Wichita house where Kirstie Alley played real-life Cinderella is up for auction

A Forest Hills home that will be auctioned this week once got some national attention for being the place of actress Kirstie Alley’s first job as a housekeeper when she was 16.

In a 2009 episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Alley returned to the more than 6,400-square-foot house at 30 N. West Parkway to share cleaning tips.

“Wanna clean with me?” Alley asked her friend, whose family used to own the house. The friend laughed and said, “I’m going to watch you.”

As Alley dusted a staircase, her friend explained how Alley used to “sashay up and down the stairs, and we’d call her Cinderella.”

Alley explained that “you can’t be freaked out by cleaning.”

She scrubbed a toilet and said, “My favorite room in the house to clean, believe it or not, is the bathroom because I like them to be spotless.”

On airplanes, Alley said she always brings a bottle of vodka to clean the bathroom before she uses it.

“If you’re ever on an airplane with me, always go after I’ve been in there because it will be immaculate.”

Her employer taught her about using toothbrushes for cleaning and doing floors by hand. Mops “just smoosh the dirt around,” Alley said.

“Honestly, I swear, after I cleaned this floor, you could eat off of it.”

Her employer also instructed that it’s important to use pressure when cleaning.

“Put your back into it,” she would tell Alley. “It’s not going to clean itself.”

Alley said, “She gave me the work ethic.”

Bidding has been open on the house since Sept. 20, and it ends at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

The sprawling house has a new chef’s kitchen, four fireplaces and French windows on two acres with an in-ground pool and hot tub.

“It’s country livin’, but you’re a minute from Central and Rock,” said Braden McCurdy, whose family’s McCurdy Real Estate & Auction is handling the no-reserve auction. “It’s one of the most desirable lots and streets in east Wichita.”

The current bid is at $450,000. McCurdy said some people wait to the last minute to place their bids, so it’s hard to say what the final amount might be.

“You just never know,” he said. “It’s such a rare opportunity.”

McCurdy said he continues to see premier homes sell at auction instead of through real estate listings because “it’s true price discovery” at a time when houses are selling for much higher amounts than just a few years ago.

Alley’s services do not come with the house, though as she said in the TV segment as she touted her skills, “So, if the acting thing dries up, I’m hired, right?”