SO YOU FAKE A TIDY HOUSE
Anyone who thinks I'm very tidy is mistaken. Secretly, I'm quite a messy person and often I lose more than I can find. By the way, I am very good at faking my tidiness. My desk looks neat, I'm the best at making to-do lists, and the house is always genuinely ‘suddenly visitable’. For a few months now, our house has also been for sale, and that has only made me even better at faking a tidy house and life. You never know when a visitor might pop in. Quite handy, and it leaves you with a lot of time for other things.
Cabinets and sofas
Of course, that's a piece of cake. Loose bits and scattered clothes you just shove straight into the closet, magazines slide under the sofa, and shoes go under the bed. I assume your guests won't lie on the floor to look under the sofa or just open a closet.
Large plants
Large plants always work very well. They also do well in smaller spaces because they make a room look much larger and ensure that you pay more attention to the plant than to all the clutter around it.
Scented candle
A scented candle really does a lot. At least, a good scented candle. Such a candle gives off a very nice and fresh scent throughout the house within a minute, and it immediately gives the visitor a very relaxed feeling. They certainly won't be looking at all the little messes scattered around the house.
The laundry
Yes, that's always a thing. Look, I don't have a laundry room where I can hang and stuff everything, but I do happen to have a washing machine. So if there's even a little bit of dirty laundry lying around, I just throw it straight into the washing machine. No one is going to take a look in there, you know.
Toilet
A splash of bleach in there and it smells fresh at least. Believe me; scent really does a lot for faking a tidy house. Not too much bleach, of course, otherwise your house starts to smell more like a swimming pool than a freshly baked apple pie.
Accessories
I am a huge fan of nice candle holders, cute coasters, magazines, and who knows what else. The only downside is that everything together can come across as quite messy. So try to keep it a bit within limits and put almost burnt-out candles, coasters, and remote controls in a little cabinet for a moment. You might think: boring, but it ultimately looks much fresher than candles that have already had a long life or remote controls that are always quite ugly.
Kitchen
Yes, that's of course a piece of cake. You just put everything in the dishwasher. An untidy house is always first betrayed by dirt on the countertop because that's the easiest, so you just shove that into a cabinet for a moment. Then a bit of dish soap under the stopper and it smells fresh again. And generally, try to keep the stainless steel extractor hood and faucet clean because fingerprints never look that attractive.
Filling up
These are small details, but a full toilet roll, a clean towel in the kitchen, and folded towels in the bathroom (clean or not) always look very tidy. As if you really have everything under control. Which is also true.
