I’ve been asked to put away the dog bed – and even my shower gel. Surely prospective buyers should know that I’ll take all my mess with me when I leaveTrying to sell a house is pretty much a once-a-decade event for me, so I shouldn’t be surprised that times have changed. When I sold my first flat in 2006, the norm was actively anti-tidy. Obviously you’d spirit away food waste and animal detritus, maybe you’d put a lid on your laundry basket, but the market was overheated; everything was nonsensically expensive. In that respect it was much like it is now, except that back then, we were still surprised and a bit baffled. Consequently, a bit of visible wear and tear was beneficial, because people felt they might be getting a bargain from a dumb seller, rather than spending 50 grand over the odds for some pristine skirting boards.Fast forward a decade, and things had changed somewhat. Everyone had got used to not being able to afford shelter, but the market was much slower, so you did have...