Sounds like a tall order, huh.
In fact, it seems impossible, and if you start to hyperventilate at the very thought of it, I don't blame you. I've been there too, homeschooling five children (including two highschoolers) and nursing a baby. Rosie is getting ready to sell her house now*, and while she is super organized, her texts have reminded me that I have meant to give you my five secrets for getting this job done with some semblance of peace.
I mean, it's not going to be peaceful.
The reason that people grow old and die in their inadequate and cluttered homes is that they can't face the disruption of moving! But sometimes, face it you must. So here's how.
We will take it as read that you have already googled the heck out of this topic.
You know that you have to declutter, and my Reasonably Clean House series is going to help you do that. Yes, you can KonMari everything. But chances are, if you are homeschooling and have lots of kids, that you need more stuff than the average millennial only now getting started on her family. You certainly have more books than Marie Kondo does, and that's fine, as long as they are dusted and look pretty. Besides following all my thoughts on how to get a clean (reasonably so) house, there's the issue of these strangers walking in. You can't satisfy their standards, because you don't know them, so the main thing to keep in mind is that whatever you have in your home should be clean and pretty. Make it pretty, especially the front door (“curb appeal”).
You already know that it has to all smell good. Now is the time to light that big scented candle you got for Christmas. Put it on your stove, where it won't burn the house down.
You already know that your house has to be warm (if it's cool out) or cool (if otherwise).
Now I am going to tell you how to achieve this when your house is not utterly fabulous and high end, your children are numerous, and your school must keep going regardless.
First secret: Start at the top and learn to blitz. (If you only have one level, start at the furthest point from the door you will ultimately exit.)
Selling your house is the fire under your behind to deep clean every zone in your house. But don't do this the way you'd do it to please yourself… you must be able to declare an area “closed” in the sense of having been deep cleaned, and then later in the sense of “no one go in there.” (It's not a bad idea to have no-go zones for the duration of the selling period if you can swing it.)
Once you have done that, you need to incentivize your children to perfect the blitz. Maybe show them The Hunt for Red October (if they are older) or take a field trip to the fire station and observe the drill. Once they see that their job needs military precision and a sense of urgency as for putting out a blaze, they will enter the spirit of the thing and execute.
In the blitz, just as with normal living, the goal isn't to deep clean or even do the moderate clean. It's just to make things tidy as quickly as possible so you can get out of the house and have it ready for showing. (You need the moderate clean for other days, though, so read up on it.)
The kids need to think this is a fun and exciting process that they do on the run. Besides some sort of model, they probably also need a bribe/reward waiting for them when they are done. You will end up in the car, so maybe stash some treats there or head for ice cream.
Second secret: Appearance of clean!
Unlike normal cleaning, you are not — repeat, NOT — going to clean in your normal fashion according to the areas that need it most or are most used. And you are not going to prioritize actual cleanliness (after you have done that necessary deep cleaning), but instead, the appearance of cleanliness.
Thus, pay more attention to wiping surfaces and vacuuming than to getting under the sofa cushions crumb free. Windows need to be sparkling more than sheets need to be laundered. (You can do the latter on a non-showing day.) It's more important to get the toys off the lawn than to put your clutter away!
What?
Yes! Because…
Third secret: Laundry baskets!
You are not going to put your necessary clutter (as opposed to the unnecessary clutter that you got rid of before this whole process began) away!
You would go crazy!
You can't do it!
No.
When you get the call to show the house, your drill will be that you initiate the blitz, throwing any “necessary” clutter that can't immediately be put away in its proper place into laundry baskets as you exit the area.
You start to see the importance of starting at the top (or furthest portion) of your home and working your way down and out.
You must clean yourself out of your house.
The children need to go ahead of you, blitzing.
One child (or team) can be in charge of blitzing bathrooms (after you have carefully trained them in the art of making it look clean). One team can be in charge of making sure that beds are not only made but that any stray stuffed animals are propped up in front of pillows (which instantly makes the bed look charming rather than slovenly). One team wipes down stairs and removes any clutter from them.
Put any actual laundry in hampers or in the dryer. (Identify hiding places for things: Bins under beds, the space inside the dryer and inside the washer — but, don't put things in the oven or stuffed in closets, because people look in there. They won't open the fridge or deep freezer, though… )
If you are going to stay sane, you can't have everyone running to and fro. No criss-crossing! No entering areas declared stranger-ready!
