Jackie in NE Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We're listing our house Sept. 1st. It's going to be crazy! We have the typical homeschooling house..... messy! In addition to homeschooling 4 dc, and an absentee dh, we will be temporarily hosting a foreign exchange student. (No flaming darts, please) So how do I make the process of showing our home as pain-free as possible? We are decluttering right now. I am only keeping the stuff that I need for the current school year. We are storing stuff until the new house is ready. I've heard about the trick of having new, unused bath towels ready to go when someone comes to look at the house. Are there other tricks like that? Thanks for your help, Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie in NE Posted August 11, 2012 Author Share Posted August 11, 2012 Shameless bump.... anyone??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinD Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Bumping for you - we'll be putting ours on the market around March and I imagine we'll have the same problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSNative Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) Rubbermaid tubs are your friend. If a showing is scheduled, you can put all school items in a rubbermaid and throw it in the car. Laundry baskets are also good for fast pickups. Everything gets thrown in one and then those to to the car. Clean every night as though you are going to have a showing the next day. Get every single person in your home on board. No one leaves the bedroom until beds are made, surfaces clear, dirty clothes in hamper, etc. If your kids are too young to do it by themselves, get an older kid to help or do it yourself. Make as many rooms show ready in the morning then don't go back in them. We didn't go into our living room, dining room or basement at all when our house was on the market. I would just go every couple of days to dust and vacuum and then shut it up again. Rubbermaid tubs are great for organizing the basement and garage. We spent a day putting all of our garage small tools and items into big rubbermaids. We labeled them and then put them on plastic shelving. Didn't take too long, made it easier to move and organize the garage in our new home and made the garage look sooo much bigger and cleaner. This was a weird tip our realtor gave us - take off your window screens. We took our screens off our windows then cleaned the windows. I was amazed at the difference. The whole house looked cleaner and brighter. Edited August 11, 2012 by MSNative Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We listed our house during the school year last year. I packed up all the school stuff except what we needed right then....I got it down to one shelf of books that was in a corner of the dining room (our master bedroom had been our schoolroom before, but we converted it back to a bedroom when we listed). Almost all of the kids' toys were packed up, too--we kept out just what would fit in one cabinet with doors, so everything could be kept out of sight. My kids aren't that big on toys, anyway, so it worked out--they could still access the legos, and that's all that counts ;). With so little stuff, it was easier than I expected to keep things clean. We just made sure to put things away as soon as we were finished with them and never let things get to the point where we couldn't make things look presentable given 15 or 20 minutes notice. It helped that my kids are all a bit older--the youngest is 6. good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alenee Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 MSNative has good tips. I would add that if you have more than one full bathroom, go down to using only one of them. We had three under 7yo when we were showing so we needed to be able to do everything quickly and with little help. We used only one of the bathrooms so I had less to clean and I did have brand new towels hanging in the master (the one we didn't use). It was always perfectly done which was a load off my mind. In our bedroom, we had a walk-in closet so dirty clothes went into a tall basket which then had a blanket laid over it. I pushed it back as far as it would go beneath the hanging clothes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindyD Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I packed up as much as I could and put it in storage including all of our school books that I didn't need for the year. I'd been using our dining room as a school room, so we restaged it as a dining room and I'd cover my stacks of school shelves and such with a pretty, cream colored blanket that matched the wall. It was still there, but it wasn't as noticeable as a wall of books and manipulatives. =) I kept the house 45 minutes away from clean if that makes sense. Usually we had more notice, but sometimes people would call and want to see the house in an hour or two. I had a few laundry baskets that I could throw the toys in. I'd run the vacuum very quickly to at least leave marks that look like I'd vacuumed! I'd wipe down the faucets in the bathrooms and kitchen and the counters. Basically, you don't get a day of letting things go. You have to clean up after every single meal. You have to pick things up throughout the day. Good luck on selling your house! We put ours on the market in September, 2 years ago. We consistently had an average 2 showings a week, and our house almost exactly 6 months after listing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwjx2khsmj Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Get rid of all the clutter you possibly can and then get rid of even more. Clean out drawers, shelves and closets. Go ahead and put that stuff in boxes and stack it neatly in the garage or rent a storage unit. If you don't absolutely love the stuff you are cleaning out then get rid of it, yard sale, donate, trash. To get ready for showing the house have the kids declutter their rooms. Make sure what they have in their rooms is such that they can easily straighten the room and make their beds. Get rid of extra toys, pillows, blankets, books that make this a more complicated process than it needs to be. Remind the dc that this change isn't forever and that when they get to their new house they'll be so excited to get all their toys back. Stock up on bathroom wipes. In real life I don't ever use these but during showing season they can be a lifesaver. Every morning make sure the bathrooms are neat and the toilet seat is down with the lid closed. Before a showing, do a double check and a quick wipe and you are good. Laundry baskets are great for gathering clutter and throwing it in the car when you leave while the house is shown. I also kept easy to grab snacks/lunch stuff. Eating out a few days a week can add up when showings hit at meal times. Having a plan for where you go during a showing can make things easier too. We had a favorite park and the library that we usually visited. Having a list of things that must be done every morning makes showings much easier: beds made, bathrooms straight, kitchen clean. Before showings: wipe bathrooms, sweep/vacuum, gather clutter, go. My children all knew their jobs to get us out the door and I just double checked while they got in the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie in NE Posted August 11, 2012 Author Share Posted August 11, 2012 Thanks for all the ideas, everyone. These are so helpful! Maybe we'll even stay in the habit of having a clean and decluttered house after we move...... Nah, never mind. What am I thinking? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Our last home was on the market when I had 5 children 12, pregnant with number 6 and dh was in our new city. :tongue_smilie: Decluttering is your friend. The more in storage and the less you have to clean, the easier it will be. Baby wipes are great to wipe down bathrooms quickly. Keep under each bath sink for quick cleaning. Your dc should have an area or job that they can clean quickly when needed. Spot cleaning kitchen floors, wiping down bathrooms, sweeping, making great vacuum stripes and loading pets/bins can be delegated. Keep sugar cookies for baking just before a showing. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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