How do we learn around these parts? By doing. And sometimes by panicking. So when someone called us to see our house out of the blue, and wanted to drop by in an hour, we panicked. But only for five to ten minutes. Then we used the other 50 minutes to do the ahh-someone’s-coming-to-look-at-our-house shuffle. Luckily the house was already pretty clean since we knew we would be showing it sooner or later. But what about that recommended pairing down step to reduce clutter and make cabinets and closets look bigger (so you don’t seem like you’re bursting at the seams)? Here’s how that went:
- Step 1: Take two large plastic bags (ideally big black lawn & leaf bags as opposed to smaller white trash bags)
- Step 2: Designate one bag as the donate/toss bag and one bag as the store-out-of-sight bag
- Step 3: Work your way around the house (every closet, nook, cranny) and toss anything that you can stand to get rid of forever into the donate/toss bag
- Step 4: Remember if you don’t want it in this house, it’s not likely that you’ll want it in your next one
- Step 5: Also remember that the bag isn’t going to the dump or Goodwill right away, so when in doubt just shove something in
- Step 6: As you go, if you see anything that you want to keep, but won’t need around while you sell the house, drop it into the store-out-of-sight bag in the name of decluttering (which can help sell the place)
- Step 7: Try to think of the store-out-of-sight bag as one of those Pods in your driveway (it’s only a temporary drop spot, nothing permanent)
- Step 8: Pop both bags into the trunk of your car to later be sorted (into a donate and a trash pile and a keep-this-in-the-car-during-open-houses bag)
Oh and we figure that people look in cabinets and closets but it takes an odd individual to peek into your hamper – so in a pinch it seems like a great place to toss those last one or two things that you didn’t get a chance to pare down or store in a smarter way. Not that we would know. Ok, we shoved some errant books and magazines in there in the final minute before the doorbell rang. Hey, whatever works.
Ashley @ sunnysideshlee.com says
I loooved opening my latest DIY magazine and seeing your column! You guys make my DIY-wannabe heart smile!
-ashley
YoungHouseLove says
Aw so glad you liked it!
xo,
s
Beth says
I’m curious as to what you tossed into each bag. Do tell…
YoungHouseLove says
Baby blankets and toys and a few out of season coats in the store-for-now bag and some clothes we didn’t wear anymore, an old non-working hand vac, and a few other electronics (old power cords we don’t use) into the donate/toss one.
xo,
s
Sara says
I hope the showing went great!
Liz W. says
Ever think of selling your un-wanted stuff here on your blog Craigslist-style? I bet some of us would be happy to take some things off your hands :)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Liz W,
Never thought of that- it really is mostly junk.
xo,
s
Angela N says
We just recently sold our house ourselves and with 2 small kids at home all the time it was tough to keep it tidy. I found that I could stash a bunch of stuff in our washing machine (not just clothes ;-)) and also in the oven. Once I had a whole sink full of dishes in the oven. lol The Swiffer vac became my best friend. I also bought a tub of the glass cleaner wipes for a quick once over before getting out of the house for a showing. I normally would never buy those, but it sure was nice for when I was in a pinch for a clean house on the fly.
Christin says
But you guys are so good at not keeping things that you don’t want and your closets are so organized – I can’t imagine you needing to do any rushing around to get your house “show-ready”!
Maggie Rose says
Ha! I’ve totally used the hamper trick when we have unexpected guests – usually someone who wants a tour because they haven’t been over since we made a lot of updates. It’s the only time the hamper lid is on, so you know there’s probably a magazine and hairdryer in there!
Erin says
Oh, how I remember those days. I used to toss things in the washer and dryer, too! And then I’d grab a laundry basket full of “I have no clue where to hide this” items and quickly stash it in my car!
Tracy says
HAHA! And this is why I love you guys so much. I would totally do that. Probably not quite in such an organized fashion though.
So excited to be watching the new house journey as it (really) happens!
Kerry says
Did the people like the house? (how could they not?) Have you had a lot of people walk through so far?
YoungHouseLove says
It went really well! The only thing is that they have a lot of antiques so they’re not sure they can fit them all in our wee little house! We’ll keep you posted if they (or anyone else) makes an offer!
xo,
s
Laura (Blogging Over Thyme) says
Gosh, I hope no ones looks in hampers, that would be so weird, definitely sketchy to say the least.
