Moving/selling a house with a toddler?

Mereou12

Hello, stress!

I'm so overwhelmed...I had no idea how much work it would be to sell a house with a toddler! DH is military and is being transferred in May, so we put our house up for sale last weekend. No showings yet, but the stress of having to keep the house in tip-top condition in anticipation of a last-minute showing is already starting to get to me!

If you've done this before, how did you deal? We're not messy people, but we're not exceptionally clean, either. There's always clutter around....and with a toddler and two cats, something in the house is always a mess. I feel like all I do is clean/straighten/de-clutter. At this point, it would take me at least an hour or two to prep the house to be shown...and that'd be without a wild and crazy little boy following me around, destroying what I've just straightened.

Any suggestions? He's a huge mess maker in the kitchen, so I'm thinking of putting down an old shower curtain under his highchair to avoid having to mop the floors every day....

 

rebeccaontherocks

We JUST sold our house and moved 3 weeks ago.  So I know what you are going through...

As far as showings are concerned, I told my realator that we needed at least 2 hours notice and no showings after 6pm.  And she noted it in our file.  I also used those Clorox Wipes for bathroom/kitchen counter tops and faucets.  I threw all the toys in the closet when I would get the call.  Do a quick vaccum, and every morning before DH left for work I would make the beds.  

People looking at your house will know a child lives there, hiding all the toys is not necessary. Don't stress about it, do the best you can.  I just threw dirty dishes in the dishwasher so they werent in the sink.  and cleared off the counter tops the best I could.

Pick your battles.  I chose bathrooms, kitchen, bedmaking, and vaccumming.  And I did them all "half-a$$ed" so that it just looked clean on the surface for someone just "walking through".

Bianca42

We sold our house when my oldest was 1.5.  I put away most of his toys...so that even if he pulled everything out, it still wasn't too horrible to put away quickly.

I would straighten up before going to work each day.  I also planned meals that were quick and easy so I didn't get caught with a ton of dirty dishes.  (Even with the dishwasher I am so bad about doing the dishes every night.)  We had 2 bathrooms and as much as possible we only used one so that the other one didn't need much attention for cleaning.

We were lucky that the house sold fairly quickly.  But the day it sold I was sick with a puking bug.  The real estate agent called to warn us that they were coming...but they ended up getting there 30 minutes early.  DH, DS and me (with my puke bucket) ran out the garage door as they were coming in the front door.  I swear it must have smelled horrible in there...and I know that we didn't put forth our best cleaning effort with me being sick.  But, they bought it anyways.  

Good luck to you!

twoasone1

I am in the same boat.  We listed our six months ago, and the last few weeks we have had constant showings.  I am praying someone buys it soon.  I feel like all I do is scrub and clean.  We have a showing tonight at 7:15 and my whole day is ruined because of cleaning.  We aren't really messy, but if I know people are coming over, I get very anal on things being spotless. 

I just try to keep the end reward in sight.  A bigger house with a nice yard for DS to play in.  I hope it happens soon.  For us and for you!

frenziedmomma

I had to move once when I was pregnant with DS and once when DS was 10 months old. I can't imagine how hard it must be to try and move when you are both pregnant and have a little one too!

My suggestions are similar to PPs.

-Be straight with the realtors about how much notice you need. We had to tell them no evening showings because they would wake the baby.

-Take people up on offers to help. It is okey to ask for help too. Remember all those offers from people to watch your son when he was first born. Call them back and ask for a favor.

-Pack away a lot of the toys now. Keep out a few favorites.

-Feed DS the least messy meals and snacks you can.

-You can always throw clutter in boxes as a last resort. People coming to see your house know you are moving and won't be bothered by a few boxes in the corner of the room.

12bailey18

Oh, you sound just like us! My DH is also military and our house is also on the market right now. I stressed about it a lot in the beginning about it always being clean but I soon learned that nobody was calling short notice. All of our showings have given us a few days in advance. One showing gave us a few hours, that's been our closest call but it's all we needed! We kinda have our system down now for cleaning up. We do have a basement, which makes it nice because we put all of DS's big toys down there, when they are normally in the living room. We have piled things under the beds and have even loaded extra stuff into our cars! It's quick decluttering...LOL.

Remember people have, more than likely, already seen pics of your house online so they probably won't stay long at each showing. Make it look nice, but certainly don't stress if the baseboards aren't washed with a toothbrush! Save that energy for when you get second showings byt the same people! I do like the idea of the shower curtain under his high chair. It's little things like that, which will save you time! If I think of any more our "tricks" we do for showings, I'll let you know! Good luck!

tarheelborn

12bailey18:

Oh, you sound just like us! My DH is also military and our house is also on the market right now. I stressed about it a lot in the beginning about it always being clean but I soon learned that nobody was calling short notice. All of our showings have given us a few days in advance. One showing gave us a few hours, that's been our closest call but it's all we needed! We kinda have our system down now for cleaning up. We do have a basement, which makes it nice because we put all of DS's big toys down there, when they are normally in the living room. We have piled things under the beds and have even loaded extra stuff into our cars! It's quick decluttering...LOL.

