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Moving Out: How to Prep and Stage Your Home for Sale When You Have Kids

 

Moving and preparing your home for sale is something many Americans go through at least once in their lives, but there is no guide book to help them figure out how to get started. When you’re a busy parent, it can be overwhelming to try to get everything cleaned and staged and maintain it all ahead of a sale, especially if you have a large home or a lot of belongings that have to be sorted through. Decluttering is an important step in getting a house ready to put on the market, and it can help you stay organized throughout the process.

 

It’s crucial to create a plan that will help you stay on track while your home is for sale. Staying organized will allow you to keep things clean and neat, and will make the staging process much easier. Keep in mind that staging a home can mean many things, from decluttering to making sure there are no stains or odors lingering, so it’s important to think about what good staging will mean for you. For example, if you have pets, don’t forget to include the yard in your home prep.

 

Here are a few tips on how to move on and get a quick sale by prepping and staging your home when you’re a busy parent.

 

Call a pro

 

Sometimes, when you’re a busy parent, it’s easiest to just find a pro to get the work done rather than attempting to do it yourself. This applies to everything from making dinner to cleaning the house, and when your home is on the market, it’s important to make that call if the job is too overwhelming. A professional cleaning service can make a huge difference in the presentation of your home and can free up quite a bit of your time, so if the money is in the budget, don’t hesitate to lay it out. Keep in mind that the average cost of a one-time cleaning service in Myrtle Beach is between $85 and $191.

 

Make it smell fresh

 

One of the easiest ways to boost the appeal of your home is to remove stains and odors. By making each room smell great, you can ensure that potential buyers associate your home with positive feelings. Our sense of smell is closely tied to memory, which means most people react favorably to a space that has a nice scent. Freshly-baked cookies, vanilla, and cinnamon are warm scents that tend to draw people in. Also make sure you deodorize and air out spaces that have had pets in them; you can use a mixture of hot water and vinegar to clean most pet stains.

 

Remove clutter

 

The word “clutter” means something different to everyone; for some, it’s excess items that can be thrown away or donated, but for others, it’s anything that is unnecessary to a given space. You might look at your floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of books and see nothing wrong, but a potential buyer might be overwhelmed by it. Think about packing up collections to put into storage until the move, and clean off all surfaces as thoroughly as possible. Get the things you need to hold onto for the moment--such as toiletries and pots and pans--organized with storage solutions that will make it easy to store your items at a moment’s notice.

 

Hold a yard sale

 

Before you put your home on the market, consider having a yard sale. It can help you get rid of items you no longer need or want while generating some extra cash for the move at the same time. Price the items before you set them out, and leave some room for haggling. Place something shiny or sparkly at the front of your spread to attract attention, and donate anything you don’t sell. This will help you clear out clutter from an overpacked basement, attic, or crawlspace.

 

Moving, preparing, planning, cleaning, and staging--they’re big jobs, and when you have a home sale riding on them, it can be stressful. Get help from your realtor and from friends and family when you need it in order to stay on track and keep anxiety at bay. With a good plan, you can get it all done in no time.

 

Source:  Courtesy of Kristin Louis