Creating a new person vs. staging a house.

This weekend we moved into 'Holy Shit How Is February The Spring Market?' mode....and got busy with our Must Have Done list.

I have 4 bags of stuff (shoes, purses, a boob cupcake pan)(new, unopened....I don't know why I had that but it was time to part) for the Salvation Army. My refrigerator is totally void of all clutter, which you can't believe after seeing this set of pictures. I've reworked all my cupboards to fit all the clutter within them and make it appear as though this is actually plenty of space to live in.

Which it is, you just have to keep on top of your stuff to live in this space.

I felt really good about everything we did this weekend, until Maggie totally showed me up and did this this weekend.

Welcome to the world Henry.

Comments

[Ben]

Oh baby, Melissa. We sold our house eight months ago with a toddler tearing up everything right behind us. I was ready to lower the price to five dollars so we wouldn't have to show it *again*.

Good luck and I hope it sells FAST!!

[Fenicle]

Are you giving the boob cupcake pan to the Salvation Army? TOO FUNNY!!!! Good luck with the house, I know what a bitch selling can be.

[VenturaMom]

How did you get it all done holding a beer, Melissa? Or did you break down and finally get the beer hat with the tubes?

[jenB]

honestly? i would rather do what Maggie did with an epidural than what you did. Unless i had to keep the baby. i am not good at the DIY stuff. in the house i mean. ;-)

[hello insomnia]

I can't believe you did all that, let alone had it on an actual list. Most of my to-do's are on sticky notes or in the vague region of my brain called, "Crap looming over me."

[Alana]

We spent three years fixing up our first house, then spent a couple of months doing the "staging" things like you are doing. We had a two-year-old at the time, and it was a royal pain to move half our things into storage, but it was worth it when we sold our house in five days. Good luck with everything, and I hope your house sells incredibly fast!

[Krissa]

Melissa, what's POD? My brain isn't coming up with an answer.

[Mocha]

I want the boob pan. Must have the boob pan. You want to give me the boob pan. Have another drink...sleep...sleep.

[kathy]

I bet your house looks FABULOUS - I know after we did 3 months of cleaning/"staging" my husband almost didn't want to sell our house it looked so good! But alas, once you move into your new house you go back to your cluttered refridgerator ways, or at least I did. Good luck!!!

[superblondgirl]

You've worked HARD on this house- you totally deserve a drink. Isn't it funny how you live somewhere forever and just deal with the nasty wallpaper and clutter, only to fix it up so you'd actually want to live there right before you leave?

[Geeky Mom]

The last time we moved (18 years ago!) we had a 9-month old baby and a 3 year old. Our baby had heart surgery 2 weeks after we moved (4 weeks before Christmas) and we owned 2 houses for a month. My hubby took our 3 year old to sweep the old house "broom clean" and left our daughter to her own devices, which included drawing on the kitchen cabinets with a Sharpie! Lovely!
Because we didn't have enough on our plate, we also got a puppy! What were we thinking?!?

[Erin]

I bet the house looks awesome.
And at the risk of being the annoying helper commenter... we just stripped 75-year old wallpaper using DIF Liquid Wallpaper Stripper (http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=121), no steamer required. We scored the paper first, sprayed on the stripper, let it sit for about 10 min, and then went at it with scrapers. It's messy, but really not the DIY horror I was expecting. And no steamer rental required. Plus, the 10 minutes waiting time is a perfect excuse for a cocktail right?

[Lisa]

Good luck and I hope it sells fast.

Man I'm jealous, I wish PODs were around the last time we moved ~ and wish I would have come up with that idea. My dad & step-mom just filled a big and a small one when they moved ~ talk about being bogged down with too much stuff!

[Melissa Summers]

POD = Portable On Demand Storage.

[TeriLynn]

Shoes? You're giving away shoes? Are they YOUR shoes, or the others'? Because I'm more than willing to drop the stuff off for you at S.A. if I can raid the bags first... I could use a purse too... And you KNOW I'd keep the boob pan, too. Ha!

-miao.

[virginia]

Hate having to "stage" the house for selling - it's really a pain to live that way. Good luck.

Curious if Max is going in the POD with his stuff - or if you already sold him on Ebay? lol

[Melissa Summers]

Yes, we're just going to put him in stoarge and see if that chills him out a little.

Teri: Please come browse through the bags. There are some boots you might like.

[slouching mom]

superblondgirl, this happened to me. I actually became nostalgic for our shithole of a house just before we had to give it over to the buyers. We had fixed it up pretty damn well, if I do say so myself! My husband wanted to shoot me for my buyer's remorse.

[slouching mom]

superblondgirl, this happened to me. I actually became nostalgic for our shithole of a house just before we had to give it over to the buyers. We had fixed it up pretty damn well, if I do say so myself! My husband wanted to shoot me for my buyer's remorse.

[telfair d.]

Okay, since I live in a neighboring Detroit suburb, I'm going to be haunting the RO Salvation Army looking for that boob cupcake pan.

[Melissa Summers]

I'm going to give you all a treat for reading the comments. The reason I have the boob pan is this:

I was buying something (I won't tell you what it was) and it was really embarassing so I bought a few extra things so that it would appear as if I was buying the original item for a bachelorette party or something.

My sister will totally take the boob pan so don't search the S.A. for too long.

[BOSSY]

That's the thing about the womb: you have to keep on top of it or it becomes unsightly. But with a timely purging and a post delivery rinse, you too can bring back the original luster.

[HeatherZG]

Best wishes for a speedy sale. We bought and sold last spring just as the market was swinging, 5 months on the market with a 2 & 5 year old. Never, ever again!

[ShelFish'sDad]

I had to keep our home in "showing" condition when it was for sale last winter during our relocation from Chicago to the Cincinnati area. My wife was already working in there and was only coming home on the weekends. Taking care of the children 24/7 all the while not allowing them to trash the spacious 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, featuring upstairs loft, laundry room, and complete with attached 2 car.....WAIT! It's done, we moved already! Whew, see it's enough to drive this SAHD crazy.
Good luck with all that.
Oh...are we allowed to guess on the other thing being purchased with the boob pan?

[Sylvia Fissure]

This is a little off topic (is booze every THAT far off topic??) but did anyone catch this late-breaking news report from the Onion? This must be what Meredith Viera was so afraid of.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/58502?utm_source=slate_rss_1

[Sylvia Fissure]

Oh, nuts. That link was supposed to be:

http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/full_time_mother_drinking_on

[Melissa Summers]

Someone else sent that to me this morning. Hilarious. "She threw up on my homework!"

Meredith was afraid of that, and rightly so. Because it's common knowledge anyone who has given birth is going to become an alcoholic if they drink at all.

Thank you Today Show!

[SeaBird]

Hello - Just found your site from your post at Alpha mom... loved the ideas there!

We moved to a new place with twin four-month-old boys several months ago.... and right before we moved my husband fixed everything he'd been meaning to for the previous three years. Aghhhh!

SeaBird

[SkippyMom]

I came over from LOD. I LOVE THE BLOG!

I have to say I didn't see where this was going - I was expecting she topped you by painting the house...wtever...but Henry is a doll and brought a great smile to my heart.

Thanks! and Hugs!