Who really lives like this??

My house has now been on the market now for a little bit. View my house for sale here  We have had a broker open house (were you invite Realtors to come and see the home and bribe them with food and $$$)and we have had a few showings. So, let me walk you through a showing.... You list your house and you want to sell it, so you want as many people to come see it as possible. You vow to keep your house spotless and to jump up and get everyone, including the dog (nobody wants to walk in a house with a HUGE great dane), out of the house with roughly an hours notice. Yeah right.

I don't consider myself a messy person (insert husband disagreeing here) but I really don't think anyone lives so cleanly as to have potential buyers just show up anytime, and I do mean anytime. And here's the crazy part, I don't even have kids! I have helped clients with work at home moms that have managed to not only keep the house spotless but to evacuate 1-6 kids on a moments notice. Now if those aren't super hero powers I don't know what is.

So, that being said I need to wake up my husband and get my dog locked away for a showing :) Oh, and I also need to make sure my socks aren't by the couch and my ice-cream bowl made it all the way to the dishwasher...

Every Realtor should move every three years....

     For Sale!  Yep, there's a sign in MY yard.  Well, that's a change.  As an agent I am used to putting them into other people's yards and explaining the process of getting their home ready to list.  "You need to clear all the clutter off of your refrigerator to help make the kitchen look bigger and tuck away all unused appliances."  "While your at it, go ahead and take down all (or at least most) of your favorite family photos that are proudly displayed on your walls, sofa tables and mantel."  "You may want to repaint over that "texturing experiment" in your spare bath to make it a bit more neutral."  "There may be too much furniture in this room and its causing it to look smaller than it really is."
     Every single one of these phrases has left my lips.  But I find it all so hard to do when it comes to my own nest.  I have feathered it personnally and I happen to like my REALLY cluttered fridge with pictures of my nephew at his first birthday (so what if he is 5 now?).  I also like my hallway lined with pictures of our wedding in Italy (after all, I got the photo hanging idea from Martha Stewart).  And I know that I need to repurpose the bedroom I have been using as a gym back into a bedroom, but the fact of the matter is; a) I don't have an extra bed just hanging around waiting to go into that room and b) where in the world would I store the treadmill, pull up machine and weight bench in the meantime?
     But I know that doing these things will make my home easier to sell and that is the goal after all, right? 

     I am learning SO much since it has been awhile since I have personnely moved.  I have a whole new empathy for my clients.  Even once you decide you want to move and take the steps to contact a Realtor, your still a bit indecisive.  After all, I fell in love with this home once upon a time and now I am considering leaving it.  Their are memories here- this was my husband and I's first home.  We built a garden and a greenhouse here (but I can't say any plants have lived in either of these experiments).  But I know its the right thing for us and it is time to move on to smaller (no, I didn't mean to type bigger) and better things.
     So, its time to get it listed and all this must be done before my photographer arrives, so the fridge will get cleaned and the pictures pulled down and I will dust in all the cracks and crannies and cross my fingers for the perfect buyer who will love it just as much as we do.