If you sold your home with kids

[linz]

We plan to sell our home/move this summer. Twins will be 18+ mos old. I'm slowly purging and packing stuff up to take to my parents for storage.

My question though is how bare do I make the house? I've been looking at other listings and in the kitchen for example, there is usually NOTHING on the counter tops or dining room table. Do you really keep nothing out or is that just for staging? H drinks coffee so do we need to put the coffee maker away each time there is a showing? 

Also in the living room we have one of these:


Do I need to move that to our basement or some place each time there is a showing? I will move it out for pictures but that is what holds all the toys right now so I cannot get rid of it. 

Any other tips/advice would be great 

[mcfelix]

I would really try to put away as much as possible. If you have a coffeemaker on your countertop and nothing else, that's probably fine. If you can get rid of the living room toy storage you posted and get some nice woven baskets with tops that you can hide the toys in, I would do that. Maybe get some flat underbed storage boxes that you put toys in and slide under the couch?

You do really want to put away as much "stuff" as you can. I know it's hard with kids. We listed our house when my son was 13 months old. The only room in the house where we had toys outside of his room was our family room, and they were in a neutral looking bin from HomeGoods. Having your stuff everywhere is distracting to a potential buyer and makes it harder for them to visualize living there.

Good luck! It's a pain to have the house looking perfect every day, but it will help it to sell faster!

[6fsn]

I would keep laundry baskets. On a showing day I'd dump everything on the counters and tables and then put the baskets in the car. The coffee pot probably won't make or break anything and the toy box is probably fine.

[MadamePresident]

Remove everything you can for pictures. But as for everyday life, just keep as neat as possible.

[mandapanda18]

We sold our home with a 2-year old. We had one of those in the living room as well. I took all the other big toys (train table, foam floor mat, etc) out and left that tiddy each day. I moved it for the photos online. I took a laundry basket out and tossed all the stuff that we left out all the time into it and put it in the top of the closet before leaving each day (remotes, throw blanket, magazines, etc). Our house sold in 2 days, to a family with out children so I don't think it was an issue.

[annieh22]

I would remove as much as you can. Most completely clear counters and surfaces for pictures and then bring a few things back for daily life. The more you can stick in a cabinet the better, but it is fine to have the coffee pot out.

[linz]

Oh good idea about laundry baskets! I forget about all the everyday stuff we have out - including dog things.

I also plan to hire a cleaning service right before we list the house and depending on how long on the market (hopefully not long!) I'll have them come out again. Bathroom and stove top are my biggest problem areas.

[momin2013]

We are just about to start this process, so I've just starting cleaning and decluttering. I'm fearing it so bad; with me and DS home all day it will be next to impossible to keep all the toys put away, all the time. We have the same organizer as you in our living room (along with a bookshelf for his books/puzzles) and I think we're going to attempt to move those up to DS' room once we list. I say "attempt" because I'm afraid he's going to freak out at his toys being moved, and not in the "right place".

For the kitchen, I also have every appliance out on my countertops, because I like everything to be out and handy. What we've done so far is pack away everything from the cupboards that we don't use often or really 'need' such as extra sets of dishes, large use-once-in-a-blue moon appliances like the ice cream maker, wafllemaker, etc., to make the cupboards as empty as possible. The plan is, for pictures and when we have a showing, to remove as much as possible from the countertops and put it all away in the (somewhat empty) cupboards below.

One thing I was wondering today (as I was scrubbing the upstairs shower and not enjoying it), is do people just clean as well as they can before they list, or hire professionals to do a "deep clean"? I'm really wondering if professionals could do a better job of deep cleaning than I can...

[magpie]

I'm following this thread with interest...my house goes on the market in two weeks. We had a pre-market showing today though, so we had to get as clean and as uncluttered as we could. Our plan is to clean everything out for the pictures, but then keep the house as neat as possible, but still livable, for the showings. This means that we probably will remove everything except coffee maker from our counters. We moved all of DD's toys to the playroom or her room and they are all neatly stored. We also took all the baby gear and unused toys that we have and packed it up to be stored in the attic. Anything in the living room or elsewhere is in some sort of non-open bin. We also signed the dog up for doggie daycare and she is going on days when we have showings/inspections.

