Post a Comment On: Larissa Another Day

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Onto day 2 of Project: For Sale. Today our theme is Organize, Clean, Purge, Store. 
This aspect of selling a house is not a surprise. I think everyone who sells a house knows that they have to do these things. It is not fun, it is hard work, but it is totally worth it.
My main items for organizing are baskets, bins, crates, totes, pretty much anything that can hold items stylishly. I also put them just about anywhere. Laundry room. Living room. Closets. Shelves. Even on top of my fridge. I like to do this even when I am not selling a house. However, the amount of organizing defintely increased with trying to sell.
[Image] spray painted baskets, laundry rag tote
Even when selling a house, there are some things I just can't completely pack away. For instance, my Little Mens' cars. While I can clean, purge and store quite a few of their toys, they still need something to play with. My solution is just to organize them in more attractive storage.

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I also make sure that they are not completely in plain sight. These toy bins are sitting low on shelves.

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I also can't pack away my cleaning/laundry supplies. I kind of need to clean...you know don't want people walking through filth. I also kind of need to do laundry...I mean I have three very active, filthy, mess makers.

In my laundry room, I use crates, that I spray painted,  to hold some of the basic cleaning supplies.

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Upstairs I gutted our hall closet. I kept minimal cleaning supplies, toilet paper, cleaning rags, and only a few towels. In this closet I also have all of our medicine and first aid stuff in shoe size rubbermaid containers.
Basically I cleaned out and stored anything we absolutely did not need, leaving a sparse, yet clean, hall closet.

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I also attacked the boys' closets. I made piles of "giveaway", "trash", "pack", and "keep out". Man did they have a lot of stuff. The only things I kept out, besides clothes, were some of their favorite games, some books, and a few choice stuffed animals.

Most of the storage in this room came from Ikea...moment of quiet adoration for this lovely store...

...okay moment over. Here is roughly what we have, but in red.

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Cleaning, purging, and storing was done in every other room of the house too. We got rid of tons of stuff. Stored even more. You should see our basement's wall lined rubbermaid bin parade. Our home is pretty clutter free, ready at moments notice to pack up and have it ready to show. I think my boys' may be afraid to sneeze.

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My opinion is that I would rather live gingerly and obsessively clean on a day to day basis then to have to stress and do a major clean every time we have to show it.
Hopefully this will continue to work. Hopefully I haven't given my Little Men any reason to go to therapy in the future. Off I go to vacuum...somehow chip crumbs got out in the family room...
We have another showing tomorrow...happy thoughts people, happy thoughts!