House For Sale, Kids Negotiable (part 3)
08.31.2010 This is the third entry of a not-sure-yet-how-many four-part series on the most pervasive and disruptive event we went through this summer: putting our house up for sale.
Staging the home. So, yeah. Whoever wrote the “rules” about staging a home obviously never had children (or pets). To quote one of these nutjobs directly...
"Everything has to be perfect and it all has to stay perfect until the house is sold. Your house will have to look like a magazine or a model home. Serenity and staging can sell homes faster. Make your place look like a magazine."
The heck? Maybe for the independently wealthy who can afford to live in the next home while leisurely selling the first one. For those of us on this earth with jobs and life and kids to contend with, there are some general rules to follow, rules I will touch on as I take us on a walk-through of the absolute best we were able to do with the time and resources that we had.
But first, a few basics: the kitchen, family room, and master bedroom and bath are often the most important rooms of the house, so best foot forward there. Also, easy stuff like: make sure there aren't any burnt out light bulbs, keep the shades/widow coverings open, clear most every surface of clutter or paperwork, don't leave your mail out, put the backpacks, diaper bags, shoes, and briefcases away, no dishes in the sink, that kind of thing. Don’t get me started on floral wallpaper and colored carpet, but let’s just say a house is quicker to sell with neutral colors. Most people want to move into a house that will not need much work. Remove/sell/store unnecessary furniture. Think like a minimalist. Your porcelain chicken collection in that lighted curio at the front door entrance is unique. To you. Ultimately, the general goal is to present your home in a way that is unique enough to be memorable, but generic enough to give the prospective buyer the feeling that they could live there.
Also, who is your target audience or the most likely to buy your home? Families? Empty-nesters? Young Professionals? Do your best to stage and decorate to that audience’s desires. Because of our neighborhood and proximity to everything, we actually had to appeal to all types.
The Front Elevation. I think it’s inviting, what with the new gravel, the fresh paint on the house, and the thriving flowers. The landscaper and the painter did a great job, methinks.
Entry Way & Living Room. When you walk into our front door, you walk into a small enclave that opens into the living room (and you can see the dining room from the door, too). In the entryway, we had had a console table and lamp, but we moved it into the living room. With a now empty entry, I purchased a gorgeous bench (I’m biased) from Cost Plus World Market, and I made sure that the length of it would suit one day going under the dining table (I’ve always liked that farm-style seating arrangement). The lamp had previously provided some linear differentiation, but no longer against that wall, the wall was looking a little bare. I considered a long while buying some artwork for the space, but the size needed would cost at least a few hundred dollars. So instead, I purchased a $35 shell “curtain” and hung it from the ceiling, forcing me to stand on a ladder with a power drill at 20 or so feet. Further confirming my discomfort of heights.
Because our children spend a good portion of their day IN THE LIVING ROOM, our immediate challenge was setting it up in such a way that didn't make the childless-by-choice want to walk right back out, or that made the young professionals feel like they couldn’t entertain, while also making the families with young kids feel like the space was workable for them. Just a few short months ago, our living room looked like this and this and this and this, and this and even this, rendering the space a veritable day care center and less a place to share a glass of wine, or even watch a movie. OBVIOUSLY, it was unacceptable.
Though it goes against every purging grain in my body, we had rented a storage unit right about the time the kids became mobile. The kids were moving and their stuff was expanding, and we just didn’t have the space for certain furniture and other items. We had also anticipated, even then, that we’d eventually move to a bigger space, so I didn’t want to just sell our furniture. Plus, we found a steal of a deal on some other furniture we couldn’t pass up, so we stored it there, too. All this to say that, thankfully, we had a place to put certain items, like those spongy blocks that so aptly improved the kids gross motor skills. Well...eventually.
The bookshelf that had forever blocked the fireplace was moved downstairs to the play area, the interlocking foam mats taken to storage, most of the toys moved into the Toy (Coat) Closet, including the toys that had been on the ladder shelving unit, and personal photos removed from the built-in shelves. I bought a couple faux-leather magazine box/bins for the bottom shelf of that ladder unit and that’s where we keep/hide diapers and wipes. While I was organizing the toy closet, I donated and sold several toys and got rid of a LOT of stuffed animals that had we had already accumulated. I had purchased a used shelf and bins a good nine months ago for around $25 (I think they retail for $50) from a fellow MoM to help keep things organized. Truth is, the toy closet space leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s functional for now. As an added safety feature, we have a slide lock at the top of the door, the same locks one can find on most doors throughout the house. Best. Locks. Ever.
