“90 Days to Market” Home Organizing Series Kicks Off!

Organizing for a New Start

If you have stopped in for  visit before, you’ve no doubt heard me talk whine about moving next spring…

I’m tryin’ hard to get excited about it y’all.

We’re heading to Michigan which has definite advantages.

My family loves the Mitten State, especially in the summer. And being close to my parents and my sister who both live in the Ann Arbor area is also high on the list.

But home for the past 11 years has been an old house in a historic burg we also love. More than just a little!

Two blocks to the Farmer’s Market every Thursday night. One block walk to the grocery store.

Four blocks to the 557 Foundation where I play in clay and watercolors and whatever other artsy shenanigans I can find.

But it’s inevitable that we make this change so I’m putting on my big girl boots and getting down to the nitty-gritty often dirty business of preparing to move…

Preparing for a BIG Move

Since I finished grad school, I’ve been fortunate enough to work in the aging services industry as a marketing/PR chick.

Part of the role has been helping older adults downsize and prepare to move to a smaller space. Many have lived in the same house 40 or 50 years! Can you imagine making a move after that amount of time?

So I am something of at expert at downsizing, spiffing up an older house to put it up for sale, packing for a move and decorating a new and smaller space.

I will be putting what I’ve learned helping seniors downsize and move in to practice in this old house over the next few months.

We are shooting for an early April deadline to get this beloved old house on the market (provided there still isn’t snow on the ground!), work with the builder to design our new  house (yeah!) and try to figure out what to do with everything we own (including us!) if the old house sells before the new one is done!

One enormous goal is to get rid of “stuff.” While I am good about making several sweeps a year through the house to box up things we haven’t used and donate them, I know I need to be more ruthless about it before the move.

Doesn’t make much sense to pay movers to move stuff we don’t really need or use or to pay for storage for it right?

One semi truck instead of two would be great! Ditto for storage while the new house is under construction!!

(See how I’m trying to psyche myself up for the idea that we will probably have to move twice? All the builders say its pretty inevitable. )

The 90 Day Checklist

Because an argument could be made that I am borderline OCD, I created a master checklist for the next 90 days.

Everything from cleaning the miles and miles and miles of woodwork and trim we have in this old house to touching up the paint spot on the stairs where every single person who uses it seems to drag their shoes..

While I know it is customized to our home, I’m sharing it in hopes it will help save you some time!

It could really be used for deep cleaning if you aren’t going to be packing up and moving on like me…

So click the checklist link below to download a copy of the checklist:

90 Checklist for Getting Your House on the Market

Using The Kon Mari Method to De-Clutter Before a Move

 One new method of tidying up I’ve been digging in to is the Kon Mari Method.

While I was a bit skeptical when I first started reading about it, I’m now pretty sold on it with a few small exceptions.

Part of my downsizing series will include highlighting how I’ve used the techniques described in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

Staging to Sell and Curb Appeal

I’m also working hard on ideas to stage our house to sell.

Historic homes have so much charm and character they often sell themselves. But we bought the house when the market was at it’s peak…put quite a bit more money in to restoring it…and the market crashed.

So the house really has to shine for us to come close to getting what we paid for it… never mind all we’ve done since. (sad face here)

Joining Forces with Fellow Bloggers

Once a month, I will be joining forces with some fellow blogger friends who are on a quest to better organize their homes too.

So you will get to see loads of great ideas for getting it all together from some of the blogging world’s best! Follow our progress with #BloggersOrganize2016

You can follow me on Facebook to get helpful tips all throughout the next 90 days…

As always, thanks for stopping by for a visit!

XO

Shelley

 Be sure to visit these great blogs for more organizing tips:

58 Water Street

The Crowned Goat

My Life From Home

Monica Wants It

The Turquoise Home

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