baby bunchers on the move--step 1: getting your house ready to show

There are many things in this world that suck, and I figure that moving has to be near the top of  the list.  Moving with your Baby Bunch has almost certainly got to be in the top 3.  Life is hard enough in the early years of Bunching - the last thing you need to throw into the mix is ANOTHER major life change. 

Linda is a seasoned mover who relocated several times, including internationally, within the first 5 years of Baby Bunching.  I personally have never moved with children, but we have mentally revisited the idea of moving every year since our oldest arrived and we have watched our starter home groaning under the weight of our expanding brood.  Each year, the very IDEA of moving with my kids was enough to convince me that it was worth staying put at any cost. 

But the moment of truth has finally arrived.  The home that we never intended to have children in is now one bedroom short of enough to house our three kids that arrived in rapid succession.  The one-car garage isn't big enough to hold all of our strollers, bikes and scooters, more less a car (forget about the minivan).  The backyard isn't fenced, the street is too busy, the neighborhood school isn't very good - I could go on and on with the reasons why this house isn't working anymore.  

So for the past month we have been killing ourselves to get it into tip-top condition, while our Bunch and the Caboose tag along behind us, undoing our progress.  I kid you not when I say that our painters painted the foyer and less than two hours later, the Caboose ran a toy along the wall and scraped it up.  Getting it ready to put the house on the market was almost impossible.  Keeping it clean enough to show will be a Sisyphean challenge.  

Fortunately, we already had a spring break trip planned and the realtor convinced us to extend it by a few days so she could have ten consecutive kid-free days to host a realtor caravan, an open house, and show it.  It's pretty sad when even your realtor wants your kids to go away.  

For now, I'm clinging to a few key pieces of advice  for survival that other friends in the same boat have offered. They include:

• Plan to become a nomad. Spend as little time as possible at home.  Call in all favors from your friends for playdates, tackle that long list of errands you've had for months, spend a lot of time at the playground, drive around and check out neighborhoods for your new house.  On the bright side, since your house is spic and span, you now have time to do all that stuff outside the house that you never seem to get around to.
• Eat somewhere else - a restaurant, the park, a friend's house, your car - doesn't matter as long as it's not your kitchen.
• Have a one big basket or container for when you have just a moment's notice for a showing.  Run around and throw everything in it and find a well-disguised hiding place for it.

And a few I've learned on my own, the hard way:

• Decide what size storage unit you need to move some stuff out so it looks less cluttered.  Whatever size you decide on, double it and get that size.
• Make a master list of everything that needs to get done.  In the beginning, when you are just purging/moving to storage, it won't feel like you're making a lot of progress. Write it all down (broken down into specific steps) and cross off as you get it done - it will keep you motivated.
• When getting your house ready to put on the market, always get the windows washed last.
• Do not host a birthday party for your child during this timeframe and if you do, make it "no gifts".  Birthday parties generate a lot of clutter that will replace all that stuff you worked so hard to move out.
• Move to paper plates and plastic utensils for just a few months. The environment will give you a free pass.
• Scope out all the cheap/free meals in town. We hit two different Moe's for kids eat free on two different nights of the week and we've learned that WalMart rotisserie chicken is cheaper than Costco's.  But Costco still has the cheapest pizza and hot dogs, hands down.  
• And finally, you will be tempted to work yourself to the bone on the house, but remember that you still have kids.  Ours noticeably suffered as we poured so much energy into the house while they played off to the side.  Enlisting the help of babysitters, friends, and family will help keep them occupied when you can't.

Tell me what I'm missing.  Because I need all the help I can get.

Comments

[Amanda]

We currently have our house on the market and short of just renting an apartment to move into on a temp basis (...we did really consider it), I have just basically given up on having our house "show ready" all of the time. The Gods tend to work their magic and it seems that we always someone interested in looking at the house during naptime, so I've learned to at least have the dirty underwear off the floor before then. Maybe that is why our house hasn't sold yet? Lol!

[Alecia]

Set a realistic goal for how "perfect" you want your house to look before putting it on the market. Your realtor can help you with this. Not every single area of paint will get touched up, not every single "to-do" can be done or you'll drive yourself mad. Especially when you're, say, 8 months pregnant and waiting on your husband to help with most of it...

[Pandora Bracelet Outlets]

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