I developed this method when I realized that it was making me have a panic attack to have everyone running around randomly. My house had three floors and we started at the top (and in the bathrooms, because only so many people fit in one place) and backed our way out.
You are the last to leave a room while they are tackling the next part — and no one re-enters after you have left, just like in a fire drill! You are the last to leave a floor.
You give the floor (or zone) you are leaving the critical eye, snatching up personal things as you go, and then attend to the next one.
What do I mean by “necessary clutter”? What you can't face putting away because you know that… you just can't. So, everyone works their way out of the house, collecting toys, books, bath towels (and other bathroom detritus), sweaters, shoes, blankets, and other objects like random “personal knickknacks” as they go, in the laundry baskets (laundry bags and large trash bags are helpful too). Don't waste time on putting every last thing away. Just toss it all in the basket.
Those get put in the back of the undoubtedly large vehicle you use to transport your brood (of course, when you first listed your home, you cleaned out the van too!).
Fourth secret: Homeschooling with backpacks.
Our high school kids kept the materials they were actually using in a backpack. They could just grab that. The younger ones can get their math books or whatever they are working on at the moment — they can use totes if that works better. And you can head for the library for the hour or two that it takes to show the house.**
Keep in mind two things:
One. If your children were at school, undoubtedly they would have days that schooling didn't go as planned. At school there are drills and disruptions. It's not as if every day every nose is on the grindstone — far from it. So if you use the showing time to run errands or visit a friend, that's fine.
Two. Your house has certain basic qualities (or lack thereof) that make it marketable if the price is right. The biggest factor, actually, is what other houses recently sold for in your neighborhood. Realtors like to get you whipped up about how important your staging is, but the fact is that most people have decided when they pull up to the door whether or not they are interested. That your bathrooms and kitchen are functional is more important than whether you have teddy bears on the beds. That said, if it looks welcoming and tidy, it will appeal to them! So just work on that and don't stress out!
Fifth secret, and the key to keeping the system running: Immediate homing of clutter upon return.
When you get home, take everything out of the car and put it, baskets and all, in the middle of the floor in a central place. Spend whatever time it takes to put each and every single item back in its place. Make your children your runners. What you will note immediately is that there are things that you resent having to cart in and out this way, and lo! these things can now easily be donated or discarded!
Thus, the clutter you are dealing with at any point is stuff you actually need right now — not accumulated flotsam and jetsam. You start to realize that you can function with much less than you thought. You also notice that this mode is effectively the “post-office system” — collecting things in a central location and then distributing (or discarding) them. It's a good system even for the times you are not trying to sell your house.
Your children will develop a good eye for how things looked when you returned. If you play this period of your life well, you may just end up with higher standards all around!
*If you or anyone you know is moving to southwest Oklahoma and wants an adorable house, ping us!
**Your homeschool should be simple and streamlined anyway, but that's a topic for another day.
Julie says
Oh! God, in His mercy, had you post this today. This is exactly what we are dealing with. Our landlords are selling their house ( we had intended to buy it, but-job loss.) I have been stressed to the max, trying to figure out meals, schooling, showings, packing, kind words. I love the blitz idea. Though we don’t know where we are going yet, we know it is not here, and want to do well by our kind landlords. Thanks again!
priest's wife (@byzcathwife) says
I have a friend who is moving with lots of little ones…. please pray that she has a peaceful experience selling her house! Thanks for another great post
abby hummel says
We have sold two houses in the last two years – it is quite a big thing to have a house on the market! I’d also add a few tips. Our houses both sold within 48 hours for above asking price, and we have toured over 100 houses so we figured out a few things along the way about what’s appealing and not.
1) It costs about $50 for a month-long rental on a storage unit, which is NOTHING compared to the cost of owning a home longer than you want. Rent one. Put half your furniture and your boxes there as you pack up… less to keep track of! Also, this gives you more space in the rest of your house (closets, etc.,) for the extra stuff you need to nicely stash elsewhere.
2) Keep a go-bag packed in your car with water bottles, diapers, formula (if needed), snacks, doggie necessities, etc., at all times. I have gotten a call at 8:00 am for a 9:00 am showing… You have to BE READY! The last thing you want to be doing during a showing is running in to Target to buy your 2nd pack of diapers (that you will then have to cart across the country) in one day.
