Getting Your Home Ready to Sell With Kids in the House

Getting a home ready to sell is hard enough. Keeping it ready while children live in it is a different job entirely. Buyers want clean counters and empty floors, and kids produce the opposite at a remarkable rate. The trick is to set the house up so it can go from lived-in to show-ready in about 15 minutes, and to plan your family’s days around showings instead of fighting them.

Start with a big edit

The single most useful thing you can do is remove a lot of stuff before the listing photos are taken. Rooms with less in them look bigger, and less stuff means less to tidy before every showing.

• Toys. Pack away about two-thirds of them. Keep a small rotation of favorites in one or two lidded bins. Most kids barely notice, and some play better with fewer choices.
• Kids’ rooms. Clear surfaces, take down most of the art and posters, and leave the bed, a few books and one or two meaningful things. Buyers should be able to picture their own kid in the room.
• Kitchen counters. Clear everything except maybe a coffee maker. Move snacks, sippy cups and the school paperwork pile into a cabinet.
• Closets. Buyers open them. Pack off-season clothes and outgrown shoes so the closets look roomy.

Store the boxes off-site if you can, in a storage unit or a relative’s garage. A garage or basement stacked to the ceiling sends the message that the house doesn’t have enough storage. Anything you won’t take to the next place can be sold or donated now rather than packed.

Fix the small things buyers notice

Kids are hard on a house, and buyers notice wear. Before listing, walk through with a critical eye or ask your agent to do it:

• Patch and touch up scuffed walls and crayon marks. Magic erasers handle a lot of it, and a small can of matching paint does the rest.
• Remove stickers from windows and furniture, and clean fingerprints off glass doors and stainless steel.
• Fix loose cabinet handles, sticking doors and dripping faucets.
• Take out baby gates and outlet covers for the photos if it’s safe to do so, then put them back. Ask your agent whether to leave gates up during showings.
• Deep clean carpets or replace a badly stained rug.

Build a 15-minute showing routine

Showings often come with short notice. A written routine, with jobs for each family member, makes it possible to leave the house quickly without a meltdown.

1. Everyone grabs a laundry basket and does a sweep of their area, dropping everything into it. Baskets go in the car or a closet.
2. Wipe the kitchen counters and load the dishwasher.
3. Make beds, close toilet lids and hang fresh towels.
4. Empty the trash and diaper pail. Smell is the thing sellers with babies forget about most.
5. Turn on all the lights and open the blinds.
6. Gather the kids, any pets and the “go bag,” and leave.

Assign age-appropriate jobs. A four-year-old can put stuffed animals in a bin. A ten-year-old can do their room and the bathroom. A small reward after each showing, like a trip for ice cream, helps.

Plan where you’ll go during showings

You’ll need to leave the house, sometimes several times in a weekend. Have a list of places ready so you’re not scrambling:

• A nearby playground or park. Our review of Maggie Daley Park covers one downtown option.
• The local library, which is free, warm in winter and has a children’s section.
• A grandparent or friend’s place nearby.
• A museum on a free day, if timing lines up. Check each museum’s own site for current free days.

Keep a go bag in the car with snacks, water, wipes, a change of clothes, a few small toys and a charger. It makes last-minute exits much easier.

Talk to your kids about it

Kids may feel unsettled about strangers walking through their rooms or about the move itself. Explain what a showing is in simple terms and that their things will come with them. Let them keep one or two special items out, and let them help pick what goes into storage so it doesn’t feel like their toys are being taken away.

Ask your agent about grouping showings into blocks, such as weekend afternoons, so you’re not leaving the house every evening during the week. Many agents can do this, and it makes a busy family schedule much easier to manage. When you do get an offer, our week-by-week plan for moving with kids picks up from there.