So you want to know what I'm doing with my time these days? I've discovered a few things about moving that you might find helpful, should you ever decide to embark upon the projects of moving 1700 miles, having a baby, selling a house, and mothering a-3-and-a-not-quite-2-year-old all at the same time. (If you throw in graduating from college or being audited or something in addition to all this it will, of course, make it complicated and I can't help you.)
1. Get a binder. Put a calendar in it.
Then keep everything relating to moving/selling the house in the binder. At least that way it's all in one place, and you've only got the one thing to dig through when you're looking for the "property disclosure" or what day Merry Maids is supposed to show up or when the moving company guy is coming to inventory your canning jars.
This is also a good place to put your lists, as in
2. Make lists.
I don't know about you, but I have a brain that doesn't want to forget things. It fights against this kind of forgetfulness by reminding me about things more than I want it to. From some of my reading I wonder if this is a female trait; it certainly doesn't seem to bother the menfolk I know as much as it does the women--the men seem to have some sort of "minimize" button in their cerebral operating system that allows them to ignore an idea until it's time to do something about it. For me, it's more like I've got a bunch of annoying popup ads that keep interrupting the stuff I need to do today, and they won't stay minimized. I'll be making the coffee, and my brain will break into my happy, early-morning thoughts with DON'T FORGET ABOUT THAT DEPOSIT! IT'S DUE IN THREE DAYS! If I tell it to shut up about that, it will say DID YOU PUT THE HAIRBRUSH IN THE HOSPITAL BAG?
So I put these things on a list. It helps the brain shut up a bit, although nothing silences the plaugey thing permanently except accomplishing the task. If you're moving, you'll want to have a few lists, with titles like "Selling The House", "The New House", "People to Notify" etc. Keep them in one place, and keep them updated.
3. Don't be afraid of hiring things done.
Granted your budget will dictate how much of this you can do, but consider carefully what you can afford. I am not a dowager and am weirded out by strangers cleaning my house, but I also can't bend over *at all* anymore, so if the tub is to ge scrubbed, someone else has to do it. Run the numbers. Merry Maids, doing a one-time deep scrub for us, will cost about the same as our one-a-month Costco run did when we were buying disposable diapers. (Luckily we're not buying them anymore and we've let our membership expire, on account of no Costco in the land to which we travel.) This deep scrub, which involves luxuries like having the cupboard doors and baseboards washed, will be possible to maintain, even when Littleman arrives and sheds his glow of new-baby havoc over all things. It's worth it.
4. Don't be proud when staging your house.
My sister says home sales are about catering to a buyer's fantasy world and she's right-- in this world no one eats toast (because toasters are nowhere to be seen on the counters), there are no toys visible, everyone keeps fresh flowers and fresh fruit on the tables, and there are no water spots in the sink or garbage cans in the bathrooms.
Nobody lives this way. But you can fake it for showings--put away some of your furniture and all of your knicknacks, hide the garbage can, invest in a few carnations. Make sure your house smells good (like bake bread the hour before the showing) but not suspiciously good (don't get vanilla-cinnamon potpourri--the buyer will only wonder whether you're covering up cat pee).
Perhaps this all seems like too much trouble, or even a little deceptive, especially when you don't even get the house this neat for company. Boo hoo. You want to sell the place, don't you? Do it anyway. Of course the presence or absence of your coffee table doesn't really make a difference to how big the room is. But buyers are silly, and they will judge the room better if your table is neatly packed away into the garage.
5. Keep it up.
I did most of the fiddly work--like choosing which select toys we were going to keep out (vs. pack into the shed) and tidying closets and cleaning out window tracks--weeks ago before I got this pregnant. Last weekend the Husband and I put the finishing touches on the place before we began showing it. I've been putting in about an hour a day to just keeping it all up; the goal being that we could make the house show-ready (hidden garbages and all) in an hour or less. (The realtor gives us more notice than that, but I'm an overachiever.) A hidden benefit to putting away all your stuff is that the kids can't scatter as much of it around, so there's less to keep after. But you have to keep wiping down counters and taking fingerprints off glass, and if you just do a bit each day it never gets overwhelming.
6. Take help.
Whether from someone who offers to help you with your driving itinerary (thanks Baba!) or someone who offers to bring you deli chicken, TAKE IT.
Those are my tips--anyone have more?
Cheers,
Breanna
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