How to Sell a House with Kids: 7 Quick Tips to Sell a Home with Children

A few weeks ago, I looked around my living room and kitchen…and uuuhhhgggg…the clutter and mess bombarded my brain and my spirits sunk.

This wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling. Having little kids, means that it’s hard to keep my house tidy, but for some reason, it really hit me this time. (It might have been a Monday morning!) 

Surveying the scene, I just shook my head, wondering how in the world I’d been able to keep the house within an hour or two of perfect sparkling readiness, while our house was on the market to sell.

I’d kept it ready for an ENTIRE month with five littles under my feet at all times. It had been incredible and amazing and now I wondered how I’d done it.

Could I have really accomplished that? HOW???

I remember thinking that I would definitely panic, every time a potential buyer scheduled a house showing, and thought of how I could avoid this horrible feeling.

I had to take some important steps to prevent the panic and stress that could happen. My husband and I did quite a bit to make our home show worthy and then I took these 6 key steps daily to ensure that it would stay ready.

So, can you successfully show and sell your house with little kids? Yes! Yes you can!!! If I can, you can too!

Let’s get started!

How do I keep my house ready for showing with kids?

• I started by packing away most of the toys. Ones that I knew the kids played with less often. My goal was to have less pieces of stuff and clutter available to leave laying around, which I hoped would result in less to clean up every time.

I only left out the toys that I knew they consistently played with on a daily basis. With the kids help, I simply put the extras in boxes, taped them up, labeled them (the kids loved helping with this part!) and put them in the basement.

Doing this was also a chance for me to see how the kids would react to having less toys to choose from.

Would they be more content and play with something for a longer time period and not just for a minute or two?

I had heard stories of kids being more creative, more content and less stressed when there was less clutter and fewer choices.

I had already seen proof of that since beginning my de-cluttering journey, but I figured this was a chance to really test that theory out.

It turns out, that they didn’t have any problem having less toys to play with and it seemed to make our days go smoother.

None the less, if I’m being honest, after weeks of the extra toys being packed away, they were happy to see a few of the things I had put away when I took them out later.

It made those items new and exciting for them!

What did I put away that my kids didn’t play with as often?

I put away the bin of art and craft items, some toy sets that had a lot of pieces that they didn’t tend to play with at any length, but would always scatter throughout the entire house after getting them out, random toys that were single items that didn’t inspire any length of time playing, for example, a single horse with bridle and saddle, and a few farm animal figurines that weren’t part of a set, stuffed animals that weren’t favorites, the dress up, and returned all the library books to the library and didn’t bring any more home until the house sold.

Thankfully, my kiddos were very much on board with helping to get the house ready to sell. I involved them in packing items into the boxes and letting them using the sharpie markers to label their own boxes. They thought it was a fun game and loved it!!

I was very selective in what I left out for them. Putting a little thought into it, I knew off the top of my head, what were their favorite toys to play with and what occupied them for the longest periods of time.

The toys I left out for them were

• Dolls and doll clothes
• Duplos/Legos
• Wooden Train set
• Playdoh
• Blocks
• Writing utensils, markers, crayons and Paper

The list doesn’t look long, I know…

You might be shocked that I kept so little out, but it worked. My kids would get out one thing, play and play and play, and then it was easy to pick it up again.

Another thing I discovered, was that the kids were happy to not have so much to pick up after playing!

On more than one occasion, they commented on how easy it was to get the house picked up again. If they even noticed, than it goes without saying, that I DEFINITELY noticed!!!

And I loved it!!!

Another reason we didn’t need many toys out, was that some mornings, we would spiff up the house and leave for the day and go on a family outing.

We made some really great memories as a family that way. I talk about those ideas here. (Insert link to other post)

Besides packing toys away and some other particular items and categories, There were a few key things that I made sure that I did daily.

They really made the biggest difference when it came down to whether we could be ready for a showing with late notice and prevent a panic attack when a request would come in.

6 Daily Keys that made it Easier.

• A load of laundry Every Day. I did a load of laundry in the morning or whenever we could do one between showings, no matter how small, was washed, dried, and folded straight from the dryer, then put away with the help of my kids. It was much more manageable that way.

• I made all the beds in the morning. My 8 and 6 year old started making their own, which I was so proud of them for doing! In fact, they’ve continued to make their beds in the morning! Hurray for new habits formed! If you’re not in the habit of making beds in the morning, which I was not, it is hard to get yourself to do it daily, but boy was I glad that I did. There were many times that I was saved so much time from doing that when I needed to be doing something else to get ready for a showing.

• Reset Tidy Up. I did what I called a reset tidy up with the kids. Anything left out from playing the previous day, that hadn’t been cleaned up, got picked up and properly put away, not just thrown in the general vicinity of where it belongs. Yes, my kids tend to do that now and then…and so do I.

• Put Items Away. Before I even left my master bedroom, bathroom and walk in closet in the morning, I picked up and PUT AWAY anything on the counters, gathered the dirty laundry to take to the utility room, and moved the crib to where I had been putting it for showings. Making several less things to do when we needed to be ready for a sudden showing. This part of the house is less used through the day, and it gave me peace of mind, knowing that I would not need to do anything to it, except wipe the counter and sink out, and vacuum or sweep the floors. It left me more brain power for what I would need to do in the rest of the house.

• Less Cooking and Baking. To keep my stove top clean and reduce the amount of large dishes by A LOT, I stopped making homemade meals, unless it was a simple one pot, or quick cooker recipe. I loved using my Toaster oven during this time. Simple meals like sandwiches and frozen pizzas, were so nice to have. I usually cook from scratch, which dirties up my kitchen faster than if a small tornado hit it, and so, having easy to put on the table meals, was a must, for keeping the kitchen manageable.

• Paper plates were my best friend!!! Way less dishes to wash that way! I didn’t do any elaborate cooked meals and so I was able to keep the stove top clean and had less large dishes to wash. I usually hand wash dishes and put them into my dishwasher like a huge dish drying rack. It got emptied right away in the morning by my oldest, sometimes aided by the younger ones and I washed dishes as they were dirtied, putting them directly into the dishwasher to dry.

• We Left the House. One of the most helpful things we did, was leave the house. I came up with several free or inexpensive outings that we enjoyed and that kept us away from the house, either during a brief showing, or for a large chunk of the day for several showings. Sometimes, when there was a scheduled showing later in the day, I would get the house ready and leave earlier than we needed to, just to keep my peace of mind, knowing that it was ready and I didn’t have to keep it that way until the showing happened.

Overall, though there were definitely some days that I didn’t think I could keep it up, that I could keep my house show ready with kids, but I did it and it paid off in the end.

The house showed very well, and we were able to sell it in a very timely manner.

I am also very happy that the kids and I have some happy memories made during a time of change and an upsetting of normal schedules.

I think it helped a lot with letting go and also being excited about what new things we would experience after our move.

I hope that you found this helpful and that you and your family can greatly benefit from our experience.

If you’ve been there, done that already, I’d love to hear how you did it and what your best tips and tricks for selling a house with little kids underfoot is! Drop me a comment below!