Monday, October 06, 2014

The house is on the market and I'm a wreck

Remember that one time that I talked about being all in with this mothering thing, and how I fail but then try again?  Well this weekend (or is it last weekend?  I can't tell.  Whatever.  The two days previous to today.  Me talk goodly.) was one giant enormous pile of fail.

Waiting for a closing date that's already been delayed whilst simultaneously getting your house ready to put on the market is lunacy.  At least it is for me.  Because I make everything more complicated than it needs to be.  Super happy fun timez!

So I'm trying a reboot right now.  And since being "all in" will mean not serving lunch late because I was busy writing a super meaningful tome of meaningfulness, here are the house pics I sent to our realtor.

Ish is gettin' real up in here.  The listing goes live todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.... ::ominous music::









(this was the vvvvvvv last room to get photographed and I just did NOT have one more decluttering ounce in me.  You can even see boxes in the corner.  Everybody was done, done, done)











And there it is- almost every square inch of the House Unseen.

To lunch, to lunch!
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31 comments :

  1. AH! None of your pics are showing up! Not that you need another thing to attend to today but I can't wait to see! It's all going to be great. A bit chaotic in the happening but so so great.

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  2. Yeah, Google's telling me weird things about the photos too.

    Yay for listing!

    And I gotcha with the kids.. Seems anytime I want to get something done, the kids act up. Prob means that anytime I want to get something done, the problem's with me, bah.

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  3. me no see your pics (but johnny, upon seeing your photo, asked if it was me- compliment!!)

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  4. Okay, I tried to fix them. Is it working now?????

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    1. Yes! Looks great!! One question, though: WHAT in the world kind of packages do you get in that mailbox?? Seriously. That thing could hold a small family.

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  5. Ok, here's what I want to know. How on earth does a homeschooling family KEEP their house show ready while they're trying to sell it? Our house was on the market briefly recently (putting it back up in the spring, we found out we won't be moving til next summer) and I completely failed at keeping it ready to show. It was so stressful. Maybe I'm just bad at housekeeping. But I feel like next time we put it on the market we should just go camping or something...until it sells.

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    1. No no no. It sucks. It's a mess again already. Hence me being a huge biyatch!!!

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    2. Honestly, in my experience with selling in moving this summer and LAst!... pack up all the things you think you will survive without and then pack up some more. Way easier when showings come in and bonus, half packed when it's time to move! It is worth investing in the price of a bunch of plastic tubs for sanity ' s sake. My realtor also said fresh paint, no clutter goes super far- then just normal cleaning is more than sufficient no need to drive yourself crazy scrubbing. Think about the things you want to know/see in a house and highlight those. Plus, a lot of stuff can fit in the washer/dryer for those last minute showings! Then I kept a few huge laundry baskets and loaded all the misc crap or crap I didn't have time to put away in there threw them in the back of the van, buckled up the kids, vacuumed washed the window on the door for first impressions sake and we were outa there!

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    3. Well, what we did was pack up virtually all the toys and art supplies first. This meant that we had way less to clean up. The kids actually got along better with just 3 flexible toys (magnaformers, wood blocks, and something else I forget).

      Then we started packing up everything we could live without (good China, extra clothes/sheets/most books, etc.). The garage got more and more full of carefully-labeled boxes, but the house got more and more staged. We cleaned up every night, not letting any rooms turn into major projects. It helped.

      Staging tip: Remove all clutter/personal items from the view you are shooting. No toys, books, clothes, pictures, etc. in most shots. As my dad always used to say, "People have NO imagination." If it's a mess or painted a weird color, they cannot see past that. They just can't. You want to make it easy for someone to imagine their stuff in your house, which is hard to do if you have heaps of crap in the shots/in the way.

      Moving is so hard--I am sorry for all the stress that I know is entail for you guys. The good news it that it can bear great fruit in your life--including helping you look at all your crap with a much more critical eye. I finally got rid of stuff I couldn't bear to part with for years. Once I had to imagine paying to move it (or in your case, making an extra 25 trips to load it in and out of the car), I realized I didn't want it THAT much. And now that I'm here, I see that I can let go of a lot of clothes and shoes that I keep so that I have some....but most of them never really worked for me (amazing how much of my closet is hand-me-ups from siblings and hand-me-downs from other people).