I’m so excited for you guys, hopefully the house will sell fast! By the way, since you have to sell this house first in order to buy the next one, does that mean you will have to do your own house search in a really short span of time??
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Laura,
We’re planning to negotiate a closing date that’s 2-3 months away if we get an offer on our house so it gives us plenty of time for our hunt and to close on the house that we want! Will keep you posted.
xo,
s
Richard says
I think a good word to the wise would be to but HUGE labels on each bag as well, just so you don’t confuse your “Toss” bag with your “Stash away” bag, or even, God forbid, your actual trash (which is also a good thing to remove when a showing is happening!)
Alice says
I am curious if you are removing/storing away all family photos displayed while your house is on the market?? All those shows on HGTV say you shouldn’t have any personal items displayed when showing your home. That would be a hard one for me since I have framed family photos displated on tables here and there and a whole wall of framed family (black and whites only) going up my staircase wall!
YoungHouseLove says
No way! We think seeing a house that feels customized and like a real family lives there helps to sell a place as long as there’s not a huge oil-painting of the family above the fireplace!
xo,
s
Cathryn says
Hey, Youngsters!
You can also use your luggage to store your off-season clothes and other large items in your car, basement or garage. People expect to see luggage in an out of the way place in your house, but they won’t check to see if it is full. This also may prevent any accidental garbage bag mix ups! Hope this helps!
Jean says
So how did the showing go? I can’t imagine anyone not loving the house.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jean,
It went great! We’ll keep you posted if anyone makes an offer of course!
xo,
s
danielle says
we did that too right before we were thinking of selling our house and someone came to check it out – we were running toys and stuff out to the car right before. we eventually sold our townhouse to my brother so we were very fortunate to only have to do one “showing”!
Heather W says
Good advice! Hopefully story ends with a “SOLD” sign on your front lawn, and not a story about accidentally putting those magazines through the washer. ;-)
YoungHouseLove says
Hahah, that could happen…
xo,
s
Sara B says
Congrats on the showing! Cathryn – I love the luggage idea!
Samantha says
My mom’s house is currently on the market and she cracks me up with where she puts things. First, she sticks paperwork into her washer and dryer. Then, the absolute funniest, she puts entire baskets of laundry and other stuff into her large curbside trashcan (which is clean, she doesn’t actually put trash in it!)
Mr. Inspired says
As someone who has bought a new (to us) home in the last year or so, I can not overstate the importance of taking lots of time to get rid of “stuff” that you don’t actually need BEFORE you move. I didn’t do a very good job of that and moving day ended up being much more of an ordeal than it needed to be. Make your lives easier and purge now – Craigslist and yard sales are actually worthwhile for some things, but the key is to just get rid of stuff you don’t need.
Sarah says
I am curious…what do you do with Burger when you are showing the house? We have a dog and I wonder what we would do with him when we put our house up for sale. Our doggy is bigger and jumps on people so he would not be able to just hang in the house while people tour it. I know burger is small and probably very well behaved…just curious if you let him just hang out during the showing.
YoungHouseLove says
We had him crated but the potential buyers had pooches too (at their home) so they insisted that he roam the house while they toured. For a bigger dog maybe you can ask a neighbor to put him in their yard or their house for a little while? Good luck!
xo,
s
Katie says
I once read a tip from a realtor that everyone who’s showing their home should keep a big plastic laundry-basket of sorts that they fill with last minute clutter and take with them to work every single day. Sort of like your bag, but easy to throw everything in on short notice!
Rabbit says
I’m glad to hear that you guys really care about selling your house and take the time to do a few pick ups before people come to look at it! When DH and I were looking last summer, I was amazed at how little care people put into a showing. Did they not think we’d want to look in the basement? Or the garage? At one house, we could hardly get around the basement–so much junk and dirty laundry everywhere! How could we tell if they had water problems if they had stuff stacked against the walls? Same with another place but it was the garage that was a nightmare.
And for the cat owners who are selling, scoop the box before you head out! We have cats too, but a clean smelling house is SOOO much more attractive to potential buyers!
