Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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What We Did To Sell Our House Faster By Owner

Ok, so today our house looks like this. So – spontaneous decision! – while we get settled and find our underwear, this week is going to be moving week! Turns out you guys still wanted to hear a whole lot about the sale of our current house. So let’s do the dang thing. Here’s what we plan to cover in honor of Spontaneous Moving Week:

Dated Kitchen Cluttered With Items From Moving In
  • How we staged/sold our house (including a glance at our real estate flyer, a list of what we changed before showings, etc)
  • What we made when we sold our house vs. what we put in- budget breakdown included!
  • Empty house pics (dude, it’s trippy to see your house all echoey and vacant, but it’s pretty awesome closure too)
  • Moving day photos of our new house (we love having this Day One post from our last house to look back on)
  • A house hunting post about a few other homes we casually checked out (sort of like these that we did last time)
  • Other stuff that I’m forgetting right now because our house looks like this:
Kitchen Area Cluttered With Pillows And Other Items From Recent Move In

So onto the first bullet! We got a lot of questions like this:

“Did you stage your current home to sell it? I’d be interested to hear if you’ve made any small changes/put things in storage in order to make it seem less personal to potential buyers.”

“Would you be willing to share your For Sale flyer (obviously without any too-personal details like price and address)?

So here’s the little double sided flier we made in Photoshop (minus the address, price, and our contact info). Just click the image below to see it larger.

Flyer For Sale By Owner Real Estate Listing

And here’s the back (again, just click it to see it bigger).

Back of Flyer For Sale By Owner Real Estate Listing

Turns out we’re not really staging rule followers in the traditional “neutralize and de-personalize” sense. The whole repaint-rooms-so-they’re-all-neutral-and-remove-all-personal-photos-from-the-wall approach isn’t really something we subscribe to since we sold our first house by owner without doing that, and it seemed to work out for us again this time around.

So when we were showing our house to potential buyers our frame hallway was still very much intact. We think it’s helpful to show off how cozy and personal a home can be. Chances are that it could “speak” to a prospective buyer more than a stark and stripped down house might anyway.

Hallway With Lots Of White Picture Frames On Every Wall

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t do anything at all before a showing. Instead of taking things away, we mostly focused on making things look their best. Here’s our list:

  • We over-seeded the lawn a few weeks prior and let the rain do its thing to help the grass look fresh and green.
  • We mulched the garden beds and planted a few annuals (it definitely ups curb appeal and sends a “this house is cared for” vibe)
Front Of Modern Brick Ranch With Porch Columns And Window Boxes

  • We organized closets, the attic, the basement (basically any nook people could peek into should look functional and not stuffed-to-the-gills)
  • We wiped down counters in the kitchen and bathrooms and quickly polished the faucets with some Mrs. Meyers so they looked and smelled clean
  • We rolled up the rug in the cooking part of the kitchen and stashed it at the new house, just to show off the cork flooring a bit more
Cork Floors In White Kitchen

  • We mowed the grass and used a leaf blower on the driveway, patio, and deck to clear off any errant pollen/twigs/leaves/acorns
  • We touched up any paint that was scuffed in doorways, baseboards, etc
Bathroom Vanity Nook With Quatrefoil Mirror Over Sink

  • We also tucked Burger’s food and water away since it’s stored in our walk-in closet and we realized that might be weird for non-dog-folks who were trying to feel at home.
  • We removed Clara’s bath toys along with her potty seat and sink stool from the hall bathroom so people without kids didn’t just see it as a “kids bathroom” (we left her other toys in baskets in the living room, nursery, and playroom since those seemed easy enough to see past)
  • We removed the bath mats in every bathroom to make them seem more spacious and show off the tile (matted stepped-on-with-shoes bath mats aren’t always that pretty, which tends to happen during showings).
Bathroom With Vintage Basketweave Black And White Tile

  • We vacuumed, dusted, and generally cleaned things up (this included following Clara around for the last half-hour before the showing and singing the clean up song about a million times while we dumped stuff into bins and baskets)
  • I took a damp rag with a bit of mild soap (Mrs Meyers) and scrubbed the front door, which was still glossy and yellow, but had a haze of pollen. It really made a difference and only took five minutes!
Yellow Front Door Open To Brick Ranch For Sale