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    4. You're not a bad housekeeper, Haley, it's just really frickin' hard! Ours just hit the market a couple days ago, and I feel like all I do is clean. We have three kids, four and under, and they're already so fed up with how strict (read: crazy) I've been, I feel terrible. Hang in there, Dweej! Hopefully, by the end of 2014, we'll be in new houses. Also, anyone who wants to send 100,000,000 novenas to St. Joseph for us, this is me not standing in your way.

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  6. Yay for clean houses to show! Hope it sells soon so your stress level can go down!

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  7. Oh, Dwija (and Haley) - I FEEEEEL your pain. We are getting ready to sell our house because we have to drive away toward Oregon with all our stuff in, uh, 27 days. Riiiiight. Jesus, take the wheel!!!!!

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  8. Praying for a quick sale and for kids that want to keep the house clean!! ;)

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  9. Yay, Dwija! It really is so stressful. Ours has been on the market about 6wks and we've spent most of that in an extended stay hotel where we're moving. Haley, I hired a teen to help me pack up half the house (almost all the toys, most books, and all knick knacks and photos), so it would be easier to show and clean. It's still stressful when we're there, but I can clean it in about an hour. I try to get the kitchen clean each night. But we've only been there about 10 days while it's been on the market, with only 3 showings during that time. Homeschooling 5 kids in a hotel is another level of crazy that I don't recommend!

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  10. Looks AWESOME! Now, St Joseph better get on the stick...REAL quick like, if he wants to be helping you get into the gates of heaven, cuz NO Mama got time fo' dat....keeping yo house clean with 100 children runnin' around ALL the daayz!

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  11. 1. Do you have, like, three living rooms? Your house seems enormo to me! I'd buy it lickity-split.
    2. Can you mail me that purple chair from living room #3? K, thanks! ;)

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    1. Big! Yes! That's one of its main selling points :) There's the "formal" living room (red sofa) then the den (brown + floral) and then the schoolish area around the corner from the den (table + desks).

      Girl. The purple chair. $4.99 from Goodwill and that is NO JOKE. #winning

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    2. Oh, I am so jealous of that find!! I need to get out there and sniff out a purple chair for myself! #winningfosho Also, I would buy your house. Like, yesterday. Away from people? Check. Room for chickens? Check. Cute mailbox? Check. THREE LIVING AREAS? Check, check! Sending up mad prayers that someone else sees the beauty we all do and jumps on that baby quick! :)

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    3. Also, this is the one (and ONLY) good thing about renting our aparment. When we want out we just pack our junk and leave when the lease is up, and pray for at least a little bit of the deposit back. Homeownership scares the heck outta me!

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  12. It looks lovely. I'm sure Mother Mary and St. Joseph have it all under control.

    When we were showing our house this is what I did:
    PURGED! Perfect reason to get rid of crap. If it wasn't worth packing, moving, and unpacking it wasn't worth keeping.

    Then I kept the house 30 minutes clean. I had 5 kinds 5 and under and this worked really well for me. I'd put on a show or send them outside and put the older two in charge of the baby. Then I'd power clean for 20-25 minutes. Throw everything in the dishwasher. Stash clutter in a cabinet. Wipe down the counters quickly. Wipe down the bathroom sink, toilet, and tub really quickly. (Basically just getting hair and obvious dirt out of the tub.) Vacuum quickly. Make the beds and pick up any toys, throwing them into a bag and stashing it. Was it spotless? No. But it was pretty darn good. As long as I was also staying on top of actual cleaning during the day / once the kids were in bed then I could make things look nice in 20 minutes.

    In those last 10 minutes I'd buckle the kids in the car, tidy the area they had been in and leave before the showing. I also found that fresh flowers did A LOT to make the rooms look better.

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    1. Flowers are a smart idea! Maybe pumpkins and other things would work this time of year too...Viewers might get all, "Awww, this is so homey! I could be happy here."

      Also, I recommend that people empty the trash/recycling, run the sink disposal, keep on top of diapers, etc. It is very hard to sell a house if you can smell the house. :)

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  13. It looks like a lovely home. Very warm & welcoming! Best of luck.

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  14. It ooZes charm! I love it. Prayers that it will sell and quickly :)

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  15. I think the booster chair is a cute touch :)

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  16. Oh, man, I can't even keep my house clean without kids running everywhere all the time! I wish you the best of luck and a nice short bout of the extra craziness. Maybe you should forget the realtor and just try to sell it on the internet. ;)

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