I spent the week before our first open house as sellers in a state of mild panic. What helped was a checklist I found on Home Price Drops and a friend telling me, kindly, that nobody was coming to judge the inside of my cupboards.

We cleared surfaces the day before, not the morning of. That one decision did more than anything else, because it left us time to sleep and no time to re-clutter. Half the things we moved went to a friend's garage and stayed there. I have not missed any of it.

Light and air. Every lamp on, curtains pulled back, one window cracked open even though it was cold. The house smelled like a home rather than a vacuum cleaner bag. Sounds trivial until you walk into a dim hallway and your shoulders drop.

We left for the visits, and I mean properly left. Coffee somewhere, phones face down, an hour to kill. Our agent said the difference in how buyers talked when we were not there was night and day. People open cupboards when nobody is watching, apparently.

The feedback was the useful part. Scuffed paint by the door. A dripping tap we had stopped hearing. Nothing expensive, just things a buyer notices in the first minute and we had stopped seeing years ago. We fixed a few before the next viewing and the whole place felt different.

What would we change? We would declutter two weeks out instead of one, and send the dog to my sister's. That is it. The rest worked, and I would happily do it again.