Staging a House When You Have Kids

Find a friend who has a soft spot for pets. Children's toys so long and they are not in disarray should not be a significant issue.

As far as the kid stuff goes... you pack it. ALL of it, except 1 small suitcase each.

DITTO their clothes. 7 outfits MAX. 2 pairs of shoes. 1 coat. 1 swimsuit.

Keep them in small suitcases in their room, and live out of suitcases. Think of it like living in a VERY posh suite hotel, with kitchen, for free.

Put stuff back in the suitcases at night, and if you need to be out of the house for a showing... you just zip them up and pop them in the trunk OR in a closet.

DON'T FORGET THE KITCHEN.

Pack everything, except for the bare minimum... 1 plate, 1 glass, 1 coffee mug, 1 bowl, 1 set of silverware for everyone OR just use plastic. 1 pot, 1 pan, 1 stirrer. Go very basic with your cooking, and keep your fridge bare and clean. You want you cupboards and pantry BARE when people are coming through. Our pantries all make sense to US, but just look a proper mess to everyone else.

I used to move every 2 years, and every 2 years all my toys and clothes got packed up for 4-6 months. It made it like CHRISTMAS unpacking. :) :) :) Also a great 'memory jogger' for the little ones... because as you're unpacking (and I've now done this with my son several times) you talk about each of the things you're unpacking. It really cements memories of early childhood, because they're being recalled with visual aids. Many kids don't have solid memories until kindergarten. Kids who move a lot, though, tend to start their memories between ages 1 & 2.
__________________

For pets? Someone might have a better option for you... because we only ever had a couple... but we either sent them to work with dad every day (his "part" in helping meant taking the dog out for a walk several times)... or brought them with us... kenneled them for the duration. Crates were kept in cars or in one small part of the garage. We never had litter boxes (indoor/outdoor cats)... so I've got nothing for you there! Sorry!

We put our house on the market when my kids were 4, 2 and about 6 months.

We rented a storage locker. I know - it's added expense. BUT - I think it totally helped.

We emptied our (nonfinished) basement, painted the whole thing (trendy colors) and then staged it as a play area for the kids. Some larger items went down there (train table, race track, a large laundry basket full of toys).

We kept a decent looking basket in each room for toys after the staging was done. That way we could have thrown every toy into one basket and gotten out quickly. Our stager said it's not about looking like you don't live there, it's about looking like it would be NICE to live in your home. Toys are ok, just not too many, and make sure they are picked up.

We took about 1/2 the furniture out of our home and put it in storage. We left the basics in the living room (removed an extra bookcase, end tables). We took about 1/2 the toys out of the home as well. I got rid of a few, then the rest got boxed.

The kitchen stuff I only boxed the stuff I didn't use much... china, special serving stuff, cleared off counters so it was all open and clean on the surface. I also cleaned all my cupboards and limited my groceries so my pantry shelves looked tidy and not all crowded like normal.

Bedrooms we took out any out of season clothing and tried to make our (teeny tiny) closets look like they had some space in them.

Our realtor actually paid for a stager to come and tell us what to take out, what to paint (and what colors) and then to come back after we did the prep and rearrange our furniture and artwork on the walls. Ask your realtor - maybe they'll pay for it for you. In our area, most realtors are pretty motivated to sell the homes that are not short sale/forclosures so they are happy to work with a good seller.

We were lucky (!!!) our home actually sold the first day on the market. I do attribute that to the fact that we worked our tails off to get it ready and did EVERYTHING the realtor/stager told us to do without really questioning it.

As far as pets go - I'd try to take them with. I didn't like looking at houses that had pets in them. It turned me off to the home... Find a spot in your basement that you can easily just move the litter boxes out of the way. Keep them spotless, and move them on the way out as you do the final tidy before a showing.

Good luck!

I've looked at houses where the pet was there and it was awful. Most growled at you and even though in a kennel you weren't sure they would bite if they could. Cats were worse and usually lose and sitting on beds, etc. Very disgusting to me with all the cat hair, etc. Those homes usually were off my list immediately. We had to take our dog with us when we had our house shown and she was small so not much of an issue. You should take the pets though. Toys are okay if in a neat container or picked up and out of the way. People do know you live there even if you are staging and you do have children. The other suggestions are all good but you can only do so much and still be alive in the house.

