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.
Adrielle says
So cool! Congrats on your first (I assume) showing! The trash bag is a great idea. I kind of do the same thing when my family has unexpected guests – since our dirt driveway is pretty long, I usually have time to throw stray stuff in a laundry basket and stash it in my dad’s office (we never bring guests in there). Oh, and I don’t recommend putting dirty dishes or anything else in the oven, because I love to bake and so I *always* checked the ovens in the homes my parents looked at when they were purchasing :).
maryann says
When we bought our house the sellers requested a late closing date (because their new house wasn’t ready), but we couldn’t agree to it because our mortgage rate was only locked in for X number of weeks.
I hope you have better luck than us…
Natasha says
We had our house on the market last year. I have two small boys and a large dog. It was near impossible to keep the house “perfect”. I too used the truck as a stash spot. The funny thing- that’s where my Mom was since she was sick and couldn’t be away from the house. That way, as soon as the people left, she could go back in. LOL
Chrissy says
HAHA… sometimes while I am reading your blog I have one of those “I wish they would have caught that on video” moments. I bet it was quite the sight to see you guys running around the house throwing stuff in bags and hampers :)
Sayward says
Great suggestion about storing things in your suitcases – my suitcase has doubled as my linen closet for years!
Jenny says
Oh my gosh! Your post brings back memories. We sold our 1960s ranch FSBO in May 2009. We’d done a lot of work on it and hated to leave it, but work was moving us to a new city. I kept it immaculate while it was on the market…fresh flowers, candles in every room, blinds at the perfect angle, etc.
One morning a lady called and requested a showing. I would always let the buyer come to see it as soon as they were able; I didn’t want anyone to lose interest. We set up an appointment for that afternoon at 6. I hurriedly left work at 5 for my 20 minute drive home. I thought surely 40 minutes would be fine to get everything ready and run the Swiffer.
As I walked in our kitchen, I almost fainted. Our sweet 4-month old lab puppy had the worst of accidents all over the kitchen, her metal crate and herself. I kicked into overtime and quickly changed clothes, moved the dog and her large crate outside all while calling my husband out of a work meeting to go by the vet for medicine and hurry home.
Forty minutes, almost a full bottle of 409, and a few candles later, our kitchen was spotless and my heart rate started to go down. Our potential buyer came and all went well–although it was hard to nicely convince her that she didn’t want to pet the puppy. She bought our house 3 days later!
Good luck with your sale! We sold ours in 19 days with multiple showings and open houses. It’s really a fun experience!
Kelly says
I have to agree with Rabbit. We live in a small rural town, so we saw some “interesting” things when we were touring through houses… including a handgun in plain sight at one house!!! (Needless to say, we didn’t buy that one!)
Good luck Youngsters!
Carol N. says
When we sold our home back in 1986, we had NO warning on one showing. I was actually outside working in the flower bed and the realtor drove up in the driveway with the clients. He apologized but I went ahead and let them go through…the house was pretty clean. And those are the ones who bought the house! They said that they could see the house was lived in and that it would suit them just as well. Still, it would have been nice to have a few minutes to put those few things away.
Paige says
We do the shove-that-under-the-bed method! It works wonders.
Christie says
Along the same line as hamper-hiding … I hid stuff in my washer and dryer when needing a quick pick-up before a showing. I figured people wouldn’t look in there, like they might in a fridge or dishwasher.
Jenn L @ peas and crayons says
OMG I thought I was the only person who tossed get-this-out-of-sight-now items into the hampers! Hilarious!
Since everyone is sharing their horror stories on here, I once toured a house that had ripped up carpet (spastic doggie) at every threshold to every room and also crazy scratches all down the doors and frames. Not the biggest deal in the world, but they weren’t going to fix it and expected us to pay a large pet deposit for our boring kitty and were asking a ridiculously high rental price. Silly people!
But we all know you guys wouldn’t do that =) Plus Burger is too well behaved for those shenanigans!
xo
Nichole@40daysof says
Welcome to House Faking!
http://40daysof.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/house-faking/
Kim says
I thought you were going to live in your house forever! What changed your mind?
