THINK of people's sensibilities!

I've recently sold my flat and bought a house.  It was quite a palaver and I'm so glad that it's over now!  The first task was to make my flat into a position where it looked attractive enough for someone to want to buy it.  This involved a fair bit of decorating.  This also involve me learning how to tidy up, and how to present a flat in a condition that a buyer would expect to see it.

But I have never, ever lived in a condition that a buyer would expect to see!

I worked really hard on my tidying.  I also remembered a kind offer made ages ago from A, one of the staff at my local autism centre, to come and help me tidy and organise my flat.  I called her to take her up on this offer.  A came round, and I proudly presented my tidied kitchen, saying that I'd already finished this room.  She promptly got out a notepad and started making a list of all the things that still needed to be done in it!

Her list went something like this:

1.  Debi, your ironing board is not a banana table.  You need to fold this up after use, and not leave it lying around as an extra table top surface.
2.  The kitchen chairs need to be around the kitchen table, instead of all over the kitchen.
3.  The rocking chair belongs in the bedroom, not the kitchen.
4.  Stop using your window sill to collect all your dirty dishes for days on end.  Wash up after every meal.
5.  After you've washed up, put your dishes away, instead of leaving them on the draining board.
6.  You need to get a light shade for this light.
7.  Your possessions need to go into drawers and cupboards and not be strewn about on every horizontal surface and the floor.
8.  Your empty wine bottles should not be sitting on the work surface (I used them to dry plastic bags on) and should be recycled.
9.  Your tea towel and hand towel go on the hooks, not draped over the back of a chair.
10.  You need to remove all your pictures, quotes and sayings that you've blu-tacked onto all your cabinets.

And that was just the kitchen!  Another, similar, list followed for the bedroom.  After two rooms' worth of lists, I felt like I was getting the main points, and would manage to apply the principles throughout my flat.  I was very glad that I'd called for the help in this matter that I didn't think I needed!

But the funniest thing was just before A left, she used my bathroom.  She came out of there, and said:

"Debi, one last thing, your tampons need to be in a drawer and not on display - THINK of people's sensibilities!"

Ah, right...  I had not at all thought of people's sensibilities!