Moving prep

For the past week, we've been getting ready to list our house. While it is exciting with the prospect of a new town and a bigger house (without so many stairs), it is also a little sad. I did shed a little tear when I watched the sale sign go up on Monday. But, on to the saddest part of moving...getting the house ready!

Our realtors came over and told us the house was in great shape and nicely decorated. That made me happy...until I learned we had a list of 75 things to do to "prep" the house. For those of you that have not moved, here are some of the major tasks that were somewhat surprising.

• Closets should be 1/2 to 1/3 empty (nothing on floors or upper shelves)
• Bathrooms should be empty (no rugs, no tissues, nothing)
• Kitchen counters should have no more than three items (on the ENTIRE counter space)

Today was our interior picture day, so we got everything done (except a few hidden things like cleaning out the fridge and oven). Our house officially goes up for sale tomorrow and I'm hoping it goes well. I'm not looking forward to random visits by home buyers and having to pack up Katie in a moment's notice. I'm also not crazy about people snooping around the house, but what can you do?

I've learned a lot about moving. Here are a few tips for future sellers:

• Uhaul has the lowest prices on boxes (although you can try to get some free ones using Freecycle), but they also have some great supplies.
• Get a storage unit. We are using EZ storage and it is very clean, big and secure. We got a 5x10 unit and have it about half full. It is $1 for the first month and about $85/month after that. Not too bad and definitely helps you empty the house.
• Make a list to get ready for listing...and cross things off. Like I said, our list was 75 items long. We did a little every night and finished yesterday.
• Make a list of "daily tasks" to get ready for visitors. Everyday, before you leave the house, bathrooms must be spotless, lights on, windows open, sink empty, etc. We'll start doing this tomorrow and will probably need to get up about 30 minutes early to get it done. Hopefully it won't be too bad if we split the jobs.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this works out for us. I think the stress is getting to me and I hope it will be over soon!