Moving can be stressful on all of us. Turning your lived in home into a selling product is not easy to deal with for a majority of people. Understanding the emotional procedure that comes along with selling a house is critical for a home stager. Moving with kids is even harder. While we know as adults moving is not the end of the world, but for some kids it is. They may feel fear about having to leave their friends or begin in a new school which can make them difficult to deal with during the sales process. It is not only extremely difficult to clean and pack around kids, keeping their rooms staged and neat suddenly becomes a full time job when the family lives in a show home which has to be showing ready at any time. Anything you can do as a home stager to help making the selling process easier will be well appreciated by the parents. Here are some tips from Design2Sell for parents who are moving with kids:
- Remove large toys and toy settings. Doll houses, race tracks and kid-sized furniture should be put into storage instead of taking up floor space.
- Boxes, bins and baskets. Will become your best friends during the sales process! Keep these easily accessible for whenever toys must be cleaned up and hidden. Keeping bins and boxes as organized and stacked as possible gives the impression of storage in the room itself.
- Make beds daily. Especially if you have a big family. Having to make all beds in a hurry before a showing is not a fun experience. Therefore, do not allow kids to play in their beds.
- Organize closets. This is a well given opportunity to get rid of clothes that are outgrown. A cramped closet implies there is not space, organize it neatly.
- One box of toys/child. Make sure the toys aren’t puzzles or lego which are impossible to gather in a rush for sudden showing.
- Keep outside bikes and toys stored. You never know when a drive-by will happen.
- Showcase kids rooms. If you have a house with loads of bedrooms there’s no meaning of trying to transform every room into an adult room. Showcasing kids rooms with a couple of toys and kids interiors is a good way to give ideas of space usage for a new family that might move in to your house.
When you are moving with kids, try to get them involved. Make up games along the sales process. Design2Sells favorite is the fairy that watches over the kids and reports their behavior to the Santa Claus. This fairy stays in a common space in the house for the whole day and cannot be touched. Every evening she flies back to Santa to tell him how the kids have been doing and then she returns to the house in the morning. I hope this idea will help you getting the young kids engaged and exited about the move.
(all images Design2Sell)
By: Emilia Lepisto
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