I would also suggest keeping the kids toys in bins, you can leave most packed and switch the bins so they don't get bored. Pack up what you don't need every day including furniture. As for the pets, this will be a challenge because most people are turned off by pets. I would find somewhere to bring them for showings, even if you have to load all five into your car and drive around for an hour. I strongly recommend a really good cleaning of your home before listing (and then daily) to remove all pet hair and odors.

It won’t be easy, but if you really want to sell you will manage. You can also request that you get an hour’s notice before any viewings and/or only have showings on the weekends. My sister is going through this now.

We have three cats and a dog and I went into labor the day the house went on the market, lol. Our orginal plan was I would crate the cats and leave them in the house covered (two get carsick so taking them with was not a great option), but I would take the dog and baby with me.

For some reason that just never worked out. Our cats tend to hide if people come over so I just left a note on the front door that said welcome and please do not let the cats outside if you see them, they are indoors only. Our dog we crated in one room and covered her crate. I think we also had on the front door note that our dog, Cami is downstairs, she may bark, but she is friendly. On her covered kennel we had a jar with cookies and a note that said "Hi, my name is Cami and I am very friendly and love cookies, please feel free to give me one." Or something like that. No reviews mentioned the animals, other than a couple mentioned that they liked our dog and she was very quiet. We did leave her with a frozen peanut butter kong stuffed with cookies when we left.

Our realtor did tell the others that we were brand new parents and that their would be pets in the house so they knew. We did remove most of the pet toys, but the large cat scratcher was in our family room and the litter boxes were in the mud room. I made sure they were were cleaned before we left and lit a pet odor candle for awhile before just in case there was any smell that I didn't notice.

The couple that bought the house looked at it twice and the second time we were contacted while they were there to walk the property line, no problem. We went back and when we got there they said they were debating if they should take our dog out since she was barking every now and then and they were afraid she needed to go potty. She was just doing her I'm annoyed bark, you are here and I'm still in my kennel.

Long story short, some people might care, but a lot really will not. For the kid stuff keep it as clean as possible. The only house that turned me off that we looked out and we have moved 4 times was one that was little crammed with stuff and every cabinet was left open in the kitchen to show storage, but there was zero free space. Also their basement looked like someone had just throw about 30 toys to the bottom from the top of the stairs and there was marker all over one bedroom carpet and walls. I know all the stuff would have been gone though and we did look seriously at that house, but it had a few major problems not cleaning related.

Good luck and hope it sells soon

I am much more forgiving about kids stuff BUT not about several pets. Multiple litter boxes just doesn't sound appealing when I am looking at a home to purchase. I suggest putting them in a kennel. It will cost you to do this but personally I wouldn't look at a house with that many animals. I do not want any traces of pets. You could lose out on a sale.

Good luck with selling with all those animals. You are suppossed to gather up all your staging items and place in large baskets. 3 hours is the notice you should get for viewing. In that time...you have to pick up everything....make sure sinks...toliets....are clean....counters wiped down....all toys put up. And surely....any evidence of an animal hiden. Use the crates to house the animals when you leave the house....and just find a hidden place to put litter boxes etc....maybe garage. If it is dogs....make sure poop is picked up in backyard. You have to figure this all out ahead of time. Thing is....the animal evidence could spoil a potential buyer...no joke. Some people are just dead set against it. Good luck!

I won't lie -this was a NIGHTMARE for us! I had bins for everything, so every time we left the house, I threw all the toys and stuff into the bins. At least it gave a "neater" appearance. You can only do what you can do, and it's almost impossible to have everything looking like a Better Homes and Gardens spread 24/7 with small children underfoot (and then the pets too). I made sure the floors were always clean and that you could never smell any "pet" smells, no visible dust and no "stacks" of magazines, mail, clutter, etc. existed. I figured as long as no one was tripping over stuff in the floor or sticking to it, seeing giant balls of dust or pet hair or smelling anything bad, we were doing okay! Good luck!

Oh yeah -we rented a storage unit while ours was listed. We put EVERYTHING extra in it so there wasn't even "clutter" in the closets, and you can put crates and things in there. If you have a garage or porch -the litter boxes have to go there. Make sure you get the litter boxes with covers on them and change them daily -that will go A LONG way!