[kittycatlove]

We're getting ready to list our house in the next couple of weeks. For pictures I'm going to make it as bare as possible.

Everyday before leaving the house I'm going to make sure it's picked up, and put away as much as possible so that it shows well.

[imojoebunny]

It really depends on your market. Mostly families, I would leave the toys, but in a wicker basket, not the primary color thing, mostly no kids, I would leave the coffee pot, and hide the basket of toys.

Wishing you a super quick sale!

[julygal]

We were careful to focus on not making the house look bare, but rather not draw attention to the lack of storage. Things like holiday decorations went to storage. Our countertops were clear except for the coffee maker and toaster oven. We donated or stored most the toys. Our kids were older, so they helped us pack it up and move it to storage. There were minimal toys in their room. They had what fit on a bookcase and one large storage bin that I could tuck into the closet. We had a playroom in that house that we took most of the toys out, so it showed as a secondary family room. The only toys left fit in baskets stored on a bookcase. Having fewer toys made the house look nicer and helped me actually maintain the house show ready. We were in a slow market and it took 3 months to sell, so it was hard. We traded toys with ones from storage at one point. We did a lot more activities out of the house.

I think the effort helped sell. Our feedback often said it showed the best out of the other townhouses in our neighborhood, and we had similar finishes and floorplans to the other units. We sold faster than others and had the highest price. Maybe we lucked out with our buyer, but she looked at all those other units too & picked ours.

[anna7602]

Warning, this will not be helpful in the least. We moved and then put our place on the market. DD was 13 months old when we actually moved and in the months leading up to that, I was too much in the thick of survival between work and a new baby and all the crap that was suddenly all over our apartment (including work crap because I gave up my home office so DD could have her own room).

Showing our place absolutely empty wasn't ideal, either, so we staged it with a few pieces of furniture, but all the personal stuff was absolutely gone.

[redheadk]

I think it's most important that the house is tidy and uncluttered.

We sold our house when Dd was 22 months. The dining room was a playroom and I did leave the coffee maker out. I did put the toaster (used daily) away. Nothing else on the counters at all.

Our house sold in just a few hours; i wouldn't have been able to sustain that.

[miamigirl]

Good luck!

I'd make sure to remove everything for pictures at least.

[UnderProtest]

We put our house on the market when our twins were 25 months old. We did a major decluttering and ORGANIZING. We didn't have a ton of storage, so we made extra sure that the closets and cabinets at least looked like they weren't about to explode with things. I did leave one or two things on the kitchen counter. Hell, I had twins, the coffeemaker stayed. I made sure things were clean (we also had a dog) and our real estate agent had a professional photographer take the listing pictures. For that day, we had the cleaning lady come and yard people to literally blow the leaves off the whole yard one hour before pictures (it was fall with some really big trees that caused a mess). Our house sold on the second day at an open house.

[luv2rn4fun]

Good luck! Hope it sells fast!!

We are currently listed and have been for 5 months. Luckily I SAH son I just clean everything up when we have a showing. The only toy visible is C's jumper and it's in a corner in the office. It's a major PITA but worth it because the house really does look so much nicer when there aren't a pile of toys everywhere.

[ny96]

I would remove the toy bins because as a buyer, although it wouldn't change my opinion of a house, it would really distract me.

[winemaker06]

We sold when DS was about 14 months and it was definitely tricky. Everything was as bare as possible for pictures but it just wasn't sustainable long-term for showing. Our closets were stuffed full already too.

I ended up leaving out one closed box that all toys went into in the living room. We cleared anything unnecessary off counter, but not every appliance.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from the stager was to live out of bins as much as possible. So every morning when I got ready, all my toiletries went back into a bin and into a designated spot in a cabinet so I didn't have to scramble too much. Some kitchen stuff had a bin to get it off the counters too.

Good luck! It may seem like forever when you're cleaning up every morning, but will be totally worth it in the end.

[speyedr]

We kept some big toys in the play room and kid rooms but got rid of any kid things anywhere else. We sold both of our houses first day listed though so we didn't have to really worry too much about it with the kids.

[JayhawkGirl]

We turned a dresser drawer in each bedroom into extra toy storage. I had some baskets behind the closed doors of our armoire. Basically hiding places they didn't need to be looking. We pre-packed some stuff to open up space.