Barbara says
At least once a year, usually spring -when you get that burst of cleaning energy, I clean out my clothing and start purging other stuff.
Last year I ended up with five bags of stuff – all donated. And I use the contractor sized bags.
Zoe Feast says
Having lived in a house that has been on the market for the last 9 months I have developed a few tricks of my own. First is trying to keep everything as neat and tidy all of the time..its very hard, particularly with kids. Second…under the bed is your best friend. If in doubt under it goes!
Good luck with your potential buyers, hopefully your home will sell fast. Mine is STILL up for grabs!
candace @ thecandace.com says
I’ve been using that same tactic all summer – stuff extra crap in your car and drive away! Insta-clean. :)
liz @ bon temps beignet says
Before we bought our big safe we hid stuff in trash cans & the dirty laundry pile when we would leave town.
Sara @ EF eDesigns says
My house is for sale as well, and I’ve found that the back of my lazy susan is a good place for storing piles of mail and magazines for those last minute drop bys. I figure they may open the cabinet, but likely won’t spin the lazy susan around!
Pam @ diy Design Fanatic says
We have our house on the market, as well and trash bags are our friend! I have two teenagers who can’t seem to keep their rooms tidy so if someone is coming over to see the house, everything gets dumped into trash bags and thrown in the attic! We “pared” down my oldest daughter’s walk in closet several months ago, but she still has over 200 tops and about 50 pairs of shoes. Today I am cleaning out several closets and the attic AGAIN- we’ve already had 2 garage sales and could probably have another one!
Karen says
Ok, so the advice is basically shove all the crap that is laying around your house in two garbage bags before the people show up. Love it!! :)
kathy says
I’ve always heard that a homeowner should not be home when a potential buyer comes – makes them uncomfortable, and they can’t see it as their own, too connected to the homeowner. Do you leave or plan to when someones asks to see it?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kathy,
Since we’re selling by owner we’re definitely home showing them around- but people seem to appreciate that they can ask us questions directly (ex: when did you install the new windows) and we can answer everything right away since we’re the ones in the know. So far so good!
xo,
s
Beth says
We have to do the same thing! We’re selling our tiny little 800 sq ft house and in an effort to make it look more spacious, we have to pack the trunk with a few things (like the dog bed). We’ve also put things in the washer and dryer when we’ve been in a hurry. We’ve had less than 20 minutes notice before and on more than one occasion!
Nicole says
Hysterical. This reminds me of when you’re dating someone new and you want to impress them the first time you come over. Throw everything in the closet!
My de cluttering rule: 1 in, 1 out!
Also if I things to put away, I make a pile and every time I pass it I have to take and put away 1 thing from the pile.
Julie says
We actually rented a storage unit when we put our house up for sale! It was fantastic.
amber says
When we were selling our house we had a 2 yr old, infant and I was expecting our 3rd (the reason for the house sale). My husband was traveling; I was often too tired to pick up all the toys/laundry/ect for a “Show Ready Clean” house. What did I do? I kept totes around the house. Then when someone called to see the house, I’d go through each room tossing any clutter into the totes. Once, I even put dirty dishes in the totes! (Just don’t buy the clear ones! ) Then I’d just place the totes in the garage. People will assume you are packing up to MOVE and really don’t think too much about extra totes in the garage. This trick SAVED me many times!
stephanie fantasia says
This post reminds me of something a friend of mine does. She bought an extra laundry basket (one of the rectangular large ones) and had some vinyl printed on the side that says “dump bin”. Whenever someone calls her last-minute to drop by and the house is a bit cluttered, she grabs her dump bin and starts loading it up with all the odds and ends that are not in their proper place but that she won’t have time to clean. She then hides the bin in her bathtub because, after all, who’s going to pull shower her curtain and look in there? Her rule is that immediately when they leave she has to clean it out and put everything away. Otherwise, she won’t have an empty dump bin for the next emergency. She also won’t have an empty bathtub.
Anywho, thought I’d share. :o) I hope you are loving being parents. I adore your home, your babe and your blog.
