I Can’t Remember

(I promised a post on this last week, so here it is.)

Please see the rest of my series on Home Staging.

Have you ever been in a “kid’s room” in a model home. It has a theme. It’s color-coordinated. It’s clean and uncluttered.

Now look at your kids’ rooms. Wow, what a reality check!

Selling your home is not about reality. It’s about selling a dream, not a building. I got to see some of the comments from realtors showing my house. One comment struck me: “the home looked dated.” My house was built less than 10 years ago! But the furniture inside the house is mostly older than that. The house isn’t dated, but potential buyers aren’t actually looking at your house, they’re mostly looking at your stuff. It seems crazy. Like if you went to a store to buy a box—just the box—and then bought the box that had the best stuff in it. And then went home with the empty box. But that’s what people do!

So now look at your child’s room. Is it a room that someone with kids would want their kid to move right into? Is it a “Oooh, so cute!” room? Probably not. Primarily because a real live child actually lives in it! But your house isn’t supposed to be lived in…it’s supposed to sell.

The trick with children’s rooms is to make them look good, but still usable. Because, let’s face it, unless Junior’s going into the storage unit (or Grandma’s) until you sell your home, it has to be liveable!

Find a theme
Remember the model home kid’s bedroom? It had a theme and was color coordinated. Guess what? You already have a color scheme! Congratulations! What color are the walls and furnishings? That’s your color scheme.

(While we’re talking about walls, let’s digress a bit. Wash the walls, and patch and touch up any damaged areas. People look carefully at the walls in kids’ room, because kids are hard on walls. So fix them!)

Look at your colors and what you already own to build a theme. Your daughter’s hand-me-down dresser is white with green knobs. Hmmm….what’s green? Let’s add a couple stuffed frogs, some frog bath toys, her older sister’s forgotten princess doll. Viola! Frog prince theme!

Those cowboy dolls your kids never played with? They still look like new. Add their old cowboy hats, and that pair of boots your boy outgrew before he could wear. You have a cowboy theme room with plain walls and oak furniture! Get rid of the Spiderman comforter and put that old striped wool blanket on the bed instead.

Your son has outgrown all his Thomas the Train stuff. Didn’t he used to have a bedspread that matched? Pull it all out. The home buyers won’t know he’s too old, and it all matches—which is the important part!

(Another digression: I went to look at a house for sale, and came out knowing their kids’ names, ages, and genders. I knew what both mom and dad did for a living, that Grandma lived in a condo, and where the family liked to vacation. Not to mention what everyone looked like. Good thing I’m not a stalker or a child molester! Bad guys buy homes, too. Let’s not tell them your family’s history. Any pictures of the kids and anything with their name on it goes into storage, Grandma’s, or a sealed box. No exceptions!)
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So, there are Zoos with more money, more flash, more pizzaz. Other Zoos have state-of-the-art attractions and million dollar animal habitats.

But the Austrin Zoo is still the best zoo I have ever been too.

Why?
For one reason, because whenever you take your kids to the zoo, the inevitable question pops up: “Mommy, where did all these animals come from?”
Ooops!
If you’re at the Austin Zoo, you can answer: “They were rescued.”

That’s right, the Austin zoo is populated entirely by former exotic pets, smuggled wildlife, ex-circus animals, drug dealers’ decorations, and, in one case, a lion that was used as a guard dog in a junkyard.

The zoo inhabitants have found sanctuary in a lovely, shady, hill country site.

Did I mention the SHADE?
The trees at the zoo’s hill country site were left, some in the animals’ enclosures, and some along the paths meant for people. Paths of crushed gravel, with not a sidewalk in sight! And the paths get really, really, ohmygosh really close to the animals! Even through a double fence, a Bengal tiger only six feet away is not something you’re likely to ever forget.

In addition to the moral highground and shade found at the hilltop zoo, there is loads of fun to be had. Kids just love this zoo! Field trippers and birthday partiers can’t get enough of it. The kids can really get close to the animals, and kids love animals. If your’s are mischeivious, warn them ahead of time not to chase the peacocks that freely roam the zoo.

The Austin Zoo also has a zoo train that runs every hour, and eating facilities. And don’t forget the petting zoo: I’ve never met a friendlier bunch of goats and llamas in my life. They were even gentle with tots barely walking!

When you go to the Austrin Zoo, be careful to follow the signs to the Zoo, not the signs for a place called the “Sanctuary” which offensively enough sells exotic pets!
The “Sanctuary”’s days are hopefully limited, though: on their website, the Austin Zoo states: “Along with a sanctuary in San Antonio, Austin Zoo has gained national acclaim and is working to promote legislation that will make it harder for small, roadside “zoos” with mistreated animals to exist.”

So, my home has been on the market for 8 days, has had 5 showings, and one offer.
Not bad, considering the usual time right now in the area is 30-50 days on market.
Thus, the benefit of Home Staging is illustrated.

Guess what impressed our Seller’s Agent most about our house?
The uncluttered closets and kids’ rooms!

