We recently sold our home.  It was quite an adventure!  For the next few Mondays I’ll be posting about the experience.   What surprised me.  What worked for us and what didn’t work.  Today’s post is about getting ready to go on the market.

Getting the house ready to sell is a huge task.  In addition to fixing that leaky faucet and mowing the lawn the house needs to be as empty as you can make it.  That means that the photos need to come off the walls.  The books need to be boxed up and the bookcases put into storage.  The family heirlooms should be safely stored away.  Getting the house ready to sell means that the house needs to look like anyone could live there.

I found this step to be very painful.  My home life is my life.  I had to let some of that go in order to sell the house.  These four steps helped me to start thinking about our home as a marketable house.

1. Say Goodbye – Have a nice dinner at home and remember all the wonderful things that happened in your current home.   Remember the family dinners, the holidays and all the adventures.  What did you learn while you lived there?  What happened that you’ll never forget? Give yourself closure with your current house.  It’s important to do this not when the house is sold, but when you’re getting ready to put the house on the market.  That will give you the ability to let go of the past and move forward toward the sale.
2. Focus on the Future – Focus on why you want to sell your house and what your life will be like after this step is finished.  Where will you live?  What will your new home be like?  What are the financial implications?  How is the sale going to benefit you and your family?  This will give you the motivation to do all the work that needs to be done.
3. Don’t Hold Back – Believe that your house will sell and act accordingly.  That means that you work hard to pack all the extra things away.   Besides, anything you can get boxed and stored now is one less thing that you’ll have to pack when you sell your house and move.
4. Support Yourself – You’ll need to find ways to take care of yourself physically and emotionally during the selling process.  In our case, we were advised to pack my bread machine.  While we packed most of our belongings we drew the line at the bread machine.  I make all our bread.  The scent of baking bread is one of the most relaxing and refreshing aromas there is.  Our lives changed when we put started getting the house ready to sell, but we careful to preserve enough of what made us happy so that we didn’t burn out.