Every January, I begin the year in a frenzy of decluttering. In the past week or so alone, I have already torn apart the mudroom and pantry and several closets and have my eye on the basement and garage. The way our house usually goes is that the main floor looks pretty good, but the basement and some individual bedrooms leave much to be desired. Anytime someone compliments my house, I always laugh and say, “Thanks, but don’t look up or down.”
Seventeen years ago, when we were selling our first house, a starter colonial with a fireplace, a glass porch, and a dining room papered in blue lilacs, I managed to get every inch of it looking good. This was no small feat with five very young children, but we were having an open house, and the public needed to see perfection. After cleaning and purging and cleaning some more, I remember looking around at my beautiful, clean house and wondering, “Why are we selling this place? I love it!”
It turns out that our family had not really outgrown the house, but our possessions and junk definitely had. With a little paring down inspired by those impending house tours, it suddenly seemed perfect for us again.
Which brings me to an idea, an idea that has been met with several responses from my teens, none of them good: “You’re not serious, right?”; “Wait, please tell me you would never really do that.”; “That sounds really embarrassing.”
My idea is to set a date, maybe two or three months down the road, and host a “House Tour Party.” We could invite a couple of friends for coffee and cake and then give the kind of tour you would usually only give if you were selling the house. I’m contemplating a full no-holds-barred tour that includes closets, the basement, the boiler room, and the attic with nothing off limits and no stone unturned. Who knows, we might even start a trend and a string of house tour parties will follow. They will be all the rage!
At the moment, this is in the back of my mind in the swirl of ideas that resides there, but I am thinking about clean closets and neatly-made beds and toys laid out in labeled bins and smiling the smile that means, “Mom is not kidding.”
I like this idea! Maybe you can do a video house tour?
We haven't done much hospitality over the last two years, and it really shows in my housekeeping. Sad, but true! I would love to come out of this pandemic with a put-together house and a big party.
Posted by: Meredith Long Pelham | January 27, 2021 at 09:09 AM
Or invite your priest for a home blessing. ;) 🙏🙏🙏
Posted by: Essy | February 15, 2021 at 08:28 AM
Alice! So lovely to discover you are writing once more. Offering prayers for a blessed and fruitful Lent.
Posted by: Penelope | February 27, 2021 at 10:42 AM