  • We left the separate entry basement door unlocked during showings so people could easily check out that space without trekking down there and then finding themselves locked out
  • We put a little note on the microwave cabinet in the kitchen and said “there’s a vented microwave in here!” so people knew where to look
  • We tossed a runner on the table on the deck along with a few cups (even though the furniture came with us, adding some color and that sit-right-down vibe couldn’t hurt)
Deck Built Between Original Brick Ranch Home And Addition

Most of those items just had to be done once before the first showing, and then keeping them up for the following ones wasn’t too bad. Sure, getting a toddler and a dog out of the house on time before each one was a little hectic, but we feel really lucky to have only had three showings this time around (we had 14 last time!). What do you guys do when your house is on the market? Any other tips for folks who are about to list?

Comments

  1. Mary says

    Do you know how lucky you are to just have to move across town? In 3 weeks we are moving from Memphis to Santa Barbara! AND to a much smaller house! My tips for staging are: to PURGE! Clean out closets so you can see most of the floor & rent a storage unit if you have to! Also, have a friend come over to help you stage, sometimes it is easier for them to look at your house with a fresh eye & suggest things you have a hard time seeing because you live there everyday! We are not brave enough to go the sell by owner route, so we hire a good agent & LISTEN to him/her! (crazy, I know!) I get a little crazy when my house is on the market:constantly cleaning & sweeping & wiping down sinks…I yelled at my 8 yr old son when he went to the bathroom because “I am not hearing that hit the water, you better wipe that down!”. Bad mom! But we did sell the house in 7 days! Can’t wait to see what you do with the new house! Good luck!

    Reply

  2. Beth says

    Thanks so much for showing the “before” pictures with everything in piles. This is real life! The transformation is what motivates me. If Sherry got it done I can too!! Ha! Ha! What I really need is one of these people who are correcting your spelling to come wipe down my baseboards since they have so much time!

    Reply

  3. Jenny says

    Typo alert (I can’t see it in the comments already)

    “probably thanks to doing lots of fun things with here here leading up to the move”

    Do you mean ‘lots of fun things with her leading up to the move’?

    Good luck unpacking and arranging (that’s my favourite part!)

    Reply

    • Jessica says

      Seriously?! You took the time to correct that? Typos happen to even the most careful editors. Clearly, you can deduce that she meant “her here,” without taking the time to make yourself feel superior and correct someone’s typo. Good grief, it’s obnoxious!

  4. Katherine M. says

    Congratulations on getting moved to your new home!

    When my husband and I sold our home five years ago, we requested real estate agents give us at least 12 hours notice so I could get the dogs to a sitter for the day. This also enabled me to bake chocolate chip cookies for each showing. I bought quite a few packs of those “break and bake” cookie dough packs and just popped some in the oven before we left for the showing. The house smelled like cookies and we heard people kept referring to our house as “that house with the really good chocolate chip cookies.” =)

    Reply

  6. Steph Nelson says

    So crazy that this day is here!! Glad everything seems to have went OK, no trucks in the ditch or anything!! The bedroom rug looks great in the living room! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha! Clara’s new favorite movie. She walks around telling people she has a brother named “Broze” (clearly based on Buzz) and everyone looks at me like I’m prego and I’m like “uh, no – she watched Home Alone, and he’s imaginary.”

      xo
      s

  8. Sophie says

    Moving week! So exciting! By the looks of your Instagram, Burger’s taken this whole moving thing in his stride. Has he settled into the new place yet?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yeah, dude thinks he’s the king of this house already. Haha! He found the best sun spot this morning and is still sprawled out in it.

      xo
      s

  10. Ginny @ Goofy Monkeys says

    Thank you so much for sharing this!

    First – I’m secretly glad your just-moved-into house looks like mine did when we moved :)

    Second – I love reading through your list of things you did for staging. I totally agree on your resistance to neutralize and depersonalize, but the reality is that your choices were already tasteful and not too too too specific (no shrine to your favorite band in a corner of the living room or something).

    Congrats on the move!

    Reply

    • Plein Jane says

      “Shrine to your favorite band” — haha! When we bought our last house, the realtor confessed she made the owners take out a “lifetime collection of kachina dolls.” Good call. I’m not sure I could have looked past that.

