Putting our messy house on the market

[reallyneedmoresleep]

Aarrggghhhh! We are a family of 6 and we are about to try to sell our house. After a week of frantic tidying and shoving stuff in the loft & garage the estate agent’s came round, gave us our valuations and suggested we “tidy up a bit”.
What can we do? We have to live here. I have bags in the car ready to go to the charity shops as soon as they reopen. Any miracle tips?

If you think back to when you take your Xmas tree down. Suddenly the room seems big and empty. It’s the same with clutter. It makes a room look smaller. And it detracts from the room itself.

When you’re selling a property you’re selling the property, people need to be able to see it properly, if they walk in and it looks messy/dirty/cluttered it can be hard to see past how the current owners live, and you don’t want the first thought to be “Christ what a dump”.

As said, agents tend to see past a lot as they see so many messy houses, so when one says “tidy up” I’d take this as a really bad sign to be honest. It means it’s below even their low standards.

Time to get the margolds on op. Rope everyone in, come up with a plan of dump and charity bin runs, order a ton of bin bags from Amazon and get cracking, it might make the difference between an offer and no offer or a few grand on an offer 😃

We are downsizing and have a skip , charity bags going , plus stacking storage boxes on the go .

If you have clutter you need then just make sure you have storage units so it’s tidy .

Unfortunately we are going to have to pay storage as we have had family losses this year and have a lot of house clearance stuff to go through.

Pop on a podcast or you tube video about decluttering or minimalism while you’re tidying. Shifting your mindset will help more than any specific tips.

We sold our house last October and I was dreading getting the house ready as it was very cluttered. We spent weeks decluttering and tidying because I had seen enough photos on Rightmove to know just how a house really needs to be shown. I was worried most about the children's rooms. In the end it was totally worth it - I could barely recognise my own house from the photos. Lots went to charity/FB and anything the children wanted to keep but looked cluttered (eg DD's many cuddly toys) went away into cupboards.

The kitchen was spotless and the professional photographer which the EA used helped us by moving small pieces of furniture out of the way for the photos. Those got moved back into place while we 'lived' in the house for the next few months before selling. It was so, so worth it but you have to get your whole family to sign up to it.

I actually enjoyed living in much more space as honestly it gave me the kick to get rid of things from many years back that I just didn't need to hang onto any more. And we sold on the first day of viewings so it must have helped.

Clutter puts me off as it sends a signal that there’s not enough storage in the house and eventually I’ll end up cramped in like that.
You need to get rid or hide away lots more.

There was a BBC programme on earlier this week with Stacey Solomon decluttering a family home , that’s worth a watch
Hire a skip , and get rid of lots of stuff in there .
I expect charity shops are going to be overrun with peoples tat when they reopen
Go to the tip.

Put as much as possible in the recycling bags and let the bin men take it away

Thank you so much everyone who has taken the time to reply. The decor is fine and in generally good nick, it’s just stuff. Far too much stuff. We do lots of sports and have several small animals which seriously doesn’t help.
I need to be more ruthless about throwing things out - it just seems so wasteful when it’s in perfectly good condition!

Doilooklikeatourist
Good point on the charity shop front. Too often people shift their tat to the charity shop and pat themselves on the back, when really they're just passing on the burden of tat disposal to someone else.

Whatever is given to charity shops should be good quality and usable.

If the OP has any local free groups then she might be able to pass things on for free though, rather than it go to waste.

We have just recently downsized, we were ruthless getting rid of items we no longer used, needed, or didn’t bring us any joy. I have to say I really enjoyed the process.

Our house was always immaculate for viewings, clean, tidy, beds made, no washing hanging around. We sold after 7 viewings.

I was pretty shocked at some of the houses we viewed to be honest, why would you not present your home in the best possible light if you are serious about selling. Yes I know people are looking at the sizes of rooms, layout etc, but no one wants to see a messy room, it just shows a lack of care.

eBay and Facebook marketplace? It's amazing what goes and you can make some cash at least!

We hired a storage unit for the stuff that we use but not constantly. By being ae to temporarily pare down kitchen clutter, out of season clothes, garage shite, hobby stuff and so on, it meant that our house that we had outgrown was much tidier and easier to keep clean and we had less stuff in the way in the first few months in our new house, while we had essential repairs done to make it watertight and couldn't use the upstairs until it had been gutted.

Can you send the animals to friends or family for a few week? They also tend to smell and that really puts people off.

Imagine you are going on holiday to somewhere in England. What would you pack. Add stuff the kids need for school and what you need for work, and then put the rest into storage. You will just have to camp.

I just sold my house and I boxed up all the kitchen gear that I didnt need and left us 8 plates, cups, bowls, cutlery etc. I had to wash up after every meal (we are also a family of 6) but it made the kitchen cupboards look wonderfully spacious. I also put all the spare bedsheets pillows and duvets into storage along with all my guest stuff and extra towels (I kept one or two for emergencies. All the out of season clothes, extra bits of furniture, clothes that were waiting for someone to grow into them, sports kits that is not needed next week, extras of loo roll and shampoo that I had in a cupboard.