3) Remove as much furniture and knick-knacks as possible! We said “no” to perfectly good houses that felt really cramped or cluttered even though they were perfectly neat and clean. In all reality, it was probably just their too-big dining room table that killed it, but I’m not going to put my name on a mortgage unless I feel GREAT about the house. (For instance, if I was “staging” auntie’s house in the post pictures here, I would take down the beautiful blue shelf and the clothesline pictures. Since I live in my house, I’m super inspired to maybe do a clothesline picture thing for my kids… what works for living is NOT always what works for selling, and you’d have to get that stuff down soon anyway!)
Lindsay Rhein says
We also put most of our stuff into storage while trying to sell our home. It was such a help!
Leah says
This is all very good! Do you have any advise for moving after the house sells? We are a homeschooling family with 5 kids (ages 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10). We are moving in less than 3 weeks. I feel so overwhelmed! And the tiny people aren’t super helpful (but they think they are, which is sweet but challenging) and the toddler is very clingy and only wants mommy. Help?
Katherine says
We’ve only owned two homes. When we moved from our first one, I was sicker than a dog with morning sickness and bronchitis. My oldest daughter was 11 and she and my husband did most of the packing. It didn’t arrive as organized as I would have liked in our new home, but at least it got there. It helped that we were only moving a few miles away, so we could make multiple trips until everything was gone and it didn’t need to be packed super well. At the end, my husband was just chucking things in trash bags and loading them up.
Anyway, what I would suggest is decluttering first if you haven’t done so already and be really ruthless about it, especially if you are moving far away. Then get someone to come over and help. Teenage girls can either watch the kids or help with the packing. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from friends and their kids. Maybe someone can get a meal chain going for you so dinner is one less thing you have to worry about.
Mrs. Pickles says
We went through a very similar situation ourselves recently — including five children ages 12 to infant. One of the biggest things that helped with UNpacking was color-coding the boxes. As I packed up a box, I would tape a particular color of construction paper on the top — or use colored duct tape to close it up. Each color corresponded to a room in the new house. Then on moving day I posted a chart near the front door in the new house, so all our helpers could unload the van and put the boxes in their proper place without my needing to be there. It made finding things afterwards SO much easier.
I also recommend leaving the smaller ones with a sitter a couple times before you move, as well as on moving day itself — you can get so much done when you’re not constantly getting snacks for everyone!
Good luck! Moving is just a pain — hope you enjoy the new house!
Meaghan says
Perfect timing on this post! We are listing our house on Friday and I needed all these tips! I love the suggestion to block off areas! I have done that with the basement now. Not homeschooling, but I do have 4 young children who are sort of having meltdowns as we pack all their toys into boxes in the garage. I am really glad that our realtor provides a stager because I am terrible at decorating. (well besides family photos, kids artwork, paintings by my sister and I, and icons, which all had to go.. 🙂 ) The stager lady actually told me the icons were “very European”. Ha! They will bring in their own fancy hotel-ish artwork. Play outside & eat meals outside — that is my strategy right now!
Donna L. says
Having a stager provided must be a new thing—and very helpful!
To avoid the “where are my toys” meltdown…do you have a backpack or bin where they could pick the very favorite 3 toys so the rest can get ready to move? I have a child who was worried about seeing toys get put into a box, thinking they were being sold—so, I told him we are keeping them for the “new house”. As we packed, I had him tuck a few toys in as I went explaining how we need to keep the rest of the toys together in the moving box. Then, when I had finished with his *help*, to pick his favorite few, and keep them in his backpack— that way he knows where they are and could scoop them up as we went to the car!
Eating outside is genius!
Jodi says
And to top it all off, you have a child celebrating a special birthday, too! Hopefully the weather will be moderate and they won’t have to dine in a snow or ice storm! All of these survival strategies are terrific!J
Carol Kennedy says
Perfect timing here too. We have had our house on the market for over a year and those showings tend to get spread out, causing panic and bad-mommy-meltdowns. All of your points are on target….especially the baskets! My son knows on a showing day that it is his job to start carting things into the garage to get them out of the way, and we now have a term for a cleaned room: “Showing ready”. So on days when we don’t have a showing I can say “bedrooms and bathrooms need to be showing ready” and “the loft needs to be showing ready”. This experience has also taught us as a family that daily wipe down of bathroom and kitchen are a must. The kids clean one bathroom each day (most of the time) and it makes that last minute showing easier. We just got a call for a showing tomorrow and I am not to far behind because we have kept up with it. I am already planning how the lists will look for tomorrow and who cleans what before they do any school work.