  11. Becky O. says

    Did you guys leave a secret note for the new owners to find like you did in your first house? :) :)

    -Becky

    Reply

  12. Sabrina says

    That first pic is sensory overload! All your modern/stylish stuff with the brick and orange of yesteryear! Congratulations guys! Can’t wait to see what you do with all of that haha

    Reply

  13. Liz says

    ahhh! i love your style! i have a nice, (fairly) large home… wouldn’t you want to come decorate it. i pay in good food and lots of kiddo hugs! i have the hardest time decorating, but i have a great home and lots of wall/floor space. it needs to feel lived in!!!

    Reply

    • Michelle M. says

      Maybe you guys can do some “What would Young House Love Do” posts too! Like Liz could send in a picture of her most problematic room or something and you could write a post for them, maybe with a mood board or layout or something! That would be really fun to see and would maybe stretch you guys in creative ways without having to actually DO the work haha.

    • ashley says

      Michell’s, how funny, I have been thinking the exact same thing!! That’s even the title I thought about :) People could even share thrift or consignment finds, and Sherri and John could describe how they’d work their magic on them. How fun!!

  14. Karen Q. says

    Congratulations and Welcome Home!! :)
    This post was so helpful, really all your posts rock, but especially this one- we’re in the process of sprucing up our house and looking to sell in about a year (no real rush but boy does a year fly by) and had always wondered about staging do’s and don’ts, paint updates, what to include on the listing, and all that fun jazz. Can’t wait to read your other moving related posts and see you work your magic in the new digs. Thank you for including us in this new adventure!

    Reply

  15. Helene S says

    Hello,
    Congrats on the new house and swift sell of this one!
    I am not a comment leaver usually, but i have a question :
    Being as i am a foreigner living in foreignland, I wondered at a few practical things like , apparently when people move in the US you live all the appliances behind? (even if they are brand new and miles better than those you will be getting? or am i wrong about that?) And curtains? and lighting?
    I am sorry if i sound nosy, it sounds so bizarre to me. What about the great light fixtures you bought for the kitchen, do you not get to take them with you? But what if they are not the new owners taste? IS it totally not done to leave a bare bulb?
    Well, i was just wondering, it seems real estate deals and moving is a whole different business in France…
    Keep up the good work.
    Good luck with this new project.
    Helene.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Here, typically whatever you show in your house during a showing that’s attached (appliances, lighting, curtains, built-ins, etc) is assumed to be sold with the house unless your flyer/listing says something specific like “appliances and curtains do not convey” – which is actually pretty unusual. If you’re marketing it as turn-key, the folks interested in buying it want it to be move in ready. Also, a lot of appliances/curtains/lights here only work in one home (ex: bringing your fridge or light to the new house might reveal that it’s too big for that nook – and packing up all of your curtains makes less sense if you have a different number of windows in each room or need them to be a different height anyway). So for that reason, folks selling completely updated homes usually convey those items (you get a much higher asking price if you sell a house completely finished) and folks who sell their home as a fixer-upper typically don’t leave great curtains/lights/appliances behind (but they get less when it comes to their sale price). That’s why we like to buy fixer uppers and then use the money we saved on the price of the home to upgrade things :)

      xo,
      s

    • Anne says

      I’ve heard that whether or not you leave appliances is also a regional thing in the States. Like in Texas, sellers take all appliances with them.

    • Alisa says

      not everywhere in Texas. We’ve lived in Austin and the Dallas area and all houses have had the appliances stay with the house. Definitely a regional thing!

    • Jennie says

      Must be regional, because where I live, sellers take everything along, especially curtains. Example: When we bought our house, it did not even have LIGHT BULBS in it when we moved in. Luckily it was daytime! There were a few fixtures, but we replaced them all. Also, no toilet paper holder thingies when we got there, which is fine, because I got new ones.

      All this to say, in the area where I live, curtains never convey, appliances like washer / dryer almost never convey, and if there are a few light fixtures, oh happy day!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      No way! We like to leave light bulbs, toilet paper, and a roll of paper towels. We also like to leave a bottle of wine with a note for the new folks :)

      xo
      s

    • Jennie says

      You guys are very classy to leave a note and wine, and I definitely agree that light bulbs are a good thing to leave behind. That was the first thing we had to go buy on moving day! All I can say is, the people we bought our house from … welllllllll …. yeah. Sigh.