Our realtor had the idea to create a little ‘reading space’ near the bay window, an area sectioned off by the sofa sitting parallel to the windows. But none of our bulky chairs fit neatly back there without significantly shrinking the living space, so I actually went out and bought a chair at Pier 1. While there, I also purchased a couple new throw pillows to provide some color contrast for the sofa. We put the console table and lamp directly behind the sofa, mainly to serve as a visual break for the seating area.
But we also put the console table behind the sofa because the tables’ shelves would serve to hold baskets of toys, since, after all, the kids are home all but two days a week and we couldn’t put everything in the toy closet. The changing pad also fit/hid nicely underneath the bottom shelf of that console table.
You should hide wires, too, or at least tidy them up and organize them. In our case, we don’t have behind-the-wall wiring and because of where we house the entertainment system, we decided the easiest thing to do would be to just unplug it and put the cords behind the cabinet at the time of a showing, a reasonable alternative that cost us nothing.
With the time and effort we put in, the living room went from looking like this (on their birthday weekend) to this:
We were careful to position everything in such a way that it was a clear walkway from the front door through to the next room. You don’t want people feeling like they’re going through a labyrinth. Also, the coffee table? It’s the kids’ activity table, chosen for purchase two years ago among others specifically because it looked like it could actually be a coffee table.
The Dining Area. For a shotgun-style house, it’s a fairly open floorplan: two steps up from the living room is the dining and kitchen area. We had gone so far as to take the play kitchen out of the living room, but I would not compromise on removing it from the kitchen. The kids play with it a lot and I just wasn’t going to move it. Thankfully, it fit perfectly in the area that used to house a kitchen-cart-turned-diaper-changing-station (that kitchen cart is now downstairs at the entry to the garage), which is also the area we once had a corner-entertainment-center that’s now in storage.
We moved the kids’ Tripp Trapp chairs to the back side of the table (so that when people walk in, they’d (initially) see chair uniformity. I chose to accent the dining table with a glass cube and fresh cut yellow or white hydrangea instead. It provided a hint of fresh smell, particularly since the space now housed the diaper champ (tucked and hidden to the left of the hutch) and the kitchen trashcan.
About the time the kids started eating solids, I had purchased two plastic office floor protectors and had cut them down to fit underneath the kid’s chairs and also place on top of their section of the table. The lack of this protection would have already ruined the hardwood table and floors. But they don’t make for a good showing. So for photos and for showings, both pieces get slipped behind the hutch.
Speaking of the hutch, we used to have spare batteries, wipes, and many children’s books stored behind the glass doors. Since that wouldn’t fly for home-staging, I moved the books to the cabinets in the living room, recycled the batteries via a Boy Scouts project, and put the wipes where they actually belong. I also moved some of our dishes into the space, and bought a accessories from Pier 1 to display. Good tip here: save the receipt and don’t remove the tags for those little display items because you can always return them! I did. (Be sure to note the return policy date on your calendar). It’s a cheap way to stage and a great way to “rent” that token bowl with wooden fruit inside. I should note I would never do this for items that would actually get used or touched, but I had no guilt doing this for those things that were handled only to place them on display.
The Kitchen. Oh, the importance of the kitchen. It’s where decisions are made, and with kids, seemingly the epicenter of the family. Having the counters clear of everything is so counter-intuitive, but it’s important. And while it’s okay to have one appliance on the counter and one token topiary of some sort, we forewent the plant and kept two appliances up. After all, I was not about to choose which was more important: Jennifer’s coffee maker, or the kids’ daily-used toaster oven. We did replace the toaster oven with a new one, though, one that was a little shinier (and on sale). I did leave the tea-kettle on top of the stove. Oh, and I wasn’t moving the iPod docking station. We use music to manipulate the kids’ psyche.
Wipe down the sink. It will get old. It has gotten old for us. But my, how nice it is to have a sink that is wiped down. And one that is empty. We used to have a dish rack in the left sink for drying, but now everything gets put into the dish washer. Clean the refrigerator. Outside AND in. Same with the oven and stove-top. Keep the counters free of grime.
As much as living like this has sucked, we are now in the habit of cleaning up, washing dishes after every meal and snack, and not leaving weeks worth of mail and boxes of cheerios on the counter.
The Hall Bath. We didn’t do much here, mainly because there isn’t much we can do. I sure as hell wasn’t going to repaint the room (it’s the same color as when we bought the house), and we’re not moving the step stool that the kids use to wash their hands. So we just make sure we have a nice hand towel on display, no debris from dirty hands inside the sink, and that we tuck the potty chair off the not-so-visible side of the toilet.
