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amyable
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 9:24am | IP Logged
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How in the world am I supposed to do this? 
We are down to the wire of fixing up our home to put on the market, and I am having daily panic attacks  as I try to begin keeping things neat for sale.
We still have STUFF all over. I don't know how much more I can give away (although I did just blog that it would be cheaper to do so than storing it).
We still have KIDS all over. Kids that have never learned, despite my constant nagging, er, gentle reminding, to clean up after themselves.
Anyone have any advice? We have actually considered buying a house first with a huge mortgage, then selling ours (so we could move out and leave it pristene - well, as pristene as a 40yo house in need of a makeover can look ) but that is very risky financial territory these days.
I have several concurrent novenas going to St. Joseph, but I'm afraid I'll miss His leading that I'm praying for.
Anyone have any advice on how to put a house on the market with a large (messy) family? And homeschool?
As always, prayers for my sanity are appreciated.  I am this close{} to just bagging the whole idea of moving even though our current house/neighborhood is driving us all crazy.
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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Lisbet
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 9:26am | IP Logged
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Oh Amy - so many prayers your way - we are in the same boat - bad market, batty neighborhood, small house, lotsa kids, lotsa clutter - the idea of putting our house back up on the market seriously terrifies me - but then again, so does staying in this neighborhood...
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
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Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
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Josephine born 6.11.12
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mrsgranola
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 9:44am | IP Logged
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Well, when we sold our home a few years ago, I went thru with boxes and carefully packed up lots of things for storage. So excessive statues, *family pictures*, etc. went to store at my mom's house. Extra furniture and bulky things went to a rental storage unit. I even unloaded the stuffed closets so they wouldn't seem as small because they were too full. I use to watch those shows on HGTV about staging a home for sell, too. I really think it helped. It sold quicker than we anticipated and we had to rent until our home was built...
HTH!
JoAnna
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 9:48am | IP Logged
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Amy, I did this with kids and a large german shepherd a few years ago. It is frightfully anxious to keep the house "just-so" to sell it.
Here are some things I learned that really helped me:
You're going to have to do the rental storage thing. I know it's an expense, but there's no other sane way to do it in my opinion...unless maybe you have family nearby that can lone you the entirety of their basement to store things in.
**Go through your house one room at a time - any other way is entirely too overwhelming.
**Invest in the nice packing and boxing material at Uhaul.
**Pack up almost everything...and I mean almost everything! Pretend you are going on an extended vacation - what would you bring with you and your family? Just the essentials, right? Only leave those things!
**Pack up 80% of the toys
**50% of the kitchen
**90% of the knick-knacks
**at least 50% of the school stuff (though, I think you can get away with packing up more - pack each child a school bag to leave out and pack the rest up!)
**50% of the clothes
**ALL of the ripped/torn furniture, ALL of the excessive furniture/tables/chairs/bookshelves...just leave basic furniture in a room, I mean.
Just pack it all up, rent a big truck and store it for a little while. I know it seems brutal, and you're wondering what if it takes the house months and months to sell??? If you invest in good boxes and packing materials, labeling as you go, you will be so happy you did because you can pack your storage facility wisely and retrieve items if you need them. Also, what we found was that we didn't really *need* half the stuff we thought we did and we gave it away after we moved as we unpacked the storage unit. It felt great to move into a new home without clutter! And, the stuff we kept, we really missed, so it was like Christmas morning being reunited with some of the household items...and toys!
In my opinion, this is the only way to keep a house clean in show condition with kids and pets. It has to be stripped of a lot before I can get a call saying a realtor is stopping by in 15, can we be ready? If there is little to tidy, it is doable - frustrating, but doable. That's another reason to collect school things in bags. You can just grab them, and re-locate to the van.
Which brings me to my last tip...
Set your van up as a rolling hotel
Keep a few blankets in there, a basket of snacks and water, a bag of favorite reading books, some DVD's if you have a DVD player in there...you'll be so glad you invested a little time and thought in van stocking (esp. the food  ) once you're screaming down the driveway with a whiny toddler announcing he never ate breakfast and will be dying soon from starvation!