    • Mandy says

      No light bulbs?! Never heard that one before! HA! Who could even be bothered to go around removing light bulbs in the midst of moving?? Man, some people….

    • Alex says

      My mom would always leave one of those plastic shower curtain liners up in a bathroom, reasoning that moving is hard work and they should at least be able to take a shower even if they haven’t unpacked their shower curtain

    • Alex says

      :) Also a roll of paper towels, toilet paper, and bread/salt/wine, etc.

      I’m wondering, though, what do you do with the stuff you leave behind? I would assume you’d leave behind paint (at least the colors used in the house), but do you write up some kind of guide that says what the trim is painted in, and all the room colors? Or just leave them with the names and no paint? Or…? Just curious!

  16. Sarah says

    We just moved after Christmas into some temporary housing until our house is built this fall (2 moves *sigh*). When showing our house I cleaned windows again (as much light as possible) counters and taps. Then loaded my SUV with all laundry hampers/baskets and put the majority of our shoes in a tote. Also walked around with a box under my arm to load up extra doodads, frames, and anything that looked a tad busy. Also tucked away items that we usually left out on counter – toaster, kettle. Wanted as much extra space as possible in the house and nothing to distract them.
    Totally agree with leaving Clara in crib, one major change at a time!
    Love your posts and eagerly await more :-)

    Reply

  17. Mia says

    So now that you are “on site,” how does it feel to no longer factor in a to/fro commute time into any New House projects?! A)s’wonderful; b)s’marvelous; c)your description

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, it’s awesome to actually live there! Going back and forth to lay those floors in the final week got me a little bit nervous. Haha!

      xo
      s

  18. Kelli says

    Great post – I hardly ever comment because you guys always get so many – but I really, really enjoy your blog! You both have a great way of “talking” through your writing. Looking forward to the next house and all the stuff you’ll do!

    Reply

  20. House Crazy Sarah says

    Oh you are VERY lucky to have had success after only 3 showings! My house has been on the market for a year now with literally hundreds of showings and I go through the whole cleaning/hiding/decluttering routine EVERY dang time the house is shown! It is completely exhausting, especially when the potential buyer is like: “it’s nice, but we want a newer house” – then why did you come to look at a house built in the 1870’s???? ahhhh!!!
    Plus I have kids and a dog and that makes it 10x harder!

    Reply

  21. Em says

    I have read your blog a lot, but this is the first time posting. I wanted to say congrats! What a fun adventure ahead. :)

    We sold our house last year; we had fun colors in nearly every room and didn’t de-personalize, and it sold in a week. A solid, well-cared for house sells itself when it’s priced right.

    Reply

  22. Anne says

    I don’t understand the whole “paint your house neutral colors” thing. New buyers are probably going to paint over it anyway. I hate it on the house shows when people complain about paint colors. It’s the easiest, cheapest thing to fix.

    Reply

    • Lisa E says

      I totally agree. Sometimes watching those shows makes me crazy. However, some of those same people that complain are self-admittedly lazy and don’t want to do ANY work, even painting.

  24. Lauren @ The Highlands Life says

    Great tips! I would love to sell our house by owner when the time comes but my husband feels a duty to use the real estate agent who we used to buy it. So who knows. But these are great things to keep in mind if, and when the time comes.

    Reply

  25. Heather says

    Great tips! I was wondering if my Burger is enjoying himself finding new spots to nap etc. When we moved it was like hide and seek trying to find our cats new napping places :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, he acts like he’s the king of the house already! He claimed a pile of pillows last night as his perch, and this morning found a little sun spot in the dining room. Very cute to see where he ends up.

      xo
      s

  26. Plein Jane says

    Congratulations on the move! Did you use movers, or did you do that by yourselves as well? I can somehow imagine John at the wheel of a moving truck, with a Petersik caravan of stuff following behind!

    Reply

  27. Casey says

    Love reading about this process!
    I think it would also be pretty rad to hear your packing strategies. I’m sure you guys must be pros at that by now. How far ahead of the move do you start? Do you do one room at a time, or sort of peel the whole house down in layers? Any box-labeling systems you can clue us in on? Do you purge as you pack?

