Last winter we decided to put our house on the market. At the time, the Trikester had just turned one and was a man on a mischief mission. Seriously, the kid was (and still is) into everything. Here’s a peek at what we were dealing with:

Tables, shelves, chairs. You named it, he climbed it. A stack of moving boxes was like a baby Everest he just had to summit. 

Needless to say, the thought of trying to sell a house, especially the staging and maintaining part, was daunting when all my time was spent simply averting trips to the emergency room. Even though the experience was ridiculously crazy, we survived and sold the house in six weeks (just in time too, as I don’t think I could have handled another day of the process).

If you’re about to put your house on the market, and you’re living with a toddler or two, here are some of our sanity preserving tips to get the job done, along with highlights from the ‘net.

1. Get rid of it all. Seriously. If you don’t use it every day, throw it out or find some other place to stash it. If you have fewer things, there will automatically be less to clean up when you’re getting the house ready for a showing. Less cleanup = less stress. For us, this meant boxing up almost everything on our counter (bye bye Kitchen Aid, toaster, trivets, etc), out of season clothes, shoes, and coats, sporting equipment, books, magazines, and most of our knicknacks. The clean-out went well beyond clutter. Once everything is boxed up or in the garbage, get it out of your house. My brother had a vacant house he was renovating, so the first few loads went there, but we eventually rented a storage unit.

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The storage unit. This was early on, as it’s still practically empty. 

2. Getting rid of it all includes the toys. We whittled our toy collection down to the items that could fit on a small toddler height shelf. I’ll admit that I also selected ones with a good visual appeal – wooden stacking toys stayed, Mickey stuffed animals went bye-bye. Toys the Trikester had clearly out-grown, stuffed animals, and anything that was a pain to pick-up went into tupperware bins. We did keep these in the basement in case of a toy emergency too, but he didn’t even notice they’d disappeared.

Our main play space staged for photos and showings, but no toys in sight (they’re off to the right on a small shelf tucked into the hallway between two rooms). 

3. Give your realtor a copy of your child’s nap and sleep schedule. Our realtor was on strict orders to schedule showings around nap time, which she totally rocked. Yea, maybe it inconvenienced a couple people, but it helped us all keep our sanity. Typically, showings were scheduled in late morning or late afternoon right after nap time, which worked out really well as I had time to clean and touch-up while the Trikester slept. The same went for our open houses – they were scheduled a little earlier than normal so we could still get the baby home in time for a nap.

4. Require 24 hour notice before a showing. Were we able to stick to this 100%? No. We had same day notice for a couple showings (one of which actually resulted in the sale), but it did help reduce stress levels. Our realtor was good at picking out the people who really could wait 24 hours vs the people who had a legitimate reason to request an immediate showing.

5. Make friends with your neighbors. When you have to clear out a toddler and a dog, it’s easier if you have a convenient place to go. Because we sold our house in the dead of winter, we couldn’t just go for a walk every time the house was shown. Instead, we’d load up the car and pull into the driveway across the street from our house. Because we were across the street, we were able to see when the prospective buyers left, and immediately head back home. In the instances when we ran errands during showings, we had our neighbor text us when the house was vacant again.

6. Select showing-friendly baby proofing items. Invest in baby gates that can be left in an open position without removing the gate – these North State Industries Supergates are our favorites. They definitely cost more, but you don’t want prospective buyers to have to step over a gate or struggle to open a gate to get up the stairs or into the living room. If the gate can be left open, you don’t have to worry about taking it down and putting it back up before each showing. We had one gate on the stairs that we did take down every time, even though it could be propped open, but we left the rest of them up. Another baby proofing item we love are these outlet covers by Mommy’s Helper. They’re perfect for showing your house because they replace older, cream-colored outlet plates with more updated white plates. They’re also much, much more convenient than the little outlet plugs.

7. The Staging Diva, Debra Gould, recommends investing in a few nice baskets to contain the baby paraphernalia. Rather than leaving diapers, wipes, and burp clothes on the coffee table, or having to find a place to stash them for showings, designate a basket to keep them in full-time. The basket can sit on a shelf, next to the couch, or under the coffee table. This way the essentials are always available, they don’t have to be cleaned up at the last minute, and most people probably won’t notice anything beyond a nice basket. We did this for diapers, wipes and the changing pad, keeping it tucked behind a chair in the living room.

8. Lindsay Weiss of BabyCenter recommends making a checklist of everything that needs to be done before a showing. If I had to sell our house again (shudder), I’d make a laminated checklist – it’s so easy to get frazzled when you’re rushing around to pick-up, mop, vacuum and clear out that you can easily forget things. There were many times I drove away from the house wondering if the toliet seats were down or if I’d remembered to turn on all the lights and crack the closet doors.

9. Another great tip from Lindsay is to keep your trunk empty. We didn’t do this, but should have. I’d have the back of my Subaru stacked with boxes as we slowly accumulated enough for a trip to the storage yard, and then someone would call for a showing. If the trunk was empty, it’d have been a lot easier to throw last minute clutter into the back that I just didn’t have time to put away. Instead, I had to scramble for a spot to put things.

10. The author of the Honey-Do-This! Blog was smart enough to keep a go-bag stocked and ready for last-minute departures. In addition to your usual diaper bag, you might want to have a bottle in the fridge, or pre-portioned bags of Goldfish in the pantry, along with a well charged iPad or a few books packed and ready at all times. The ten minutes it takes to gather your survival gear could be better used to mop the floor or wipe down the counters.

Did you sell a house with a baby or toddler? Any great tips for surviving showings and maintaining your house?