Also, when a realtor comes, you don't have to drive somewhere particular, often I just pulled around the corner - enough so I didn't look like I was lurking, but close enough that I could hustle right back home after they left.
So, purge everything...way more than you think you need to! If you can live without it for 3-5 months, store it! And, stock your van as mobile entertainment/fast foodery and you'll be ready for the nonsense about to land on your lap.
HTH, Amy and Lisa!  This is a sanity breaker! But...the end result is so worth it!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Matilda
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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Renting a storage unit would be more expensive than giving it away but it would be considerably less expensive than two mortgages. And I do agree with JoAnna that a little bit of staging can help.
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Charlotte (Matilda)
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with bookend boys and a double girl sandwich
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Willa
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 10:03am | IP Logged
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I'm in the same boat. I was thinking of asking something similar on here but you beat me to it, Amy
Thanks Jen for the wonderful advice. I'll be keeping track of this thread!
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AMDG
Willa
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guitarnan
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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This advice is excellent. I would definitely try to avoid two mortgages if you can - we had something like this happen a few years ago and it was terrible for our finances.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Mary G
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 10:34am | IP Logged
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Don't try to homeschool and sell at the same time ... the kids helping sort, give away and clean are all good things for them to learn and I consider this great education time! So you have to catch up a bit after you move ... they'll have learned that it's not just your or dh's house, but theirs too!
Rent storage is a great idea. But really do try to pare back at the same time ... think of all those things that you "might" use someday but someone can use TODAY! Think Divine Works of Mercy!
Blessings and prayers ... and yes, Nancy's right, DON'T go for two mortgages at once, particularly in THIS market unless you absolutely have too!
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MaryG
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my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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amyable
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 10:46am | IP Logged
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Jen, did you ever think of becoming a personal coach? You have so many great ideas about so many different life subjects! 
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers - I do want to clarify one thing: we wouldn't have two mortgages. We paid off this house a year or two ago.
Still, the housing prices are so high here now (most 4 bedroom homes in any sort of decent area and shape are listed for at *least* $375-400K here) so getting something to fit us, that is "safe" and not falling apart is a hefty matter money wise. We were lucky to get our current home right before the first housing market spike so it didn't cost a lot then. But it's also definitely a "starter home" around here so it didn't go up much in value, either!
Maybe I'm just being silly about it all, but we are here alllll daaaaaay looooong and I'm finding I want a nice place to be (not necessarily big and $$, just sweet and safe and enough room for us introverts to not be in each others faces all day).
Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. Keep 'em coming!
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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amyable
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 10:50am | IP Logged
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Mary G wrote:
| Don't try to homeschool and sell at the same time ... the kids helping sort, give away and clean are all good things for them to learn and I consider this great education time! So you have to catch up a bit after you move ... |
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I'm sure you are right, Mary, but unfortunately we are still trying to catch up from the last baby, and the baby before that, and my dh going to night school, and the baby before that...
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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Lisbet
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 12:16pm | IP Logged
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GREAT advise Jen, thanks so much. Another thing we did last time we were on the market was keep a few laundry baskets handy, so we could throw all of our daily clutter, such as newspapers, books, magazines and mail, etc.. in them and put them in the van with us while the house was being shown.
We tried the not schooling while the house was on the market thing, we were listed for 8 months, for sale for over a year. In this market, that is just to much of a gamble - a few houses on our block have been listed for 3 or more years now. It took our neighbors 27 months to sell their house (of course they blamed that on all of the kids next door...  )
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 12:22pm | IP Logged
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I was going to just what Jennifer said though I'm sure she said it better
We're attempting that here as well.. my sister has a basement we can use and we just want to move somewhere in town bigger.. and regardless we need to move most stuff out in order to redo our wood floors. So I'd have to do it all even if we weren't moving 
There is a house on the market right now that we'd like.. but we can't even put in an offer until we can put this house on the market 
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 12:28pm | IP Logged
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I'm not sure if they have them in your area or if they are more expensive than other rental storage units, we used a POD when we sold our house. They bring the big ol' storage unit to you, park it in your driveway, then come pick it up a week or so later.
