Wife--I want to sell our house. But I can't. Not without Heather Frowow.
Husband--We need Heather Frowow and her mom blog to show us the way.
I hear. I answer.
Step one in selling your house is to clean your digs. There are two vitally important points to remember when completing this step. You must:
1. Be Type A
2. Be a complete neat freak
I cannot overemphasize these two points. Allow me to elaborate...
You should clean your house top to bottom at least once per week. There are several ways to do this. I have tried cleaning by floors--upstairs one day, downstairs the next. This was annoying as I needed every cleaning supply every time I cleaned--the vacuum, dust cloth, furniture polish, all the bathroom gear---the works. I have found that cleaning by category works best. For example, Monday's are currently my dust and bathroom day and Tuesday's are my floor day. It really helps to take the cleaning supplies necessary for one task and go room to room. No switching, no having to stop to put certain things away and get other items out. The point is to develop a good cleaning routine BEFORE people start gallivanting all over your floors in their muddy shoes. You want to be a well-oiled machine so you don't waste hours of your day cleaning, only to do it all over again tomorrow. Aim to clean no more than 30 minutes per day...and that takes practice.
Point Two: Be Complete Neat Freak
The best way to be quick at cleaning is to spend your time actually CLEANING, not putting your crap away. It is so important that there is a place for everything and everything is in it's place. The little things you do to tidy up make a huge difference. When you put on your makeup in the morning, make sure to put your makeup back in your bag and put your bag in the drawer as soon as you are finished. Don't wait until later. By then, it won't be just your makeup bag, it will be your straightener, the mail, the peanut butter jar, the dinner dishes, etc. You get the point.
Moving on....
If you google, "how to get your house ready to sell" you will find a complete list of random crap to do. Don't do it. For example, I fixated on something that said "closet hangers should be the same color, face the same way, and group like-colored clothing together." I did this and nearly killed myself doing it. (And because I'm a sick, twisted Type A Neat Freak I enjoyed it). Let me set the scene for all the good it did me:
Our agent came over to our house for the first time and we gave her the "tour." She poked her nose all over our IMMACULATE house and I'm all "Just let me know if I need to pick up or clean more. I've hardly done a thing." Meanwhile, Andres had worked from home that day and I may or may not have called him every hour to politely encourage him to:
Sadly, this is an accurate depiction of me while cleaning. I'm not even lying.
Anyways, our agent is walking all over our house with her shoes on. I'm cringing with every step she takes, but manage to hide my crazy and smile through the pain. We arrive at our master closet which I have painstakingly (and fun-ly) organized by clothing color, using only white hangers facing the same direction. This is it. My moment. She opens the closet doors and my heart goes like this:
And her face goes like this:
Wah-wah.
Talk about ruining the moment.
I'm still getting over it. Obviously.
In summary, these should be your take-aways:
1. don't be a slob
2. don't believe everything you read on google
So, there you have it! Part one! Stay tuned for part two: How to choose your agent. It's riveting.
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