Carole says
you are smart cookies–we rented (small) a storage unit, but 98% of the stuff that was there never ended up at the new house…when we emptied it out, we recycled/donated/trashed almost everything…we wasted a lot of money storing things we didn’t need!
Lauren says
I have to say that is a really smart idea to grab two bags before a last minute showing and get rid of items super quick!
A while Apartment Therapy posted about ways people do a quick clean when they have unexpected guests and there were a few people who mentioned grabbing a trashbag and just throwing what was out of place (clothes, random pair of shoes on the stairs, etc) into the bag and then into a closet so they could have a “clean” house when unexpected guests showed up. I myself have done similar things (dishes in the oven, bag of stuff thrown in my closet) when I find out I have people coming over with hardly any notice and they never know the difference!
Susan says
This is a really great post! Also, I laughed and was excited to see some parts of your house in the latest Nest magazine again. They really love you guys too!
Wendy says
Hah! We know all to well the panic moment of “Oh snap! We have a showing!” and then it’s “Oh YAY! We have a showing!”
One time I had a particularly large mess. I was working on a craft project and I had stuff all over the place. I shoved it all into the dishwasher! Thankfully the dishwasher was empty at the time!
We’ve also put stuff into the clothes washer or dryer!
Mary @ stylefyles says
haahha, thanks putting an image of you two shoving books into a hamper into my mind. I didn’t really NEED the laugh, since it’s been a good day so far, but I was happy for it anyways.
Good luck!
Lemon says
LOL, this reminds me of one time my mom had unexpected guests come over. She didn’t have time to go through the piles of magazines, mail and other assorted whatnot on the kitchen table and counters and just shoved it all in the dishwasher.
Lisa says
When we were looking for houses last winter we saw one house (it was a short sale) where we didn’t get to see half the bedrooms and most of the basement because, “someone is sleeping in there.” You see some weird things, especially when you look at foreclosures and short sales. You’re way ahead of the curve with your de-cluttering and it will serve you well.
Word of warning about giving yourself 2-3 months after accepting an offer on your current home to find and close on a new one, seriously look even before you have a contract. Just don’t put an offer down until you have one and make the purchase contingent upon your sale.
We went through hell trying to close on our house thanks to some blizzards delaying the appraisal and our bank trying to delay closing. The attorney had never seen anything like it before, the bank tried to delay up until two hours before closing! We think it’s because our lock on the loan expired the next day and they wanted to give us a higher rate. That, or it was month end and they wanted our closing to go towards the next month’s quota. Or, to be honest, our loan processor was not the brightest bulb in the box. I could go on and on about how poorly she seemed to handle it but it let’s just say my favorite was when she made up a federal law that did not exist.
Good luck to you and I am laughing at the thought of what is in your hamper (but do NOT want to see!)
RT says
I love, love, LOVE that you admit to doing this and endorse it. We do this too, and it always makes me feel like we aren’t uncluttered or tidy enough. But knowing we aren’t the only ones helps a lot!
Emily @ The Happy Home says
we keep one, nearly-empty storage basket in an ikea bookcase for dumping stuff before people come! it’s very convenient. if we remember to empty it promptly :-)
Amy says
Ok, so you guys totally need to do a survey of your readers who’ve sold houses and ask where they hide things on their way out. :) As someone who has sold three houses in the last 10 years, I can tell you the dishwasher and refrigerator are GREAT “hiding” places. Also helpful? An empty laundry basket to pitch things in as you head out to the car, just take it with you.
You’re way less cluttered than me so you might not need all of the hiding places, but its fun to hear what people do.
Lisa says
My mother is getting ready to sell her house in 2011, so it is SO WONDERFUL to learn these tricks from you guys! We can use all the help we can get!!
Melanie Beth says
I love this! I would so do that with the laundry hamper! Good luck on selling your home!
Kristen says
That’s so great you had a good showing! Good luck!
When we were looking for houses I WISH people had actually tried to make their houses “appealing”. Most were so jammed with stuff that we could barely walk through let alone tell what the house actually looked like. Although, the 10 wandering cats, closets full of liquor house was entertaining to say the least.
So on behalf of house hunters, thank you for pairing down! ;-)
Tiffany says
<3 the cleaning idea. I really need to do this to my closet
XOOX,
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