Spruce-ups for Homestudy Visit?

maryoosa

So, I'm a bit Type A...  And found myself with a day I was able to work from home rather than go into the office. So, I started doing "spruce-ups" for my homestudy visit-- I replaced a lost knob on the bathroom vanity, bought some wood putty to fix the banisters that my now deceased cat had decided were her own personal scratching posts, and painted the stairway and foyer.

 So now I'm curious, bumpies, what all did you do? And when did you say "ok, now I'm gonna stop 'cause I'm being ridiculous?"

 Am I the only one who feels like I'm staging my house to be sold? 

M

sarahtoledo

I have a very long list and it will be insane.  I guess I better get on that, actually....

Things like "put up bathroom walls" and repaint future nursery.  Oy.

 

maryoosa

Lol. We're going to put a wall in, but that's not going to hapen until we know a placement is happening- ie. after the baby is in our home and a TPR is signed. We have the required square footage, but I'm not investing money in closing up part of the space if I don't need to. lol

Dr.Loretta

LOL. I think it's natural to do that sort of thing. I was OOT the few days before our homestudy, and DH cleaned like he never had before.

We had to remind ourselves that the house shouldn't look like a museum.

silliestbunny

Ha!!!

Our first homestudy-- I was like you. 

Move forward to our second homestudy-- I did some spruce ups but I had a five month old in tow so little was done but intentions were set.

 And now onto homestudy number three--- our house had toys everywhere, floors weren't sparkling, chaos ensued... but it was real life and the social worker enjoyed it.  Mind you, this most recent visit for HS3 was done an hour before bed time for my toddlers... SW got to see our parenting skills in action!! 

MagickalNarwhal

We went totally insane. Deep clean everywhere, small house projects we'd been putting off for a long time, hiring help for things like the yards, etc.

I knew we were going overboard and doing way more than we needed, but I looked at it as a good motivation to do a lot of stuff we would want to do before a kid came along anyway. I'm the kind of person who likes to have reular guests over because it makes me keep the house just *that* much cleaner than I normally would.

Our SW barely even looked around! Ha! Once she was we had fire extinguishers and smoke alarms as needed, we basically just sat around the table (which we had "casually" loaded with every snack imaginable) and talked for 2 hours.

fledgegrl1

LOL, I think we all do this to some extent. DH kept telling me "you've cleaned enough!" but at the same time, he was outside painting the columns on our front porch. I knew that wasn't necessary, but I sure wasn't going to tell him not to, cause that is something we've been meaning to do for ages.    It was a good excuse for us to do things we had been putting off, like painting the porch and finally CraigsListing the stuff we had been storing in our future kids' room.  None of which our SW cared about, of course.  They just want to know you have a safe place and don't have anyone locked in your attic or cooking meth in the basement.

Mush-Tastic

I absolutely went total crazy-pants the whole weekend before our visit and it turned out to be for nothing. I'm sure my husband wanted to divorce me. I scrubbed all the walls, cleaned out every single shelf and wiped it down, I took all the windows out and cleaned the tracks, I mean serious full-on "spring cleaning" only in November. We worked from sun up to sun down for 3 days; up to the 30 seconds before our SW arrived. She walked through our house in under 30 seconds, didn't open up a single drawer or closet and that was it.

Although I will say it sure was motivation to clean my house!

 

sgb721

Dr.Loretta:

LOL. I think it's natural to do that sort of thing. I was OOT the few days before our homestudy, and DH cleaned like he never had before.

We had to remind ourselves that the house shouldn't look like a museum.

I was sick and at work prior to our home study and DH also cleaned. I kept saying 'our house isn't a museum, you don't want her to think we'll freak if the kid spills his cheerios'. LOL

AwBeth

So many people had said not to worry about it that we really didn't.  I cleaned up the same amount I would if we were having friends over for dinner.  

missred75

I had so much on my "to-do" list that I didn't get done prior to our home study. We bought a foreclosure a few years ago, and the list is never ending of things that we want to do around the house. The stuff that I did do was to finally hang some pictures on the walls that I had been wanting to do. I think it's totally normal!