AH, to live somewhere houses sell “overnight”…in BIDDING WARS! Not the case here…and especially with BEAUTIFUL OLDER HOMES LIKE OURS...
Ones that are 140 years old…with all her little Quirks and Crannies.
That’s okay. This go-around, my head is in a better place regarding things.
(for those of you just stopping by -1st Hello!) and
2nd – our house was on the market last year from April to December and we took a little break until March 1. )
So back on the MARKET WE ARE…and I am strangely – calm.
Possibly because there are only 3 of us living here daily – the stress of “keeping everything clean” is lessened…but I think it is my new “attitude” WHICH IS
“what will be will be.”
That and right before we put the house back on the market we lightened our load and did another HUGE PURGE. I now believe that the SINGLE most important factor is making a house “SELL READY” is not to apply fresh paint and redecorate but TO CLEAN IT OUT. EMPTIER HOUSES JUST LOOK BETTER!!!
This brings me to my
8 WAYS TO GET RID OF STUFF
PURGE. PURGE AND PURGE and when you finish – get rid of even more stuff!!! Clean out kitchen drawers…bookshelves, under the bed and on the closet shelf. The longer you have lived somewhere – and collected the “things of life” the MORE you will have accumulated and it feels GREAT to get rid of stuff…but what do you do with all that STUFF???
- CONSIGN – MY DESIGNER FRIEND Wendi Smith friend has a high end – consignment business called “LEFTOVER LUXURIES” … AND anything furniture wise that I KNOW I will not be moving to the next house I have taken to her. It is incredibly freeing to lighten my load and also…make a little $$$. WENDI ALSO designed a showhouse IN BUNDORAN FARM and I donated some artwork…and furniture!!! BUNDORAN FARM IS WHERE THE 2015 SOUTHERN LIVING SHOWHOUSE WAS.
- GIVE THINGS AWAY – Nothing makes me happier than the see something I have stopped using – being REDISCOVERED…Just because you don’t need it – someone else might. I always say “what goes around comes around.” and quite often rather than to sweat to out trying to shlep perfectly good things to consignment…I just give it to a friend or someone just starting out.
- DONATE – Goodwill, local charities, friends – I have taken multiple carloads…bags and bags of things – linens I will never use again, dishes, totes and stools – right now nothing is safe in my house!!!!
- PUT IT ON THE CURB – We like to play a little game called “HOW long do you think it will last?” It is amazing how fast things disappear when you put a “FREE” sign out there. Some things Like huge metal soccer goals or an old dog crate…may just be the perfect thing for someone else…especially if all they have to do is put it in their car!
- SOCIAL MEDIA – Obviously there is eBay but I have found one of the fastest and most efficient ways to unload is FACEBOOK…there are neighborhood pages where folks post EVERYTHING…and word spreads like wildfire …I have sold and given away many things via FACEBOOK.
- CRAIGSLIST – One Friday, before we put our house on the market, a NEW sofa was delivered 2 weeks early…and all of a sudden I had way too many sofas (the two pictured above). Photos were being taken for the Real Estate Listing…on Tuesday and there was no time to move the sofas to storage and truthfully I was ready to part with the sofas. I put them both on Facebook and Craigslist and within hours they were SOLD!!!
- YARDSALES – Always an option – though I have little patience these days to haggle over $0.50…but it is a good way to ditch a lot of things in one fell swoop … make a plan to DONATE everything that does not sell – do NOT bring IT back into your house.
So there you have it…the more you get rid of the easier it is to keep things TIDY…I promise.
LESS truly is MORE!!!
I have such a hard time with purging. I attribute it to having depression era parents, especially mother, who never wanted to get rid of things. I wish I knew how to get over this mindset.
The curbside thing works were I’m at too! I don’t think that I’ve ever had anything last longer than a half day! Purging is hard at times. I’m currently at a standstill having gone through the house a few times. I’m at the hard to part with stuff now, lol!
After your information, I’m glad you are feeling better regarding your house being (still) on market. No big issue, is a great house. Someone special will fall in love. Bean is agreeing with me… calm and serene.
The chest of drawers in the first photo is great 🙂
We once had a home on the market (2009…remember the big financial mess?) for 18 months. I ultimately came to the calmness you speak of. It’s the best way to be when selling a home. We’ve bought and sold nine homes in four states and are living in our tenth. The previous owner tried to sell the home two years prior to our buying it. She took it off the market. I think our realtor encouraged her to put it back on, and we purchased it (warts and all) within a month of her listing it. It isn’t a historical home like yours, but it’s older and in a high price range and needed many, many, many repairs. In our community, homes in the upper range take much longer to sell. Many stay on market over a year. High-end buyers often want to build a custom home. Plus, most in our community want a ranch on a basement, not traditional two-story homes like ours.
Every market is different and while it can get annoying to hear, it’s true that with niche properties especially, it only takes one buyer to fall in love. Over the years I learned to disengage emotionally from the home. I’d declutter, make a million repairs, paint, and clean like crazy. Then it became merely a property to sell. After a few years, I even began telling realtors NOT to give me any feedback from potential buyers. I only wanted to know if/when someone wanted to make an offer. It allowed me to not get my hopes up at each viewing. Plus, feedback made me feel terrible, and, honestly, I really couldn’t move the upstairs master to the main level nor could I make the bedrooms larger or increase the square footage or move the busy street or put in granite counters or change any of the silly things buyers complain about (and we all do it). You have an amazing property. The right buyer will come along. In the meantime, enjoy the freedom of owning/cleaning less!
You have hit ALL the nails on the heads….What will be will be…and if we are to stay here for a few more years until my son graduates high school – then that is what we will do…its all good. xo
After emptying out 3 homes in one year when relatives passed away I had a lightbulb moment. I started to look at all my stuff in a different way. Lessening the items you have to care for is very freeing, also easier to maintain. We donated so much I started to feel guilty over all the wasted money. When my husband and I downsized after all the kids moved out it was so easy to pack up……..plus the moving cost was far less with less stuff. Good luck Leslie!
Love the drawer in the first photo 😀 Gonna paint mine like that. I’m the kind of person who like collecting stuff and it’s hard for me to throw away even useless things 😀 Thank you for sharing the post, maybe I should get rid of several things.