YoungHouseLove says
Two people working at home plus a baby coming along definitely makes us feel more like we’re busting at the seams of our tiny casa! Plus we love home reno and since we’re running out of stuff to do we’re anxious for a new project. I never thought I’d be able to say goodbye to this lovely house (even though John claims that he knew we would all along) but it’s a great move for our family and our home improvement loving selves. It’s definitely bittersweet but we can’t wait to find another house in need of some major love!
xo,
s
Bethany says
ha! Nice…When we had our house listed by owner, we used laundry baskets to haul out to the car before potential buyers came over. Every time it seemed like there was a little bit more to add in there.
And selling by owner totally rocks!! Very few fees! Our buyer saw our house on craigslist (which was free to list where I live!) and brought along their agent who took care of all the legal stuff! So we kept all those Realtor fees in our pocket!
jules says
Did the viewers know about the blog before they asked for a showing?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! They were actually the parents of one of our readers. Such a small world.
xo,
s
Chanda says
I’m so giggling at this! We just sold our old house in June (we bought a new fixer upper as well) after being listed for 7 months. The things we did were similar! I’m sure the neighbors thought we were loons when I was shoving baskets of clean laundry in the back of my car. I learned that showing calls always come at the worst time. Our first showing was when I was right in the middle of tearing out the old rotten front porch rails and my DH was out of town. Thankfully my MIL zoomed over to help!
Ann says
Would love to know what you tossed and donated.
I would LOVE to have the “full” bags even more…. too bad you probably won’t ship them to Phx! :) I love your house and everything in it…
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. Mostly junk, haha.
xo,
s
Michelle H says
Ok, I totally agree with the bag-it system, however I would recommend using a DIFFERENT coloured bag than you do for your trash. Just in case a certain husband thinks he’s being really helpful and takes the trash out and then you can’t find that bag of stuff that you stashed that you totally meant to go through one more time… not that that has ever happened to me (can you feel the sarcasm?)
When doing this trick I use clearish blue recycling bags you can buy at the grocery store next to the black trash bags. Works well and the husband knows not to pick it up and throw it in the trash!
Lynn says
When we looked at houses, we always looked in the shower to see what kind of condition it was in. At one house, in ALL three bathrooms, the shower stalls were filled pretty much floor to ceiling with misc. stuff! So thats ANOTHER place to stash stuff…though admittedly I think most people peek in them anyway :)
kami says
We always hid stuff in our washer and dryer. People shouldn’t be snooping in there :)
Ashley @ According to Ashley says
Ya’ll are so hilarious! My parents had their house on the market a few years ago and they totally did the “bag it” trick. They threw the bags in the trunk, got the dog in the car, and drove away just in the nick of time!
Lauren says
We just moved about a year and a half ago. We packed most of the unnecessary stuff in plastic bins and stored them in the attic or basement for the move. I will say though, we also used giant CLEAR trash bags for the move so we could easily determine what was inside and where it should go without having to label or open them back up. (blankets, pillows, other un-breakables.) Maybe an idea so you don’t donate the wrong bag! Good luck!
GreenInOC says
I have some family members that sold their house in this bad market, for over asking price after 3 days on the market and a 30 day escrow.
They got a POD and staged the house – basically they packed up their belongings in the POD, only keeping the barest of essentials and then staged the place with their own furniture and accessories. They did this with a 1 and 2 year old, over the course of a week. Then, they went out of town for 10 days so that the house could be shown at ANY time with no worries about kiddos, pets, messes, meals, etc…
I hope your showing went famously and you are having fun looking for your new abode!
They had to come back from their vacation a week early so they could finalize the sale!
Hayley says
On the other side of the coin, here’s a trick to see if there is less space than you think in a house you are buying…
As you walk up the driveway, always have a peek in their car if you can see it. If it’s crammed with stuff, you know they are pulling this trick!
But that said, we’ve all done it… I once had a toaster in my laundry bin during a veiwing!
Bethany says
Thank goodness our beds had bed skirts when our place was on the market! Extra kids toys went under the bed to instantly de-kid the bedrooms.
Hayley says
Hi S & J,
Just going back to your goals for this year – this seems to me the perfect post you could have started with. Instead of all the ‘step one, step two’ etc, you could have just blogged ‘OMG veiwer coming in an hour! Just enough time to throw some clutter in garbage bags and hide them in the car’.