    I’ve been in my Museum District apartment for over 4 years now, and have accumulated a TON of crap. Before living in this place I used to move about every 6-8 months, so I was pretty efficient and kept my belongings to the bare minimum. But now that I’m a certified pack-rat, I’m TERRIFIED of my next move! I’d love to get some tips on how you keep your stuff (and your brains) organized!

    Thanks!

    Reply

  28. Blair R says

    This is your house, and obviously not mine, but can we vote to leave that rug in the living room with Karl? They look great together! I almost didn’t even notice the salmon color on the walls, because I was staring at how great the greys and that pop of aqua went together. :) Love following your journey hope you get some rest soon!

    Reply

  29. Kathryn says

    For me it’s all kinds of official now that the “House Tour” tab at the top takes you to “Current House”, “Second House”, and “First House”. Now, THAT’S legit!

    Reply

  30. Liz says

    One thing I hate the most is that stage, when all your furniture gets dumped at the house…. DISASTER!!!! LOL!!!

    But, once things start moving along, it all manages to settle into it’s designated spot… With alot of thought put into it, haha… (of course, eh?) ;)

    One thing we did too, like you guys did. Was we too had the boys bedrooms all ready. That was also a must for us, they have to feel at home.

    Thanks for the update, can’t wait to see your ‘always’ wonderful choices you’ve decided for this home.

    Liz

    Reply

  31. Kelley says

    As a home buyer (we’re actively looking for a home) let me share from my perspective what I see and what keeps me interested in a home (and know that this is just us–we look past the carpet & paint & wallpaper).

    *Be mindful when you take photos: Before you take photos of your house for your flyer, get the dishes out of the sink, put your laundry away, put the mail in a drawer, etc. We see so many photos of homes that are unkept it makes a challenging first impression. There is a difference between “lived in” and “cluttered/messy”.

    *Sherry’s spot on about closets: We know closets are a catch all. But if you take a moment to organize the stuff, it makes it easier for us to see the closet. One home we went into I thought everything would tumble down on top of us it was so jam packed.

    *Be honest about the age of “stuff”: How old is the roof? The windows? The siding? The appliances? The furnace? Hot water heaters? AC? It sounds crazy, but THOSE items mean more to us than the fact you but built ins in the family room.

    Congrats again on selling your home! Looking forward to your updates on the new one!

    Reply

  32. Tirsa says

    Congrats on having made it through the move.

    Some tips from when we sold our house:
    I refused to completely depersonalize our house. We did clear away some thing to make it look more spacious.
    The paintings that were changed were replaced with ones that we still enjoyed.
    I refused to change anything in DS room – I just kept it organized.
    We repainted one room and the bathroom that had very dark colors only because the agent insisted so much-still it was to colors that I loved. So people who came in for showings saw lots of greens and yellows and commented how bright and sunny and airy our house was.

    We sold the house after 4 showings!

    Don’t be afraid to keep pretty colors and always keep your little ones in mind when making changes. Their rooms are very special to them.

    Reply

  33. Sarah says

    So exciting! I hope you love this house. Can you explain why you have chosen to not reveal the listing price?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Everything’s public record so if someone really wants to know once it goes through they can figure it out, but here on our blog we share “only what we’d talk about to close friends and family members at the dinner table.” So since we have no idea what price they buy or sell their houses for, we opted not to share that stuff here (it would feel weird to tell the world at large some things we don’t even discuss with our family, ya know?).

      xo
      s

    • Mandy says

      “only what we’d talk about to close friends and family members at the dinner table.”

      Interesting that house prices are off limits for you guys with close friends and family… That’s surprising because with my friends and family (and even not so close friends), house prices are a pretty common topic of discussion. I’ve actually always heard the info offered up freely! I’m like, how could you NOT know what your parents or sister or friend paid for their house!? I actually think it’s quite an important factor in being properly educated about the value of money for house in a certain area.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Really?! Are we just outliers? I assumed it was pretty common for people to not discuss what they paid for their houses with friends/parents/siblings since we don’t on either side of our families! Anyone? We also don’t know how big people’s engagement rings are or what their annual salaries are. Literally, we couldn’t even fathom a guess at those things since we just don’t chat about them. But I do think we’re pretty savvy about knowing house value (just by looking up comps on zillow, keeping an eye on the market, etc) :)

      xo
      s

    • Jenny says

      We talk about housing costs and salaries with our close friends and family. We even discuss how much we save per month, put into retirement, insurance costs ect. It’s definitely not a universal topic of discussion. Usually if a close friend brings up the number (of their salary, house ect) then we’ll discuss ours too. It makes some people uncomfortable, and it’s usually pretty clear that someone does not want to discuss money issues, and so we don’t in those situations. I would say the majority of our friends/family (80%) discuss those things readily.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      So interesting! I could see how if a close relative or friend brought it up and told us about theirs we’d share back, it just honestly has never come up! But I totally agree that if someone is sitting across from you at a table spilling a secret you’d spill one back (although I still don’t think we’d share it with the entire internet, haha!).

