Tips for Your Home that I Learned the Hard Way

We had the 1st open house yesterday, and the 1st open house I have ever done. Well I still have 2 fingernails left, if that says anything! Here is a list of things I don't want to forget,and that I would like to pass on.

1.) Keep the cheap glass vases that flower arrangements come in, and the more interesting they are, the better. I don't want to use my nice vases, for fear they will get bumped and broken during a house showing or open house. I have kept 2 or 3, and I wish I had more, especially the low vases. I like the low ones, because with flowers they give a nice focal point for the eye, but not too distracting with height. When showing the house, I would like to put flowers in almost every room.

2.) The little card on your keychain (it could be a library card or grocery store card) is perfect for scraping dried goo or dried paint off the floor. It actually works for most latex based paint drips, too. My preferred tool is the painters tool that is used to scrape paint. That scraper has saved me lots of time in cleaning up the dried food spills that come from little ones and their eating habits/accidents. You can buy it in the paint department. It is called "painter's tool". It is sharp, so use care with that one.

3.) I should have bought more white pillar candles in my life. I am needing white because that color stands out on bookshelves, and white is used a lot in Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware ads. Also, I want more white votive candles, particularly the ones from Yankee Candle, because they have a really strong smell. I put them in the linen closet, for hopefully a good smell in there.

4.) Save laundry detergent boxes, or any other large household product box or tin, to hide your clutter in a hurry. Okay... you can only get away with having one or two extra. These boxes can stay in the pantry or kitchen cabinet, and stashing the dish towel in there can save valuable seconds in the last minute tidy-up.

5.) Another wanted item is woven baskets. I felt silly buying them from time to time, and my husband has teased me about buying them. However, I still need more. They make closet shelves look fantastic!

6.) Garden tools, garden gloves, and pots are items I should have splurged on, because they look great in the garage.

7.) IKEA has $1.50 house plants, and the best selection of pots I have seen. They beat Walmart in the house plant and pot department for selection and price. IKEA has small galvanized tin pots for 78 cents!! IKEA is my very favorite store of all time.

8.) DO NOT take your desk to storage. You can use it for staging. Your realtor may have an idea for where to put your "home office". We had to bring ours back to create a home office, because the home office area is a hot wanted space for home buyers. Who knew??

There is more to come, as the learning process continues!

The Stage...All the World's a Stage...Lights, Camera, Action

I've been reading these blogs about home staging. Supposedly, it will sell the home fast. You have to find the balance, the somewhere between not vacant-house feeling and not cluttered. Opening up the spaces is hard for me, because I have acquired some stuff in my life. ;-)

New goals:

First and most importantly:
Sleep Less.
Stage my garage. I have an old kitchen cupboard with the original sink and cabinets in there.
Wear less clothes so as to produce less laundry.

I like this blog about staging.http://www.stagingbug.com/blog/

Here's hoping my chi will flow and my grass will grow.

How to Sell a House/Home

428 Aberdeen Avenue, Dayton, Ohio is soon to be up for sale. Coming soon, as in three days. The best way to describe life here right now is WORK, 24-7. And there is me, grasping at whatever I can to preserve normality and childhood joys (which obviously include making messes, right?) for M & O. The only visible tokens in Madeline's room to indicate that she is a small little girl, are the two white piggy banks from Tiffany & Co. on top of her armoire. No giant pink flowers on the wall, in fact no pink anywhere. Owen's room has no blue, nor manly boyish images to be seen. His crib is discreetly decked out in sage green, and his curtains are a mature grey-blue-green paisley. We have taken about 45% of what we own and put it in storage. Our walls are an austere mandated khaki, except for out Crimson (Tide RTR BTW) dining room.

I have a new goal to write a how-to guide for women like me trying to sell a home with small children. This is mainly to document what I feel is the most difficult thing I have done in my life, besides gestating and giving birth. 40+ week gestations, gestational diabetes, and pitocin induced labor of the worst kind you can imagine defiantly are the most physically, emotionally, and mentally difficult things I have ever done. This is way harder than law school at Alabama and undergrad at Auburn with no money, no job, and no car. This is harder than training and running cross country in high school. That pain was very short-lived, and it was done in the company of friends. I have experienced no taxing of my brain and stamina harder than prepping a home for sale while caring for a 3 year old and a 20 month old. But don't be waiting on the how-to guide. I am sure the main reason a book like that written from this perspective may not exist (surely someone has written this already?) is because this process and life allows no time to write. In fact, I feel guilty for taking the time to blog this at all. And I am looking forward to the day that I don't feel guilty for taking time to blog, write, think, bathe, and anything else that includes enjoying life.