Comment: How moving makes you reflect on the state of your own place

I’d like to say our house hunt was continuing apace, but in truth we haven’t viewed anything else since the doomed mission of the weekend before last (the dirty, cheap house and the underwhelming expensive one).

Turns out that – despite my best efforts – no amount of refreshing Rightmove will magic up a dream home from page after page of places that don’t quite fit the bill.

As we discovered last time we moved, this frustrating lack of suitable properties can push you into dangerous compromise territory, viewing places that you know are wrong out of sheer desperation.

This leaves you vulnerable to agents talking you into all kinds of scenarios you’d rather avoid. Bedrooms a bit small? Convert the loft!

Er, but this place is already beyond our budget… It’d only cost £50k!

One of the things I won’t compromise on is a driveway. We’re looking to move further out of town, meaning we’ll be driving more frequently and – as anyone who’s ever seen my parallel parking ‘skills’ will confirm, off street parking is much needed.

This time around I don’t fancy wasting our time or anyone else’s on a series of fruitless missions, meaning the best thing we can do during this viewing drought is sort out our current place.

In traditional moving house style, we’ve been focusing on all the things we meant to do but haven’t quite got round to doing in an attempt to make the place look lovelier.

Decluttering has gone up a gear; getting a bag of clothes to the charity shop is no longer enough, goods now need to go by the carload. We’re also looking at storage options for the bulky furniture we can’t bear to part with permanently.

Thinking about moving certainly forces you to look critically at your own home and what it has to offer, or not. And between the cat-addled carpet and kid-smeared walls, we’ve a lot to keep us occupied between viewings.