The Master Bedroom. In theory, we shouldn’t have had to do much to this space. In reality, the Master bedroom, what with our convenient lock, had become the repository for all things we didn’t want the kids touching, the two baskets of unfolded clothing, the computers, boxes of paperwork, and all the things that had been removed from other rooms in preparation for sale but didn’t quite have a final resting place . In the throws of our make-ready, it was atrocious, looking like this and this (I can feel the warmth of my mother's embarrassment that I even made those pictures public. Hi, mom!). Any more record of the disarray and I might have received a call from the producers of Hoarders asking if we’d consider filming an installment for their next season.
Once all that was dealt with, we went to our storage facility and brought in a bookshelf. I know you’re actually supposed to reduce the amount of furniture in the house, but I had to store all the parenting books I haven’t read yet. Plus we dressed it up with a vase and single stem flower so that made it all better. Right? We did this because the bookshelf that HAD been in our room, next to my side of the bed was now in the hallway storing more books and some kids stuff outside the bathroom (potty training requires lots of props). The bedside table that should have been on my side was instead next to the armoire holding up the printer (still in the box!), that I still haven’t hooked up. Since Christmas. So I hid the printer inside the armoire and put the end tables and lamps where they belonged.
Also, we had to retrain ourselves to make up the bed each morning. Honestly, until about four months into pregnancy, I had always been one of those people (at least in my adult life) that believed the day began with a made bed. In May, I found myself removing the vacuum sealed duvet and pillows from the high shelves of my closet and letting the air resuscitate them. In so doing, we revived the master bedroom to a semblance of decency.
The Master Bathroom & Closet(s). Getting used to hanging towels on the towel rack was new. The towel rack above the garden tub had fallen off who knows how long ago. So rather than re-hang it, we hung a painting that had once hung in the guest room-turned guest room slash office-turned-Harper’s room, and patched and painted the holes. We also put a basket of towels over in the corner because every staging tip thing says to do so. I don’t have any better reason than that.(And wow, does this paragraph have a lot of conjugations ofthe word "hang".)
For the sink counter, we moved the toothbrush holder under my sink, and placed a small lidded basket on top for the daily stuff that we can’t seem to put in a drawer. It’s not the best way to handle it, but hey, that’s what we did.
The hardest part of the bathroom was cleaning out the linen closet, drawers, and cabinets under the sink. I started by taking every non-toilet paper, non-towel thing out and putting it on the floor. I gathered the fifteen or so Proactiv toner solutions and gave them away via Freecycle. Same thing with the accumulated travel soaps and shampoos and lotions. Against the grain of my desire to reduce my landfill-footprint, I bagged everything else that we hadn’t used in the last few weeks and tossed it in the trash. Talk about space-making.
As for the closets, we took out all the winter clothes and put them in storage. I supposed we could have packed them, but I didn’t have wardrobe boxes and didn’t want to invest in them. That freed up a ton of space in both our closets, which are neither terribly small nor terribly large. No one wants to walk into a closet so chock full of clothes that they might suffocate. To make the closets seem bigger, we made sure everything was off the floor. Including shoes, a challenge for Jennifer the shoe-monger who owns the same running shoe in all five color accent options. We also replaced the light bulbs with newer, clear bulbs. We happen to have little built-in cubbies in our closets so we made sure whatever clothes were in those were folded. Uniformly.
The Play Area. This is area visible from the top of the stairs, and is the landing area at the bottom of the stairwell. I wasn’t going to have my son suffer by not having his train table, nor was there enough space in his room for it, so we left it. Because it takes up most of the space, we had to be very selective about what stayed. The bookshelf was a given because they like to read there, and we settled on a small shelf that we’ve had forever to store a basket and toys. We also decided to leave the city roads rug on the floor, as well as the fun stripe print. Whatever, it’s a play area.
And it doesn’t look like this anymore. I’m still planning to remove the two shelves on the right side wall. I’ve hit my head on them chasing the kids around the train table trying to catch them to take a bath. And I think it would open up the room a tad bit more. It’s a work in progress.
