How To Keep A Clean House (And Practice Self-Care) When You’re Trying To Sell

Guest Blog By: Alice Robertson

If you have recently or are getting ready to put your home on the market, you should know this means big changes for your family. If you have kids, the most prevalent of these is learning how to keep everything clean despite them. There is a fine line that you walk as a parent between making sure your home is ready for showings and keeping meltdowns and toddler tantrums at a minimum. It truly is a challenge. However, there are a few ways to mitigate stress while managing the mess.

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“Less Is More” Is Your New Mantra

Your very first step is to purge your home of all of the things that nobody needs. Unfortunately, for the kids, this means toys. Your son probably has dozens of Hot Wheels and your daughter just as many Shopkins. And they don’t want to part with any of them. But part they must, and encourage them you should. How? The simple strategy is bribery. Talk to the kids about what’s going on. Explain to them that you need floor space and would like to empty the closets to make it easier on everyone during the move. Then break it to them that their least favorite toys have to go. Give them some hope, however, by promising a trip to the toy store to pick out something they’ve been wanting in exchange for thinning out their toy stash.

Ask A Professional

If you weren’t already aware, there are plenty of professionals that can help you get your house in order and keep it that way. This is an investment, however, and you should be prepared to spend $500 to $600 per room on a home stager. A housekeeper, however, may cost less. In some parts of the country, you may pay as little as $13.75 an hour up to $19.75 an hour. And the cost depends on whether you hire an individual or a company plus the size of your home and its messiness level.

Of course, the professional cleaning also extends to your furniture, especially if the furniture you’re using for showings shows signs of age. For example, if your favorite sofa needs an expert touch, consider hiring a furniture upholstery professional in your area to handle the task. As Angi.com explains, smaller pieces of furniture will run between $340 and $960, though large sofas can easily cost $1,200 to $3,500 depending on the size and the damage.

Watch What You Eat

When you have kids, you can guarantee that, in addition to making playtime messes, they want to eat. All of the time. But be careful here, as well, because what you put on their plate can make your home less attractive. There are many foods you should avoid in the hours before a showing if you want an easy cleanup. Tacos and powdered doughnuts are listed as some of the messiest foods and shouldn’t be a regular menu item when your house is on the MLS. Similarly, you can keep last night’s dinner from becoming this morning’s unwelcome odor by skipping fish and heavy garlic dishes. Instead, focus on nutritious alternatives that don’t pose a significant risk of mess, especially where snacks are concerned. But, because you have to eat, you should, at the very least, invest in a few cheap plastic table covers from your local dollar shop to keep crumbs from taking over.

Master The 10-Minute Tidy

If you’ve gotten rid of extraneous toys and belongings, had your home professionally staged and routinely cleaned, and avoided offensive foods, you can relax. But you also need to master the art of cleaning in a pinch. If your realtor calls with a last-minute showing, make sure that the beds are made, toys are put away, and the home smells fresh. You can speed things up a bit by keeping a cordless vacuum on the charger and teaching the kids how to make their own beds.

Selling your house when you have children does mean making changes to your home and lifestyle. But with a little effort (and a helping hand when you need it), you can get the job done without causing chaos with the kids. Remember, less is more. If you keep that policy throughout the process, your efforts will be rewarded with a cleaner house and a faster sale.