House sale pep talk please

[BanditsWife]

We’ve decided to sell, after years and years of will we/won’t we. I’m really worried about two things that I would like thoughts and advice on how to tackle:

1. The garden. The outside of the property looks quite a state. We’ve got crappy sheds and bunkers due to no garage and they just look run down and not fit for purpose. It’s pretty unkempt and weedy too. You could spend a pleasant afternoon in it but I think photos will just make it look crap.
2. The stuff! We don’t have an excessive amount of stuff, just very little storage space and five people living here with lots of interests and hobbies, so there are large musical instruments, large and small sports equipment, so many books and games, sewing machines and a considerable fabric stash. The stuff is cherished and used all the time, but with no spare rooms or a garage, it’s all in bedrooms, stuffed in the few cupboards we have to be dragged out as needed or in our large landing area. We also have quite a spread of ages with our kids so I still have a small one who has large play items like the dolls house, toy kitchen etc.

Obviously, I don’t want to attract buyers attention to the fact that there isn’t enough storage space for a family of five.

What do people do with all their stuff when selling?! Do I just have to tell the kids that most of their stuff is going in to storage? What happens if the house takes months and months to sell?! And any ideas on quick fixes for the garden? I want to get a move on and get it on the market now that we’ve decided to sell and it feels like a monumental struggle ahead of us.

Oh, one more thing. DD is currently in what was considered the master bedroom when we bought it. It makes sense for us due to the layout of the house as a whole and the location of other kids bedrooms. However, I wonder if it would be confusing to see a double in one of the smaller rooms and her single in the master? We could swap for the purposes of selling but it does seem like another thing that will be annoying if it takes ages to sell.

Good luck with your move! We’re in a similar situation - five of us with lots of stuff (frankly, even if we were in a mansion our hobby stuff would make it look cluttered.

We gave ourselves six weeks to get the house sorted ready for sale. This has involved repainting some gothic decor to be magnolia, which made some members of the family cry. :)

Outside, we’re weeding frantically and I’m going to give the fence a lick of paint to make it look cohesive - could you do the same with yours?

Inside, some big things are going bye bye temporarily - this does mean that the drum kit and the digital piano are going into the attic, along with my fabric stash and some other craft equipment.

You’re right, if it takes a while to sell then the stuff you love is packed away, but as the house just looks SO cluttered with it out, it has to go. We will live without it for now and hopefully having it put away will help us sell quicker. It’s making me more excited about getting to unpack it at the other end, hopefully in a slightly bigger house.

Best of luck with your prep, and I hope your kids help out more than mine have (mutter, mutter)!

I bought a load of boxes and packed each box with specific stuff. Ie main bathroom crap for example. This box sits in the bathroom but when we have a viewing it goes into the car. We have two cars…..with boots…..they are our storage spaces when selling

Regarding the beds, I would buy your Dd a double bed. Then nothing has to change.

I would swap rooms with your daughter or buy her a double bed so it looks more logical. But make sure you get rid of her single at the same time so you don’t accumulate even more stuff.

It sounds like you definitely need to declutter which in your case probably means putting items that don’t get used that often into storage. It may be inconvenient but actually it’s not easy to sell a house, especially in a slow market. If you want to achieve a good price it will take a lot of effort but it’s worth it to get the house sold.

Ugh I’m going through this at the moment. You probably do have things you could give or chuck away (I always seem to be able to fill a few bin bags when I actually give a room a good sort out!) and re-organising cupboards and shelves has freed up more storage space here. I’ve made use of some unused spaces by buying plastic storage boxes eg for underneath beds and the sofa. I’ve just tried to be systematic in going around and thinking room by room that surfaces need to be clear and tops of cupboards/ shelving units etc, and just plugging away until it’s done (which is exhausting and time consuming by the way)

and then there is stuff which has gone in the car for now/ gone to family for a bit.

and a list of things I need to throw in a big box for the car when any actual viewings might come (pet food bowls etc).

but I’m also trying to think ‘don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’! I haven’t been able to get the house perfect and with young children it is going to be hard to maintain or present it perfectly. But I’ve bought and indeed sold many houses that weren’t perfectly presented (last time we sold I had a week old baby and a toddler and we had about 3 days to get it ready to go on the market as we’d seen somewhere we really wanted to buy - it was definitely pretty cluttered!). Most people can see past a few musical instruments and a play kitchen.

We sold at the start of summer. We turned our craft room back into a bedroom and hired a storage unit to store those things.

when viewing a house I find it off putting when you look in a garage or attic and it’s crammed full of stuff.

Gardens can be funny. I thought our professionally landscaped garden would be a big selling point, but actually our buyer worried about how they would maintain it. And the survey picked up a tree potentially too close to the house, which caused a bump in the road at one point. Never can tell with buyers, but obviously something that looks like a nice place to spend time has to be an advantage.

Weeding is a no brainer, pay someone if you have to. Re the outbuildings, my main concern as a buyer would be rodents (but I have a “thing” about them!) so if they have to stay, make sure they are pretty clear inside.

Inside, the clutter would devalue it for me because usually it looks scruffy and not as clean as I’d like. If you can afford to rent storage for lesser used stuff, do it. Also to maximise on value I do think you need to present the biggest bedroom as a double.

It will put people off. I am someone who put the ironing board and vacuum cleaner in the car when I had viewers as there was nowhere out of sight to keep them. A significant amount will need packing up, other large items that are used regularly keep in the car.
The garden needs tidying. Any bunkers or sheds you are not using get rid of. Paint the others a nice bland colour with the fence stuff. Tidy the grass, get rid of weeds etc.

You need to tidy the garden and weed, that shouldn’t even be a question.

and I’m sure you don’t need all the stuff you have, for example a load of fabric, you can put that in storage.

I’m afraid you need to do some work op.

Thought of you this morning…..I spent hours yesterday evening blitzing the kids bedrooms (which included boxing up most of my daughter’s teddy collection, though I had to leave her favourites so I arranged them nicely). Well this rearrangement seems to have inspired her as this morning over breakfast she announces she’s going to have a teddy dance party after school for all the remaining teddies, and then spent the whole walk to school discussing arranging the teddy dance with my son (usually they argue the whole way). Half of me was like ‘ah so sweet!’ And half of me was like, ‘no!!!!!!!!!! I just tidied!!!!!!!!’

We're going through this ATM but are further down the line. Check storage rental it was nowhere as near as expensive as we thought..
We also paid someone to clear our garden. Now it's just grass and paving it looks pretty good. Ok no Kim

Couldn't you just box stuff up that you are not using and get a storage unit. I did this when moved, lots less stress as it was part done already.

When we had viewings, the car boot and back seats were full of stuff and parked round the corner from the house. The shed was also filled to the brim and locked.

I think you might need to rent a storage area to use. It will come in handy when it comes to moving house anyway with some stuff out of the way.