Almost more like tweeting, just short, interesting posts, about what is actually going on at Casa Petersik -now-.
Loving the new aims by the way, and the more relaxed schedule as well. Good luck with the sale!
tarynkay says
I can appreciate staging, though we only ended up seeing one really “staged” house. The dish of complimentary chocolates didn’t make up for the nicotine-yellowed plastic crown molding, though. The house we ended up buying was the opposite of staged- we were walking through our neighborhood one day and picked up a flyer for a house. About five minutes later, we ran into an older couple on the street. They saw the flyer and told us it was their house. The husband offered to show it to us, and the wife was obviously flustered, so I said it was fine, we’d come back another day. The husband insisted, so we went back to look at it. As soon as we got inside, the wife ran to the bathroom to flush the toilet. I started laughing and I said, I do that, too! (We were in the middle of a drought and I guess we were both letting it mellow in the name of water conservation.) We ended up both making friends with them and buying their house, so it all worked out!
pam in nc says
I think the majority of us would end up confusing the stash bags with trash bags. Know your limits people! (pointing to myself!) I will use boxes instead – I never throw away boxes without going through them several times :)
Sue says
We’re trying to sell right now too and I found a good method for cleaning out all those little nooks and crannies. I made a list called the “The Purge List” and it included every single place that stuff can be stored in – bathroom cabinets, closets, even those 2 little drawers in the coffee table. Whenever I had a minute, I’d hit a section on the list. Of course, all the “list making” and “checking off” was an enormous pleasure for me but so was seeing all these spaces get cleaned out! (And yes, I donated, tossed and kept.) No matter how much storage space I have, I will never be a hoarder – that’s what 12 years of living in Manhattan will do for you!
Stephanie says
While people might look in the dishwasher & closets, they shouldn’t look in your dryer unless that is staying with the house. I used our dryer as a last minute storage spot when people were coming over to look at our house – just make sure to not start it! :)
Gina says
Love it. I have two little kiddos and being bound and determined not to let our lifestyle get in the way of any showings, I figured out many tricks like these. I would keep a large laundry basket by the back door and every time there was a showing, I just scooped everything into it that was out. When we got home it would force us to go through and put stuff away. It was usually mail, papers, art projects, misc. toys, etc. Another great trick (because with two boys under three that are 18 months apart, laundry piles up FAST), was to use that same lawn and leaf trash bag to collect up all the laundry. While there was a showing we’d go have a ‘picnic’ at the laundry mat with a sack lunch and the portable DVD player. My boys loved it, and having anywhere from 5-10 loads of laundry going simultaneously was heaven. I could get a weeks worth of laundry done in one showing of ‘Cars’ Nice.
Monica says
I try to do that every few months (or at least with every seasonal change) and it has helped me to avoid and get rid of so much clutter over the years. I don’t know where I would be (aside from being trapped under a pile of stuff!) if it weren’t for that habit that my grandmother instilled in me!
lisa says
when people were coming over i put my electric frypan and sandwich maker in the over that i hadn’t cleaned and totally forgot about them ’till i turned the oven on one day to heat up and guess what??? yep both were ruined!
Kayakgirl73 says
I wouldn’t put stuff in the tub for a showing, maybe for a party but not a house showing. I always check the tub to see what condition it’s in as bad tile can mean leaks and major money needing to be spent. I used baskets under the bed for some quick stashes. For paper clutter like the mail I had a cute basket that sat on top of my entertainment center. To see in tha basket you would need to be well over six feet tall. Stashing in Appliances is bad if the appliances are staying, since folks will sometimes check their condition out.
Wendy says
My sister used to keep a large empty laundry basket on hand for those last minute showings. She’d run around grabbing up all the misc stuff and then shove it in the car. It’s a little more rigid than a trash bag and might be easier to carry around while putting everything back when you get home… or just leave it in there for next time!
bhaguart.com says
love it, i must do the same thing..i always feel so hurry trying to hide everything
Amanda says
I love reading your blog and decided to look around about selling your first home. I know this is an older post but all the tips are very helpful! I completely understand in throwing things in random places to get rid of clutter… i placed dirty dishes that wouldn’t fit in the dishwasher in the washing machine! lol i guess you got to do what you got to do in a time crunch!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, love it! Good luck with everything!
xo,
s