Obstacles

Having ones house on the market with four small children underfoot can present some interesting obstacles. 

One obstacle is that on a moments notice our plans for the day can change.  For the kids, and admittedly for me, too, this is often not a welcome change, since it means we go from playing, hanging out at a friend's place, or otherwise relaxing to running around the house in a fit of cleaning and staging frenzy. 

The kids do a pretty good job of helping and not touching things once I've got them in order.  They all do, that is, except for Joey, who tends to remain just a step behind me undoing as much of my recently completed work as possible before I can stop him.  On a recent morning as I clumsily lowered my ever-growing, pregnant self to the kitchen floor to spot mop (this is no small task), Joey ran to the nearby cabinet, opened it up and started pulling towels out.  Joe and I immediately began telling him to put them back, as our initial assumption was that he was simply wreaking his normal havoc.  Instead of obeying us, he brought the towel over to where I was on the floor and got to work

helping me wipe up the floor.

He's also been eager to help unload the dishwasher (he even knows where some things go) and put things, that actually belong in the trash can, in the trash for me.   I'm thinking in a few months he can take over the folding of clothes, dusting and toilet scrubbing, too.  First, however, it'd be helpful if he'd stop walking through my dirt piles when I'm sweeping.

Aside from cleaning and staging with four small bodies underfoot, another obstacle we've faced when showing the house is what to do with the small ones when we're waiting for buyers to come and when they're on the property looking at the house.  Fortunately, the weather has been pretty mild, so one solution we've utilized is to picnic in the backyard. 

We've also gone to the mall, sat around the front room, taken walks, driven around in the minivan, parked the van in the circle and eaten dinner in there, and pawned our children off on kind friends. 

Now, if someone could help me figure out how to keep Joey from pooping and smelling up the house five minutes before we show it, we might be obstacle free.