How to Sell a House While Raising Small Children

Selling a house in today's market is a difficult and stress-filled task for just about anyone. How much worse, then, can it be when you not only have to worry about the house, but about small children who still need to live in that house? Children mean messes, smells, distractions, time commitments, and so much more. How do those people with young ones manage? How will you do it? Here are some helpful hints, from someone who's been there, on how you can sell your house effectively, and still maintain a home environment that is fun, healthy, and comfortable for your young children.

Minimize your messes. A cluttered house detracts from the overall appeal of it for buyers. When people come through a house on a showing, they are looking to see light, space, and an open environment that appeals to their imagination and feels like a place they could call home. They don't want to see, or trip on, toys on the floor, dirty socks scattered around, cereal ground into the carpet, or any of the other myriad ways in which a house becomes a lived-in home environment for the Sesame Street set. If you can, take a week or two before your home goes on the market, and rent a storage unit. Proceed to fill it with all that lovely clutter that you don't need for day-to-day life, but which you enjoy having anyway. If you have extra furniture, try to get some in there as well, to make your house feel bigger. For kids, try to separate out half the toys. Keep half at home, and put half in storage. If you label the boxes clearly and keep them near the door, you can periodically rotate a box at a time in and out. This way, your children will always have "new" toys to play with, and won't get bored with a decreased selection. It may also help to keep to the rule of threes. When your child is playing with toys at home, only let him or her take three at a time, before putting them back to get more. This way, when you have a showing and only twenty minutes to prepare, you only have to pick up three toys, instead of thirty.