How To Live In A Listed Home Without Losing Your Marbles

Happy Thursday guys!  Today is the big move day… wish us luck!  As promised I have another lovely lady here today talking about home ownership… and about living in your home after you list it!  Courtney is an absolute sweetheart and her Abigail is adorable (although I may be a bit biased since she and Abbie have the same name).  Take it away, Courtney!

Hi y’all! I’m Courtney and I blog over at A + Life. I write mostly about my 3 year old little girl, Abigail, but I also share the in’s and out’s of our life, our walk through infertility, our faith, and recently, an awful lot about houses. We are currently in limbo between trying to sell our first home and buying our future hopeful forever home. We’ve been under contract(contingent) with our new house since mid-May and our home has been on the market since then. 

We certainly never expected it to take this long for our home to sell, but the market in Southwest Missouri is TOUGH and apparently, the perfect family just hasn’t come along yet. So today, while we wait, I thought I would share with y’all some ways to keep your sanity when your home is on the market. (Easier said than done, I assure you)

1) Keep Things Easy To Pick Up Quick

I live for baskets to throw things in. You can’t exactly stuff your closet full like you used to when you Mom asked you to clean your room because, uh, people who want to buy your house will actually look in there. But, you can invest in some awesome storage solutions that make cleaning up when you get a quick, “Can we show your home in 15 minutes?” call.

We have a coffee table that has a lid and storage for toys that accumulate in the living room and a big storage cube with baskets that more Abigail things can be tossed into at the last minute.

And of course, if you’re really in a hurry, throw things into your oven or dishwasher. It’s all good. I think.

2) Leave Extra Money In The Budget For Eating Out

You know what will probably happen? Your showtimes will come when people aren’t at work. Read: lunch or dinner time. If it was just the two of us we could probably wait to eat until we came back, but with the 3 year old, no such luck. We’ve spent many a Sonic date waiting for people to leave our house while we sip on slushies and eat hot dogs.

I’m also really particular about smells. So if we know that someone is coming to look at the house that day, there shall be no brewing of the coffee, or boiling of the eggs, or cooking of the fish sticks. But, Mama needs her coffee and eggs, so Cracker Barrel it is. See what I’m saying?

3) Don’t Take Feedback Personally

People feel like they need to give you a reason why they won’t buy your house. You will get the most ludicrous “complaints” or explanations for why they didn’t choose your home. It’s really hard to do, because you love your home and things, but you can’t let it upset you. Most of the time, they just made something up to tell the realtor. And sometimes, it doesn’t really matter anyway. Like, really? You didn’t buy my house because of one rooms paint color? Ooookay.

4) Let Go Of Perfection

This is obviously easier said than done, and a hard one for me because I want the house “show ready” at all times. But, with a three year old, that is just never going to happen. It can’t be show ready all the time and it can’t be 100% clean all of the time. We do the best with what we have and the time we’re given and we’re just sitting here hoping and praying like crazy that any day the perfect buyers will walk in and be wow-ed by our home. Not only because it doesn’t smell like eggs and coffee, but because they can see it being their home. Whoever that person is, they don’t need it to look like a model home to see that.

If you’ve ever sold a home before, what are some things you did to keep yourself from going crazy?

You can follow along with all of our shenanigans and home updates at any of these places:  Blog / Instagram / Facebook