Remember people have, more than likely, already seen pics of your house online so they probably won't stay long at each showing. Make it look nice, but certainly don't stress if the baseboards aren't washed with a toothbrush! Save that energy for when you get second showings byt the same people! I do like the idea of the shower curtain under his high chair. It's little things like that, which will save you time! If I think of any more our "tricks" we do for showings, I'll let you know! Good luck!

Just wanted to point out that we have been opposite, we have had over 12 showings in the past few months and we have only had more than 2 hours of notice twice.  We don't keep our house extremely picked up, especially during the weekdays when we are less likely to have showings.  I do the best I can to keep picked up, and then if we get a call for a showing, I just make sure the important things are clean- kitchen table, countertops are cleared off and clean, sinks are clean, mirrors and sinks in bathroom are clean, and floors are relatively swept and vacuumed.  I don't worry about mopping or deep cleaning for the most part because I have not had time.  We had to hire cleaning people when the house went on the market because with my work schedule (and my son who doesn't nap) I have not had time to clean showers and mop.  So those things really only get done once a month.

It has been really hard, and I don't ever want to have to do this with a young child again.  We are hoping our house sells in the next 6 weeks or we are going to need to drop the price again...it's way too hard to do this with a baby.

Good luck to you! 

cranberry27

I really feel for you.  We moved about a month ago and it was not easy.  Our realtors had to give 24 hours notice and nobody seemed to mind.  When I was looking at houses I saw plenty with young kids.  I would focus much more on dirt and less on toys.  People can easily imagine toys being gone, but totally ditto PP on putting a lot of toys away so it's not a toy avalanche hiding your nice rooms!  

What turns them off is dirt or a look that the house hasn't been maintained.  If your countertops are shining they feel like you have taken care of the place, even if there's a pile of blocks int he corner.  I would be especially careful in his room...sometimes toys + a crib makes a room look really tiny, since you can't imagine a big bed in there.  Try to make sure that room isn't crammed!

Along with packing up some toys, I would try to de-clutter your storage.  The biggest thing I looked for in houses with small kids was if they had enough room for their stuff!  It's also easy to maintain so you won't always be fixing it right before a showing.  If their garage/basement/closets were packed tight with stuff, I assumed they were moving because they didn't have enough room.  If they don't, then I won't, so I'm not buying it!  Take the extra clothes out of the closet, pull the old packed-up baby toys and clothes out, and make sure that people will think you have enough living space, even if you don't!!  Stick stuff in a friend/relative's garage or rent a small storage space if you need to.  It will be worthwhile! You will need to pack up all the extra stuff anyway, so do it now and get your house sold faster!

amesmichelle

We're selling right now.  Have been since April 2010!  It is a pain but eventually you get the cleaning/tidying down to a science. And it easier to keep on top of things.  We try to keep toys in one central area.  We cleaned out a cupboard in the living room and shove the "upstairs" toys in there.  it does seem that for every shwoing I'm always throwing lose papers, magazine, etc in a tote and taking them with me!  It also works well to put stuff under you bed pillows if your short on time.

Mereou12

Thanks for all of the advice and support! Being pregnant and battling the awful 1st tri fatigue isn't helping matters, either.

We worked our butts off for a few weeks before putting the house on the market, decluttering and organizing all of our cabinets and closets. We even took a few pieces of extra furniture over to a friend's house to free up some space. I've watched a lot of HGTV over the years and pretty much knew what to expect! Our realtor said that she honestly had no further suggestions for anything else we could...Now it's just hurry up and wait.

We told her that we'd prefer at least 24 hours notice, but living in a small military town, we know that that's not usually possible. Our neighborhood is primarily military, so we suspect that's exactly who will be looking at our house...and since most families are only allowed a few days of house hunting leave, things are done pretty much at the last minute. We bought our house within 72 hours of the start of our search!

Did any of you (if you're SAHMs) request no showings during nap time? DS is one of those kids that lives and dies by his naps...and unless I'm aware of the showing in advance and can set up shop at a friend's house for the afternoon, there's no way I want to interrupt naptime, unless it's at the very beginning or tail end. But at the same time, I don't want to restrict ourselves too much and scare off any potential buyers. Oi!

Keeping my fingers crossed that this goes fairly quickly...our market sucks, and we're listing the house for much less than we purchased it for. At this point, we'll be damn lucky if we break even. Ugh.