Anitra says
I am going to second the recommendation of a storage area! We just sold our house, and getting stuff OUT that we want to keep but just don’t NEED right now (summer clothes, toddler bed waiting for the little guy to be ready to move out of the crib, musical instruments, etc) made a huge difference in how cluttered the house *looks*. We even boxed up about 1/2 of the kids toys, with the promise that they’ll get them all back in the new, bigger house.
The kids are mostly too little to help much with the blitzing, but we did train/remind them how to make their beds and make their room LOOK clean.
Melissa D says
If you don’t have room to stash baskets, buy a few sets of bed-lifters (like 6-inch-tall pyramids that go under each bed post). We did this to fit bins under the kids’ beds for AG dolls, a boatload of inherited Calico Critters, & Legos.
You can hide the bins by using a larger quilt like a bedspread (a queen/full instead of a twin for a twin bed), a longer bedskirt, or even a dropcloth “skirt” (useful if you have bunky board bunkbeds that are debunked, if that makes sense). Anything that hangs to the ground will hide a multitude of storage sins. And people check closets, but they rarely peek under beds!
Carol Kennedy says
We have also stashed/stored tons of stuff both times we sold houses, including lots of toys, and when the house was finally sold and we were moved into the new house I was struck by two things: The kids were totally happy with much fewer toys. And, when the old toys came back it was like Christmas morning—they played more with the stashed toys in those first weeks than they had in the entire year before!! It was a testament to the rotating toy box method! Or just fewer toys.
This time round it was books we had to stash and that is becoming a real pain—when that one book you want to read or consult is in a cardboard box stacked high in the storage area it can be very frustrating!!
Catherine says
A small cleaning question for Auntie Leilia that I’ve wanted to ask for a while: when you use pieces from old flannel sheets or pjs as rags, do you have a strategy for getting them not to fray on the raw edges when you put them through the laundry. Mine leave little bits of thread on the other laundry and where I’m cleaning. Thanks!!
Elizabeth says
I wish this had been available about a month ago when we sold our house! But it turns out I did most of the recommendations anyway, thanks to more experienced wives telling me what’s what. 🙂 Very helpful!
I only have two further suggestions:
#1 – store half of your stuff. My house echoed but it sold to the first person who came to look at it… in a snow storm, no less!
#2 – leave out fresh baked cookies for the people coming to look at your house. Buy the pre-made kind at the store. Are they as delicious as from-scratch? No, but they smell awesome, and eating helps get those lovely bonding chemicals going in people’s brains… 🙂 I kid you not, I did all kinds of things to subconsciously trick these people into buying my house. It’s a great house, but it’s not as great as the buyer told me, enthusiastically, in a note she left for me post-cookies!
Kari says
I can’t even imagine having to do this on short notice! Both houses that we sold previously had a set three days for showings, and that’s it. The last one was with three small kids, and even trying to get everything done as we walked out the door for the day was exhausting…nevermind if we only had a few minutes warning! Ack! As a side note – please don’t leave a scented candle burning – there are lots of folks (myself included) who have life-threatening allergies to scents. You don’t want to take out any prospective buyers 😉
Meredith says
Oh.my.goodness. Clearly, you have been eavesdropping on my life. We listed our house last summer (when our boys were 5, 3, and 1 1/2), and I nearly lost my mind. We plan on trying again this winter (when the boys will be 7, 5, 3, and 1), and just the thought of it makes me break out in hives. But 6 people homeschooling in a tiny townhouse with a postage stamp-sized yard is also not working, so here we are. The laundry basket idea is pure genius! I taught my oldest 2 the blitz the first time around, but they were mostly only good toy clean-up. This time I might actually have some real helpers! Thank you!
L.W. says
How do you read my mind and know exactly what I need to hear?! 🙂 My husband just laughed when I told him about this post; you’re always so spot-on. Thank you!
Jamie says
I am loving revisiting this post right now as we just put our house on the market and I am homeschooling 3 kids and have a 3 year old and 1 year old as well! If nothing else this was the kick in my pants to finally work on the closets! Your post makes me laugh and also truly encourages me, so thank you!