Home staging

Our house is for sale!!!! It has been listed for about 3 weeks. Things started out great- 2 days on the market and we already had a showing! I thought maybe I should stop being "Debbie the Downer" and hope for the best! Well... Since then... NOTHING.... Bummer....

The first/only time we had a showing I had just put Allie down for a nap, and we had a playdate/lunch with 7 of Allie's good baby friends earlier in the day. Scott was working late, and as soon as I received the call for a showing Allie woke up. I ended up staging the house by myself (mostly whole holding a baby) and cleaning up after a "baby party"... Whew... I was sweaty.

Since then Scott and I sat down and made a "plan" for the most effective way to stage the house. I thought I would share some of our "tips" in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

Living in your home while trying to sell is tough... Add a baby... It might seem impossible at times. Here are our tips:

1. Stay on top of laundry

2. Keep all dishes clean/in the dishwasher

3. Keep the table staged- if this is impossible, because you have a baby who will pull things down on their head- have everything you need to stage the table off to the side/in a box that is easily accessible.

4. Wipe down the shower/tub every few days- I do this while I am in the shower- saves time.

5. DE-CLUTTER- and then DE-CLUTTER AGAIN!!!

6. Do a deep clean before listing. We enlisted the help of a grandma to watch Allie and we SUPER cleaned the house- baseboards, windows, basement, walls, everything!!

7. Have a few "tubs"- big plastic boxes with lids- and shove "stuff" in them when you are going to have a showing. We put in things we use everyday- sticky notes, pencils, cat food, mail, etc. Stack the tubs in a room/closet, or take them with you when you leave.

8. Make your bed daily- it is one less thing you have to do before a showing, and it makes your house look cleaner anyway ;-)

9. Make a list of "to do's" in each room for your specific house in order that they should be completed for a house showing. For instance- our upstairs rooms are hot, and we do not have the AC on up there all summer, so first thing we would do is open the vents and turn on the AC up there. Last thing we do is vacuum ourselves "out" of the house.

10. Don't stress about it too much... It is what it is, and if you de-cluttered well and cleaned most of the rooms you will be fine. Hopefully a homebuyer will look beyond your the play kitchen in the babies room, and picture themselves in there instead :-)