      xo,
      s

    • Mandy says

      Even when your relatives or friends are selling their houses (or you), prices are never mentioned? I seriously can’t imagine having a conversation with, honestly, anyone about selling a house without listing price, offers, selling price, etc. coming up! Your parents don’t even know how much your houses cost (even your first house??)? I want my parents’ opinion. But then again, my parents are in the industry and know their shit when it comes to houses.

      Anyway, this wasn’t meant as a knock to you guys! I’m just honestly surprised. Guess some people are more formal when it comes to things like that! :)

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Sometimes we’ll talk about something general like “we offered 15K under, hope they go for it!” Or “we only have $300 worth of inspection items to take care of!” but I honestly don’t think any friend or relative has ever asked us for the price! And both John’s parents and my mom moved in the last few years and we have no idea what they sold their homes for or paid for their new ones. We just knew info like when we should show up to help move boxes :)

      xo
      s

    • Lesley says

      We don’t discuss money in our family either – “it’s not done.” I think Oscar Wilde best captures the unspoken reason why in our case, “There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.” Ann Landers has spoken on the topic as well, referring to class having nothing to do with money but of being “an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky.” Talking about money is seen by many as cocky, an attempt to compare how much more you have to spend or how much more savvy you are in saving.

      That being said, if both parties of a conversation are willing to share, then by all means.

    • Kristen @ LoveK Blog says

      I agree with Sherry, we never discuss personal financial information with friends/family. We had a couple people ask how much we bought our house for and it was really awkward to say “I’m not going to tell you that”. We were just taught that it’s not your business to know those things.

    • Alex says

      Yeah, that topic’s off limits in our family, too. My parents always joke about how you don’t share 1) what’s on your paystub and 2) what happens in the voting booth. #2 is taken much more seriously in our family. I don’t think even my parents tell each other who they vote for! I remember the first election after my boyfriend and I were together he came out of the auditorium going on about who he voted for and I was so shocked! “Ack! LA LA LA LA!” I didn’t want to hear it! :) :)

  34. Dee says

    Great “staging”! I am a Realtor and I specialize in staging. I agree with you that it’s not about totally depersonalizing or completely neutralizing. We’ve personally sold 8 houses and I’ve always left my personal pictures and color choices in the house. I think it’s about appealing to the largest portion of buyers. If someone’s style is hyper contemporary or they have a penchant for animal print EVERYWHERE, I might suggest neutralizing. If you see your style in magazines or on the web. Keep it! Glad the move went well.

    Reply

  35. Maggie Budiono says

    hi John & Sherry,
    Congrats on the new home!! So excited to see the house transforms to a better one :)
    Btw, are you going to write a special post about packing in/out? Will be a nice tips for me (going to move sooner or later)

    Reply

  37. Amanda says

    We just sold our house in 6 days back in April…the hardest part was that I did six showings in 3 days, with my husband out of town for work and a 6 year old, 3 year old, and a 7 month old to clean up after and get out the door…sigh! So thankful it only took 6 days (from listing to signing the papers.) I agree that once the house was staged it was fairly easy to maintain – even with the hooligans running around. The best thing for us was to schedule the showings over dinner time. I could do all the clean up I needed to during nap time (the oldest was at school) and then the girls thought it was really special to head somewhere fun for dinner each night. I think back to that time though and how good our house looked compared to now (getting ready to move in 3 weeks) and I must have had super powers at the time. Hasn’t looked that good since and thankfully I only had to keep up appearances for 6 days!