I kept the crate in our bedroom and that is where we put our dog during showings. We had it tucked next to our dresser so it wasn't so obvious. We were fortunate to have a extra storage room in our home that is the size of a small bedroom to put most of her toys in. However, we bought bookcases ($20 each, do it yourself ones at Wal-Mart) and baskets and put most of her toys in there in our formal living room since we have no furniture in it. It wasn't perfect, but we were able to sell our home in 3 months.

Rubbermaid bins are quick and tidy way to deal with kids toys. Or decorative bins/baskets. Obviously, you can't have the rooms overflowing with bins and baskets, but you don't have to put every toy the kids have into storage, either.

As for pets, take them in the car with you. I know, fun, right? I had to pack up a 3 yr old, a 6 yr old and a 1 yr old German Shepherd everytime someone wanted to see our house. And the realtors were NEVER there when they said they would be. I'd drive around for 90 minutes, sure that I'd given them adequate time for the showing (leaving 20 min before they asked for, and returning WELL after they SHOULD have been done), only to arrive back home and find them JUST pulling into the driveway. OR to find a message on my machine that they got delayed and could they see it an hour from the current time... !!!

The worst thing for me, was the herding of the kids and picking up the last thing before we walked out the door... I hated having to stay "on" my kids (at their ages especially) to not leave ONE THING out of place. OR to "put that back" when we had another 15 minutes before we needed to get in the car and leave.
I truly wish you well.

I'm sure you can pack most of the toys for now, the kids probably won't even notice. Just keep their favorites in attractive bins or baskets.
As far as the pets go, I would ask your realtor for advice. I'm sure there are professional ways to "hide" them, or at least make their presence more appealing :)

We sold our house last summer and I had 2 toddlers and a cat. What we did was go through every closet and cabinet in the house and trash or donate anything we didn't really need. Then we bought several rubbermaid bins and packed up 90% of the kids toys that were lying around and shoved them in closets.

Over the summer we spent a lot of time out of the house at parks, pools, etc. The house stays cleaner when you're not in it all the time. When we were home I would pull out a bin or two of toys at a time and let them have at it.

We put a small crate for our cat in the corner of the bedroom and would lock her in there when we had showings. Our litterbox was kept mostly out of sight in the corner of our laundry room. It was kept spotlessly clean. I would scoop it out and sweep up any kitty litter before every showing.

The biggest pain was the timing of showings. I almost never got more than a 2 hour notice for a showing and most of the buyers wanted to come through in the early evening hours which totally disrupted our dinner, bath, bed routine. We ended up eating out a lot. It was worth it though. I never turned down a showing and we ended up selling in 90 days.

When we were looking at houses I was not bothered by any evidence of kids or pets unless there was damage to the house or pet odors. For example : banged up walls and doorways, scratches on doors and wood floors, etc.

I had to do this 6 years ago, and it was a pain in the butt. Thank god my house sold in 2 weeks, or I would have been in the nut house!

Pack most of the toys away in boxes under their beds or in the attic. The toys you do keep, buy a toy box or bins with lids to stash them away in to get them out of sight maybe in their closet. Don't leave any toys out.

Clean out all closets of the non-seasonal clothes and shoes and store in your attic. It will make your closets seem bigger if you have less stuff in them.

Take down personal photos and other decor. Buyers don't want to see your family photos or things.

Move out furniture that makes the house seem small. (Too many pieces in one room, oversized furniture, etc...) You want potential buyers to be able to imagine their furniture in your house.

As for the pets, you have to take them with you when the house is being shown. You cannot leave them there. It is a huge turnoff to potential buyers. As for the pet "things", place food/water bowls outside in an inconspicuous area, along with the litter boxes. Crates should go with you when you leave for a showing - too big and bulky to leave.

Make sure you keep a plug in of a neutral scent going at all times. (I used Yankee Candle Lemon Lavender) Pet odors are easy to spot. (Not saying you have a stinky house, but even the cleanest people with pets have pet smells in their homes. It's just life with an animal in the house.)

Declutter your kitchen cabinets and pantry. Buyers will look inside them.

Look at it this way, by doing this, you're actually creating an opportunity to "purge" your house before your move. I got rid of a ton of stuff we no longer used or needed before our house went on the market. I was also lucky enough to have family very close so I could store stuff at their house. If you're close to any neighbors or have good friends, ask them if you could store stuff there, or if they would mind pet sitting occasionally while you show the house.

Good luck!