I'm also the queen of paper plates when life is hectic and keeping up with cleaning is a challenge. DS was 7 mos old when we listed and we were both working 60-70 hour weeks. I needed shortcuts to help keep up during the week.

[Deleted]

I interpreted the thread title as selling the house, kids included as part of the purchase...

[lilac05]

We put away everything. It was a giant PITA. The kids were 18 mo & 4. It took FOREVER to sell our house, but at least I knew that we had done everything I could do. Competition was rough as a 2 story house in a ranch market. We had to pull out all stops to make it as appealing as possible.

Talk to your agent. He/she will tell you what you need to do in your situation. In some markets, you can get away with almost anything. In other markets, your house essentially has to look immaculate and like no one lives there (aside from clothes in the closet, essentially).

I would get rid of the toy storage. It will be visually distracting to some buyers, but mostly because your kids are getting to the perfect age for dumping out every single bin every time you turn your back. Then you've got a big mess to constantly clean. Keep a few toys out at a time & rotate them every few days or whenever they need a refresh.

The other thing that saved my sanity was a Norwex window cloth. Sparkling doors, mirrors, and faucets without putting trash in the trash cans (which we emptied before every single showing)! No kid fingerprints anywhere. I wiped everything down as I walked out of the house & hung them in the garage.

[Deleted]

We sold in a very hot market, so take my response with a grain of salt.

First I purged or packed up stuff and hid in in our crawl space. This was tough, as my H loves to hold on to memorabilia forever.

Then, I hid as much as possible. Storage ottomans are awesome. Baskets with lids, etc.

Then, I took the listing photos. I spent about 4 hours moving shit from room to room so that our house was as decluttered as possible for the listing photos. I pulled everything out of the guest room, photographed it, then used the guest room to hold all the other crap from rooms while I photographed the rest of the house.

The house looked great in photos and less great in reality, but whatever.

[drloretta]

We rented a PODS pod and got rid of a lot of clutter. And we depersonalized. But we still were living there, so there were a few things out. If your countertop is empty for all but the coffee maker, I don't think that's going to be a make or break situation.

If memory serves we still had an organized toy storage unit in our living room and we still sold pretty quickly

[lilac05]

Feb 19, 2016 14:19:24 GMT -5 lucybrown said:

We're gearing up to sell in the next year, so these are very helpful tips. Thank you.

However....I was not prepared for the staging/clutter removal panic attack that woke me at 2:00 a.m.. I have no idea how the hell we'll sell our tiny house with a kid, dog, and cat. A storage unit and cleaning lady will make this possible, but I highly doubt I'll get DH on board with either. *breathes into paper bag* We're pretty minimalist already, but this seems really intimidating.

Before you panic too much, talk to people or agents in your area.

We've sold two houses in the same city (with the same agent).  One time was the selling experience I listed above, where we did EVERYTHING, 100% of the time.  It took us 8 months to sell.  The other house, sold to the first people through the house, full price offer.  We had told the agent she could list it, but we didn't want showings until Monday.  She called within hours, saying someone really wanted to see it.  Nothing was ready/decluttered, dishes in the sink, painter working upstairs, cleaning crew still cleaning, etc.  A huge mess, but they didn't care.  It wasn't a hot market, just a popular price point.

[Gato]

We sold our house in one day in a slow market.  Granted, we probably got lucky that just the right buyer came along.  But personally as a house-hunter, I hate super bland staging where the house is like a ghost town.  I like a house to have a little personality, and that means some stuff on the counters, maybe some bolder paint or furniture colors, and sure, some toys, neatly stored or not.  When I look at a house, I do not want to feel like I'm entering a hotel suite.  Hotel suites are boring.

Anyway, off my soapbox.  We put the toys in baskets.  We kept things fairly neat.  I made up a list of things I needed to do before a showing (we continued to show under contract), so it was easy to run through the list and check off each staging item before we left the house.  We did not keep the counters free of clutter - we just made the clutter look nice (good cookbooks, upscale vase with flowers, etc).  We didn't put anything big away.

[purplecow0206]

Feb 19, 2016 0:22:40 GMT -5 @idaholakelady said:

I interpreted the thread title as selling the house, kids included as part of the purchase...

I keep on reading it like this as well.