    Reply

  38. Stacy says

    We just sold our home and thankfully are going to rent it back from the new owner so we aren’t homeless while we look for a new home. But, when we put the house on the market we held a yard sale to get rid of all our unwanted stuff in the basement. Anything not sold we took to good will. I also hired The Maids, a cleaning service, to come in and do a thorough cleaning. I’m almost due with my 2nd child and can’t get down on my hands and knees to get the corners or the baseboards as clean as I would like. My husband and I cleaned out closets and got rid of clothes we no longer wore, packed up books so our bookcases didn’t look so cluttered and made sure we de-cluttered our countertops and our kitchen island (just a cheap kitchen cart from IKEA). I got my husband in the habit of making the bed and taught my 2 year old how to make her bed – she also helps me when my husband isn’t home to do it. And we started leaving a laundry basket in our dining room for dirty clothes so in the morning we could easily take it down to the basement after showers.
    Now just to find a new place to make our home so we can get moved in and get settled!

    Reply

  39. Morgan says

    Your flyers are awesome. I think I am going to give these to my assistant so we can revamp some marketing tools with our listings. Thank you so much for the post. I am so excited to hear about your moving adventures.

    Reply

  40. Mckenzie says

    My house just went live on the market today. I have a two year old and watch another 2 year old during the day. I fell like my house always looks like I was robbed by 2 foot tall bandits!!! Clean ans sparkly from 2 feet and up, though! This post gives me hope that I can manage to get ‘er done before showing time..

    Reply

  41. thelady says

    So much dark paneling! I’ll be excited to see that go. I’m really enjoying watching your progress and getting ideas for my first home which I should be moving into in September.

    Reply

  42. Jennifer says

    When my BFF moved she had 10mo twin boys and a 2.5 yo boy and a husband who had already moved to the new town with his new job. This left her picking up before showings. My favorite story was she gated all 3 in their playroom and sprinkled Cheerios on the floor for them to find and gather. She picked up the house then buckled them all in the car (in their garage) ran back in to clean up the Cheerios, in an otherwise clean playroom!! It makes me laugh every time I think about it!

    Reply

  43. Haley says

    I want to commend you on the organized appearance of your moving clutter! We just moved into our first home (!) and it looks like a bomb went off. Our garage is more organized than anything in the house because we hired movers to do all the furniture and heavier items (books) and had them put everything in there while we paint/figure out where things go. The kitchen and clothing that we ‘packed’ – more like shoved desperately into boxes, bags, sheets that we tied together, whatever was handy – is leaving me overwhelmed. One of us thought it was a good idea to pack our toothbrush cup, complete with toothbrushes and other dental cleaning things, in our bathroom trashcan. GROSS!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man, it’s all an illusion! We have piles of things that make no sense (one shoe, a sponge, and an alarm clock?) so we’re just trying to focus on small areas and have a good laugh at all of the weird things we find in random piles!

      xo
      s

  44. Kayla says

    Dying for more photos of Clara’s room….it seems like you are blending the big girl and nursery together. So cute!!

    Reply

  45. Maureen says

    When we sold our first house, I always cleaned with a good-smelling product right before every showing. I think that if a house smells clean, it is more desirable!

    Reply

  46. Tana says

    Can’t wait for you guys to start sprucing up your house!

    Can I just say how lucky you are that you only had THREE showings??? Or 14, for that matter. When we sold our last house we had 40 showings. With 3 little kids. And our house was beautifully staged and decluttered. I wanted to die by the end.

    Reply

  48. Margaret says

    Did the new owners ask to keep your frames or mention anything about them? If I was buying your house I don’t think I could picture that hallway without them.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      They didn’t! We did mention that we’d caulk and touch up every nail hole, so I hope that brought them comfort that the wall won’t look like swiss cheese :)

      xo
      s

  49. Robin says

    that brick wall makes me happy, LOL.
    It is so YOU.

    Looking forward to this new phase, and hope your servers can handle it, too!
    :)

    I predict more interest than ever. This is so exciting for those of us who find you so entertaining!

    Reply

  50. Val says

    Thank you for indulging me with chaotic messy house pictures! They really make my Monday so much better.

    Glad to hear Clara is transitioning so well! Smart to let her “try out” the new house a few times before settling in. And I love your flyer! I never would have thought to make one, but I can see how it would be helpful for potential buyers. It’s a nice way to help you point out nice features without the buyer feeling like the owner is following them around stalking them.

    Reply

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