This post is part of a paid partnership with Lowe’s.
We will be moving into a new home next week!! That’s crazy and emotional and exciting to write. When my parents decided to downsize and move from next door, we started casually looking at Zillow at night. It took some time, but we found the perfect home for us and can’t wait to share more in the coming days. We decided to purchase it without a sale contingency on our own home because we figured we could always start working on the new home while we lived in and waited for our current home to sell. Although it’s definitely a seller’s market, our town is very small and rural and the pool of buyers is not as vast. I’ll cut to the end of the story–Our house sold for cash within days. We’re so grateful! We won’t close until next week (which is about 3 weeks faster than we anticipated haha), but the inspection went well and it’s feeling really real now. There will be just a week between the close of our new home and this one.
Surprisingly to some, despite improving our home nearly every day for the past 6 years, I still made a 5 page list of everything I wanted to do before listing our home for sale. I organized it by room and included the exterior as a space, too, and hung it on the fridge so anyone that wanted to help (or said they were bored, haha) could pick a job to do. We gave ourselves a week to complete everything before listing. Luckily there were no major projects (besides converting/staging the office back into a fifth bedroom–see that post here) but I listed every little thing to do for each room, from replacing a lightbulb to laundering the curtains to filling nail holes. I think our home was great before we listed it, but I truly believe that doing these tasks is ultimately what helped our home sell fast. (Ps. the buyer is not a blog reader or online and has no idea who we are, haha).
I combined items that were a part of each room and deleted things that were specific to our house (uhh…find the fireplace remote–check!) and put together a printable checklist that fits on one page! Note–this isn’t necessarily a home staging checklist because it revolves more around cleaning, repairing and organizing and less around specific bedding and paint colors. That’s why I’m calling it a Home Listing Checklist. Even if your home is beautiful–these are things that could use a second look.
Print the house listing prep list pdf here.
We also put together a handy list of the 15 things we used over and over to help you check everything off your list. We got everything from spackle and paint to mirrors and lamps from Lowe’s!
1. Purdy 2in angle paint brush
2. Purdy paint roller covers
3. Purdy paint roller frame
4. Mr. Clean magic eraser (I love to use these for cleaning stubborn marks on trim, switch plates and walls!)
5. Greenworks power washer (A seller’s best friend)
6. Windex window cleaner
7. 3M spackling (This is an all in one tool–no need for even a spackle knife!)
8. Valspar door and trim ultra white paint (this is our favorite brand of paint for the money. It gets the job done in less coats. I use this off the shelf white for most of the trim in our house)
9. DAP caulk (make sure it’s paintable and quick dry!)
10. GE Reveal light bulbs (I recommend 2850-3000K for a clean, but not sterile, light. Make sure they are ALL the same color)
11. Filtrete air filter (changing out your air filters will help keep your home cleaner longer, and is something the inspector will check anyway)
12. Scotts mulch (go for a deep, deep brown/black for max contrast)
13. Allen + Roth gold circle mirror
14. Allen + Roth floor lamp
15. Hefty storage tote (I love to pack seasonal clothes and decorations in these. They make storage areas look much nicer and so durable!)
With school out and warmer months ahead, I know this is the high season for moving and I hope this list is helpful to so many of you! We were able to cross everything off on our list in one week before listing and our house has never felt better!
Would you be able to tell me exactly where you got this light over your table and the shades on it? Also, what are the pendants above the island?
Congrats!
I’m so curious about how it will be for a new owner, not knowing anything about the blog or your followers, now living in a house with all your furnishings/decor that have been oohed and aahed over by so many people for so many years! I know that wouldn’t bother some people, but I’m definitely a private person (with wishful thinking ideas of starting my own old house renovation blog someday, which makes no sense really lol) and I’m just so interested in how a stranger minds living in a space so intimately known to so many people.
Any chance you made a similar checklist for moving?
I think you could use this same one!
Congrats! I kinda don’t know how you can part with your home, but I also kinda can. I’ll miss looking at this home, I think it is just beautiful. But loving your taste most of the time at least I know there are plenty of good posts coming for years to come! I find it soooo interesting that the buyers purchased furniture AND decor!!! Anyway you can do a walk through of once you are packed up?
I whole-heartedly second the “clean out storage space” ideas in your list. When we listed our first home (tiny little house), it was not selling for the first few showings. Feedback was the size, in particular. We finally went through and half-emptied closets and took the cookbooks and wine rack off the top of the fridge; feedback immediately changed, and the house sold the next week! I think storing items in “unusual” areas (floor, top of fridge, clothing in non-bedroom closets, etc) subconsciously signals buyers that your lack storage space.
Also- I’m not listing my house to sell, but may work through this list just as a spring cleaning!!