Also, get rid of a ton of stuff. When we moved into this house and unpacked our POD, I remember thinking...."I paid to store this junK????" Truly, a lot of stuff went right from the POD to the thrash.
I wouldn't cut out schooling, I would just tailor it way down! Keep the math books, the lit stuff, just the basics. Pack up all the rest.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Matilda
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 12:49pm | IP Logged
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Mary Chris wrote:
| Also, get rid of a ton of stuff. When we moved into this house and unpacked our POD, I remember thinking...."I paid to store this junK????" Truly, a lot of stuff went right from the POD to the thrash. |
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I couldn't agree more!!! The only time we have moved was when we had three under three. I packed up the kids and moved in with my mom while our house sat "show ready". Not an option for everyone nor would I recommend it! So, my husband was the one who slowly packed up our house and when we got settled and I saw the amount of junk that he had to pack up, I felt awful! If I had been there, I would have tossed half the stuff before he ever had to put it in a box.
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Charlotte (Matilda)
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anitamarie
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I second the laundry basket idea.
When our wonderful neighbor moved about 2 years ago  , she had some baskets that she could load any excess clutter into, as well as personal financial info and throw in the van quickly. They also staged the house a little. The house sold in 4 days for asking price. This was right as things were slowing down around here.
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sweetiesmom
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After 18 mos of having our house on the market, we finally took it off. I couldn't stand it anymore. We are going to re-list the house sometime in the near future, after I go through the closets again.
We did school the whole time. I sorted everything into small tote boxes, one for each student. All the stuff fit, and we could easily take them in the van. We have been the storage route, and after paying for storage for a year, we finally cleaned out the storage bin.....lots of stuff was really junk. Think carefully and be organized before you pack everything away. I didn't label as well as I could and I never thought it would be a year later and that I would need to go looking for something, having no idea which box it was in. I wish I had packed things away knowing that it might be for an indefinite amount of time, I would have done it differently.
The silver lining.....
The kids and I became much better house cleaners in the 18 mos our house was listed. Everyone had a job, and they became quite efficient. We learned that we don't need all that stuff, and that it is far easier to put it away when you are done than to deal with it later.
Amy
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cheesehead mom
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Amy--We are trying to sell our home with 6 kids underfoot...it is a bit insane on 'show days'. We decluttered a ton and rent a storage unit for $60 a month. Nothing on the walls is ours and all rooms (including kitchen and toy area) are down to a very bare minimum (one small box of toys and 1 small box of legos). In todays market they even want the drawers tidy--it is crazy:) Our realtor treated us to a stager so the house seriously does not look like ours. My hubby is already working part time in our new town and is gone half the week so the kids and I get the house "show ready" solo usually. I pray a lot (mainly that I quit yelling at the kids to 'pick that up!' and am trying to trust in St. Joseph's intercession.
God Bless-
Laura (mom to 5 boys, 1 girl and baby due in Dec)
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SeaStar
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In the Duggar's book, MIchelle Duggar talks about having to have her house packed up and 90% of what they owned stored. She goes into detail about the system she used (and still uses). It involved boxing items and storing them in the garage. She used a detailed system of labeling the outside of the box with everything that was in it plus a number. She kept a master list inside the house. So if she needed an item, she could tell a kid or her dh "go into the garage and get box #78. The waffle iron should be in that box- check the list in/on the box".
The garage was simply full of neatly labeled boxes, so there was no need to pay for storage.
I'm not sure if I am remembering the exact details correctly, but it sounded like a good system. The library may have the book- or you could check their website for the name of the book she got this system from.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Keeping home neat for sale
