Hola! Que Pasa? A little recap from my last entry: I mentioned more than once how important it is to stage your home before putting a sign in the yard. Why? 1. It could help bring in offers that meet or even exceed the asking price. You could start a bidding war!! 2. To help potential buyers envision their belongings in your space. Staging is a great way to initiate purging unused or worn items before a move. 3. Your home will sell faster. It’s true. Many studies have shown homes that are staged sell much faster than homes not staged.
It can be overwhelming, right? And, really there is so much more to staging that I haven’t mentioned, the costly, hard stuff like painting, removing outdated wallpaper, installing new flooring, appliances, updating kitchens and baths, renting a storage unit and moving the items you have boxed up in the decluttering process, and getting dirty in the yard to create some fantastic curb appeal. You know, all the stuff that will make you want to stay in the house once it’s done. But for me, the most overwhelming part of moving is the actual moving part. So, today I’m going to share some of my moving story with you.
As I mentioned in my last entry, this whole move business came out of nowhere and fast. A house we have always loved in a neighborhood we adore went on the market. We jumped on the opportunity, made an offer and BAM! Thirty days later we were closing on a new home, and still owned the house we were moving from. I’m an optimistic person. When we made the decision to move, I was gung-ho. I had zero reservation about being able to get everything packed to move in 30 days. We had just done this 3 years ago. I was a pro, right? I got this! Immediately, I set out to buy and gather boxes and start the staging process. My plan was to pack everything we weren’t using and knock this packing thing out.
When I bought supplies for moving I wasn’t being realistic about how much stuff we have. I didn’t buy and/or gather enough boxes, I was out of tape too, and my sharpies were just about dry. All this happened and I had only packed half of my kitchen. I thought I was a pro? Not even close. We had decluttered and purged so many times after our last move. I had even cleaned the entire garage over the summer and donated everything I was “saving for a garage sale” realizing that was never going to happen. I thought I was honest with myself about what I couldn’t live without and what I could during those purge sessions. But, there are nooks and crannies that are hard to get to, and well…here’s the deal, because it wasn’t in my face every day, it became forgettable.
With much packing help from my mom, we conquered the packing obstacle, for the most part. I was still packing on moving day, and it took us two more weeks and several more staggered trips to get every single thing out of the house, but it happened. If we hadn’t had a box truck to use as long as we needed, a whole painting crew of friends and family to load and unload said box truck several times, and a couple guys and their truck we hired to help move the big stuff, we’d still be moving today.
The house sold quickly, I’m certain the staging made that happen sooner than later. This helped my husband’s anxiety level tremendously (nobody wants to make two mortgage payments). What didn’t help my anxiety level was the unpacking and trying to figure out how to make our new home work for us, how to make it make sense and become functional for everyday living. This is a struggle for most folks that have just made a big move. It takes a while to get to know a new home. It has different nooks and crannies and quirks to learn. It’s just like any new relationship. I was given a quote on a little card a long time ago, not about moving necessarily, about job/life transition, but it applies: “Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting.”-Judith Minty.
Thanks for cruising by today and reading my blog. My next entry will end my 3-part series about moving, where I’ll be diving into the unpacking part of moving and how to make sense of your new home. This is the stage I am in right now with our recent move, so I have much fresh experience to share. Moving sucks, ya’ll!!…ugh! The results, however, can be magnificent.
