My house is a pit and I need to move. Help!

[Thewolvesarerunningagain]

I'm hoping to put our house on the market in spring with a view to buying somewhere easier to maintain. Our house is a Victorian semi, 4 double bedrooms, big garden, convenient location. When we bought it I'd had reason to believe that we were going to have some cash to renovate but that fell through. I have 2 DCs, dog, cats etc, a DH who is in poor health, a full time job and zero family to help. I'm done with it. The house is a giant millstone and I spend pretty much my whole weekend getting it back to the state it was in at the end of last weekend. Turning into an utter harridon with the kids about mess has made us unhappy and had no appreciable impact on the house. Routine maintenance isn't getting done and anything more ambitious is a joke. I want to live somewhere that doesn't take all my free time to tend. Given we'd be effectively downsizing this should be doable. The problem is this. Given I can't manage to keep up with the house as things stand, and I really can't expect any actually helpful help from DCs/DH, how can I get and more importantly keep it in a viewable condition? The last house I sold was before DCs and I was able to do a one off deep clean and then just not make a mess. I don't have the time to redo a deep clean every time we get a viewing. Can anyone recommend a solution or am I doomed?

I'd happily uproot my life up north for this offer.

Get an Estate Agent round and get some advice on what to prioritise and how they could support you to get it sold quickly.
Paying for a deep clean sounds good. Even paying for a declutter person who could work with you for a few hours and do a big swoop on the house.

Look up Marie Kondo and her book - it's a really focused way of decluttering. It sounds a bit bonkers but really works. It's worth doing it properly so you don't have to drag any clutter to the next house, which will put you back into your current situation.

I would declutter ruthlessly, pay for a cleaner to do a one o deep clean & then call the estate agent.

You will feel physically & mentally lighter when done. Good luck.

Definitely ruthless declutter. Watch the minimal mom and joshua becker for inspiration.

Start with your stuff (I included things Im responsible for as well like kitchen, towels, bed linen...) and the difference was huge. Then I got the DC onboard by selling old toys and giving them the money. DH is a work in progress but he could see how much better things are which motivated him slightly to tackle his clothes and shoes (he owns more shoes than me and the 2 DC put together!!!!).

It is so much easier to tidy now all the drawers and shelves are only half full, not rammed to the max.

I also did the DC clothes without their input which helped a lot. Get rid of anything that is too small or holey/stained. I got into the habit of keeping ALL of DS1's old clothes for DS2 but learnt over the years that a) I made some mistakes in what I bought for DS1 and won't use those clothes for DS2 b) some are in a worse state than I remembered when I pull them out 3 years later c) they don't have the same body shape d) DS2 knows what he likes and doesn't want all of the hand me downs.

Now I just keep a selection to pass down.