(Next week, I promise to write a post on how I decluttered the kids’ rooms!)

The only negative comment we got from a Buyer’s Agent so far has been: “pet odor.” Aaaak!
This is totally my fault. After the carpets were professionally cleaned, guess what I did? I put the smelly 10 year old doggie bed back in my bedroom! I don’t smell it anymore!

Dog has a new bed, and regular baths scheduled. I’ve added a couple home scents in strategic places just in case (which I hate, but makes some people think the house is clean.)

Speaking of cleaning, I have a schedule:
Bathrooms 3x a week
Kithchen 3x a week (deep clean)
Dust 2x a week
and either Mop or Vacuum every day (alternating: half my house is tiled.)

Everything gets picked up before anyone leaves the room. Because, really, you never know when a Buyer might schedule a showing!

And of course, no meal prep can last more than 30 minutes, just in case. (Oh, darn!)

Remember birthday parties when you were a kid? Do you also remember all the bags of trash your dad carried out to the curb that evening? How about all the toys you never played with? Or all those cheap party favors and decorations that soon ended up broken and in the trash?

For our own kids, we can do better!

First off, find out what your kid really wants (and what you think he will play with!) and tell people if they ask. Don’t let her ask for the cool toy—she can borrow that from her friends (they’ll all have it!) And make sure your child knows that love is not measured in money or stuff.

Whew!

Now comes the easy part: The Party.

Invitations can be 100% recycled, charity, or both. Green Field Paper Co. has recycled and tree-free cards, as well as “Grow-a-Note” cards that have seeds embedded in them: you plant the initiation and it grows flowers! M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Children’s Art Project has cards designed by children cancer patients. All the proceeds go back into the program. Use one of their note cards for a unique invitation.

Party themes can be eco-friendly. Progressive Kid has several “Party in a Box” options to choose from, including “Ocean Steward” and “Music Party.” The boxes are inexpensive ($6), so get one and build your party around it. Or buy one for each child and the party is planned, bought, and done! Proceeds from some of these go to different charities.

Decorations should be reuseable. Buy a birthday flag to hang up outside instead of balloons. Get a table cloth to use at every birthday party. Your kids will cherish the memory of the “birthday table.” Do not use disposable plates! Or if you do, use recycled paper plates and compost them after the party. Hang up a retro and reuseable “Pin-the-tail” donkey in a prominent spot: if that doesn’t say birthday party, what does?

Food can be healthy and still a treat. Organic is better for the kids and the environment. Snacks like cheese cubes, fresh fruit, raisins, and graham crackers will be gobbled up as quickly as chips and cookies. And always remember when selecting snacks: less packaging=less waste=more healthy(fresh)!

Goodie bags are usually an environmental crime: plastic bags (suffocation hazards for your kids and wildlife, too) filled with cheap little plastic “toys” (choking hazards, easily broken and soon tossed in the landfill, made in China by child labor) and chocolate (too much sugar and caffeine, made by exploiting poor families.) What a waste! Have your child decorate brown paper (recycled) lunch sacks. Fill them up together with art supplies , stickers, and a small wooden toy or kite. Magic Cabin has some great little wooden toys, kites, and party favors. Or how about environmentally friendly crayons like Prang’s soybean crayons or Stockmar’s beeswax crayons (available at Nuno Organic or Hazel Nut Kids.))

There’s no reason that your child’s party has to be an environmental disaster! You can have the coolest birthday party on the block and still be responsible!

For more ideas, see also Eco Friendly Birthday Party by Nature Moms.

My husband (who has never in his whole life been neat) just told me that he could “become addicted to all this decluttering.”
Apparently, he is now irritated by the disorganization inside his desk drawers and has started to organize them—in such a way that it hasn’t made a mess anywhere else.
I have found that it is easier to live in a decluttered home. It’s easier to find things, and to put things away. Even the kids are putting everything up.

If you are selling your home like we are, don’t worry about having to live in a neat/clean/decluttered home while your house is on the market: trust me, it’s great! Think of how pleasant staying in a hotel is. It’s very soothing to have only a few things to keep track of. And you still have your “stuff”: what do you think your furniture and your good china and the kids’ favorite toys are? And it still feels like “home”: your family and everything you really need is there.

So go ahead, declutter and stage all your rooms and put all that stuff into storage.
But beware, you may never want it all back!

Normally, on Mondays I offer up home staging advice.

I’m putting my house on the market this week however, so I’m too busy staging my own home (and getting the carpet patched!) to write about it.

So, I offer you this instead:
Selling your house? The one time you should definitely declutter
from the UnClutterer.

Have you ever been out to eat with your family, and a server or busser has had to mop up a spill that your family has caused?

Yeah. Time for the “mop tip.”

Basically a “mop tip” is 5-10% above and in addition to the normal tip you would have given them. If someone has to use a mop during your meal, or will probably need to immediately after you leave, they get a “mop tip.”

Ahhh…if there were only “mop tips” for mommies!