I had a couple of boxes right at the front of the storage unit (which was only a 10 min drive from our house) that I had all my spares in, so I could nip over there and grab something if I needed it. Moving out bits of furniture was also v important. I inly left 4 chairs around the kitchen table as it made the space look so much bigger..we just made it work for meals, my eldest ds thought it was great fun to eat sitting on the floor for a bit

In the end our house sold in 10 days, so it was definitely worth it

Hire storage, see if your friends can spare you garage space for some boxes etc. You really want it as decluttered as possible - esp on your photos.

When we had viewings I chucked all the stuff that was essential but untidy (basket of ironing, shoes and coats from hallway etc) in my car and parked it up the street a bit....

it just seems so wasteful when it’s in perfectly good condition!

Hmmm,,,,these are the typical words of a hoarder op.

The other way to may be address it is hire storage? If you can’t bear to part with things then hire storage out it in there then move all of it back into your new home?

Also if you’ve small pets be aware the house might smell, and the agent could have been partially alluding to this.

One room at a time, take everything out of the room (you can leave anything too heavy to move- if you actually need it). Now only put back the things you actually need. Everything else bin, charity shop, facebook or into storage for new house. If you aren't sure into storage it goes.

Facebook free
Sites are your best bet. I used loads when i moved during last lockdown. You will be surprised what people want. It's better than a charity shop really as you know people actually want the stuff they take

Definitely get a storage unit. We used one and it proved invaluable. It also made me realise how much stuff we were hanging onto for no good reason. When I finally started going through storage boxes months later, I realised I hadn't missed having most of the stuff in my life. Was able to get rid of a lot of it without regret.

I told our estate agents that the house would only be tidy & free to view on weekends.

They could spend the week booking in viewings for Sat & Sun.

Tidied up & booked cleaner for Fridays, then last minute run around, fill vases with flowers, make beds, light nice smelling candles, open windows, etc early sat morning then go out whilst they do the showings for the day.

Remember the estate agents are working for YOU. You need to manage them.

Good luck!

@reallyneedmoresleep - my house is on the market, five of us in our tiny terrace!

When the agent came round, he said so long as the pictures were good and the house was ‘tidy’ (read: not immaculate!) for viewings it would be fine.

I took our pictures, and I confess I did a lot of shifting of stuff out of sight to get the best view. I’ve also started properly decluttering- luckily we have a recycle centre nearby - and have been completely ruthless. That stuff I shoved in the cupboard years ago? Binned. Stuff I’m keeping on the top of the wardrobe? Binned.

Also, bag stuff up and lob in the car for viewings

Good luck!

Be ruthless! We got rid of a rediculous amount of stuff before we sold our house, it made moving so much more easier too. Its a massive wait of your shoulders to let go of all the stuff you've hung onto for so long.

I was absolutely ruthless getting rid of stuff and I plan to get rid of more now. Any junk went into skips. I bagged up clothing for charity. I gave away alot via Facebook marketplace. It still feels like we have too much.

The problem with any house with too much stuff is that it doesn't show off how large the rooms are and makes people think there isnt enough storage

@Constance11

Hire a storage unit temporarily, it might be a bit pricey but if it helps with your sale then it will be worth it. An EA knows what buyers will and wont overlook so if they have told you tidy up then you'd better do so :) Good luck!

I was going to suggest this! I know someone who did it and it worked really well.

Or do you have a family member’s garage you can store stuff in?

Definitely get rid of as much as you can in for storage or permanently. It will make a difference to how your house presents.

For our photos we got nearly everything and put it in the garage. You literally couldn't get in the garage. We are a family of three though

It's hard to have a house on the market and keep it tidy for viewings. Our EA was really good though and did the viewings at three, or four at a time so you just have to tidy once instead of multiple times

I would suggest that to your EA if they don't think of it themselves

Rather than random viewing can you arrange a day for viewings and get as many people in then as possible? Or have a few set days.
On those days you out all your sport suff and pet stuff that you can in the car and drive it around the block.

When we sold our flat we used to out all my son’s toys in the car because they made it look cluttered and less like a young professional pad!!

Is the sale urgent? If you can please at least try something like free cycle for the stuff that is in good order if you can’t give to charity due to Covid.

I’m not sure everyone wants to be ruthless. If you want to be more minimal that’s fine be very thorough, but if you prefer having more stuff fine as long as you know that you have it and if you can find it when you need or want it. (I know is of course a point when too much becomes serious disorder/potentially a MH issue and takes over a home but most people aren’t like that.)

Do you need each thing you have and actually use it? If you don’t it needs to go. If you use it is if out because it’s messy or you don’t have sPace? You need storage for the things you use. Are you moving/want to move somewhere larger? If so maybe a storage unit is a good idea while you sell up.