The Kid’s Rooms. You can’t hide that you have children. A full year ago, I had anticipated putting the house on the market around this time, and that knowledge played a huge part in moving the kids out of cribs/toddler beds and into twin beds. The rooms aren’t terribly large to begin with, and I didn’t want a prospective buyer to think “wow, this room can ‘barely’ fit a crib or two!”. I had actually considered moving the queen bed from storage into one of their rooms and getting them to sleep on that, to prove that the rooms comfortably fit a queen bed and side table. But we didn’t have any queen size bedding and if we were going to spend money on bedding, I wanted it to be on something the kids were going to be able to use for the next couple year, regardless of where we were living.
The closets were purged, cleaned, and organized, though Harper’s closet took more time since it had remained the place where we had kept our filing cabinet, un-hung art, extra blankets, and things that hadn’t quite made it to the storage facility.
The knowledge that we would eventually put the house on the market was also, in addition to Montessori principles, incentive to keep their rooms simple: a bed, a rug, a few hung prints, and a shelving/storage unit at their height for the Tot Clock, the sound machine, a few books, and a few toys to entertain them until we unlock their doors each morning. Not kidding. We hide diapers and wipes in fabric cubes that fit nicely on the shelf.
The Kid’s (Formerly Guest) Bathroom. I’ve never been a big fan of the licensed products decorations mainly because they’re SO! LOUD!, but lots of people like that. That’s fine, it’s is a kids bathroom, after all. Our bigger problem was that not too long ago it regularly looked like this. The step stool, potty ring, and bath toys are put into the tub with the shower curtain drawn during showings. With a little craftiness and cleaning out of the cabinets under the sink, we got everything tidied up and it looks better now. 
The Garage. Though it looks like a single car garage from the outside, it’s actually HUGE. In it, we keep an SUV, a sedan, wooden push cart, yardwork supplies, two tricycles, two shopping carts, a refrigerator, and bins for recycling. The key was getting as much as possible off the ground (an important point for EVERY room). So I installed a few hooks and hung floaties, shopping carts, trikes, and helmets. We put one stroller in my trunk, and took the other strollers to the storage facility since we use them mainly on weekends, if at all. I had built a workbench and some shelves a few years ago, so that helped give us a place to tidy things up so that the area by the door leading into the house didn’t continue to look like this.
After sweeping it out and putting everything in a somewhat orderly fashion, the garage looked better than ever. For a garage. EVEN with so much stuff inside.
Behind Closed Doors – a final note. The areas behind closed doors are awesome to hide stuff in. But. Like I mentioned before, what you don’t get rid of will have to be packed up when you move. And do you really want that?
Also, buyers are snoopy.
So when it comes to the cabinets and closets, I like to think like a buyer. As a buyer, I’m going to open your pantry, the drawer that ends up being your junk drawer in the kitchen, look under the kitchen sink, check out the cabinets where dishes might get kept, get a feel for the depth of the drawers near the island stove. I will also walk into your closet, open the linen closet, and investigate the space in the coat closets. Because lets face it, I don’t need to hang coats in Texas. I need to figure out where to put kid craft supplies. So that closet and the kitchen cabinets, get them organized.
This is seriously an area when it doesn't hurt to be all Sleeping With The Enemy-like: coffee mugs with the handle facing outwards, nesting bowls actually nested, can labels facing forward, nutritional value on your boxed items facing backwards…okay, maybe that’s a little overboard…, tupperware and lids separated versus thrown all together, forks with forks and spoons with spoons, clothes in the closet organized by type and color. Linen closets with towels on one side and hand towels and face towels on the other, folded in uniform fashion. All that toothpaste from Costco stacked together? Have the labels facing the same direction. Buy some cheap plastic bins/containers (after you’ve decided what will be kept) that stack nicely and store gift wrapping and kid craft supplies in them. It may be over-the-top to you, but it’s impressive to them. Buying or selling a home is chaotic, so if you can offer a sense of order in the midst of it all, even a false sense that if they live at your house, they might be organized, too, then you’ve got a competitive advantage. Order gives the perception of space, even in small places.
And space sells.
Next…how we approached home showings without shipping the kids to a foreign country for the summer. And where we are now.
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The entire series…
Part 1: Our Neighborhood. And the decision to sell our home.Part 2: Preparing the house for listing.
Part 3: Staging Our Home for showings.
Part 4: How we (barely) survived showings…and where we ended up.
Reader Comments (4)
Great advice. Thanks for the handy tips!
WOW! Your home is beautiful!
You're awesome for posting all of this! What an ordeal, whew. And I am reading it all with renewed interest. Some (good) things went down at M's work today that have me believing I might be in this situation sooner than I think...
And OMG, your house looks GORGEOUS. Well-staged!
Wow. I love all the pictures, the before and after. The house looks really good.