, swept and mopped. I make sure the rooms are picked up and there are no stray toys hiding anywhere (I actually do this an ungodly number of times a day). I make sure my bathroom is spick and span, too. Never know when they are going to need to use the restroom. If the trash is full, my hubby is then ordered to take it out! I dust and straighten up the desk and fluff the couch cushions, making sure to clean any food prints my daughter left behind. I make sure that there is no odor anywhere, either. Candles and an airwick are a must. Candles in the bathroom and the airwich is on a timer in my daughter's room because of the daiper pail. That always stinks without the airwick. Lastly, I straighten up my daughter...as much as I can.

I do all of this because I can't stand the thought of someone coming over and seeing my place a mess. I don't want to leave them with the impression that I can't keep a clean house. I want them to walk in and think, "Wow! This house is so clean!" I've gone over to people's houses and seen a mess and thought to myself, why on earth didn't they straighten up a bit more? My eyes focus on the mess. So if my eyes focus on the messes at other people's houses, I assume that their eyes would focus on any mess at my home. Cleanliness is important to me. My house is almost always clean, but I go the extra step when there's company over. I even take these steps when the maintenance people come, even if they're only going to be here for a few minutes (I live in an apartment).

So that's what I want them to see. Clean. I don't decorate so much because we're moving once our lease is up here. We hate it where we live now. I hate to say it, but I actually hate my downstairs neighbors. They play their techno music so loud at all hours of the day. I have to bang on the floor regularly to get them to turn it down. They smoke and their smoke comes into my house when my glass door is open. Sometimes they smoke pot, too. I hate it. It stinks up the whole apartment. Then there is the fact that this is the ghetto to me. We got this place because of the space and the price. We got over 1000 square feet for under 800, which should have tipped us off in the first place. We're definitely moving. I'm counting down til I get to submit our 20 day notice! Looking forward to it. Maybe I'll get to decorate at the next place. I'm not even bothering here. I hate it so much I don't want to leave any doubt that we're moving come April!