The House Attack Process

I love the House Attack phrase because that is literally what it feels like we are doing.  We are attacking our house.  Usually on Fridays, I share some special craft I have completed, and although I will share one with you that I’m working on, the real craft this week is trying to declutter and get my house ready to go on the market.  We want to move.

To date, we have donated 13 bags/bins of stuff to Goodwill.  We have filled our trash cans up way before trash day, so we are now borrowing my in-laws trailer to fill up to take stuff to the dump.

We have already filled this guy up.  The process of decluttering is emotionally exhausting.  As we pick up literally everything we own, there is this moment where we have to decide if we will toss it, save it, donate it, store it elsewhere, or where it goes if it gets to stay.  As a side note, we tried to sell our house five years ago and nothing happened with it, so we decided to stay.  Caleb was a baby.  We have never tried to sell a house and move with three little kids-who are homeschooled.  We are in our house all day most days.

I have watched enough HGTV shows to know what helps with selling a house, so we are trying our best to clear out cabinets/closets and make our space look bigger.

Going through books and closets were pretty easy.  It is perfectly normal to use jars to store things in bathroom closets, so they look nicer, right!?  What was hard was clearing out my craft supplies and inventory from art shows out of my bathroom shower.

It is pretty normal to use the spare shower as a closet, right!?  Hahaha our little three bedroom ranch is tight.  Even as I show you these pictures, I realize that if our house wasn’t going up for sale, it would have been good to simplify our life and get rid of stuff.  It has always been so hard to clean up, because there is nowhere to put stuff.  Every closet and cupboard have been full.

My bathroom’s shower can now be shown as a working shower, and I am so proud of my self for getting rid of fun jars, shells and other cute crafty things that I can collect again at another point in life.

My in-laws are being so sweet and letting us store stuff we don’t need now (but don’t really want to get rid of) in their basement.  I think I have sent over two truck loads with them already.

The kids’ cute rocking chairs and other chairs that have been taking up floor space have been cleared out to make the floors look bigger.

Pictures are coming down and getting packed away.  In that picture of huge wall pictures of my kids, you can see my DIY Feather Wreath gets to stay, and my craft I am slowly working on is being stored right inside our front door.

I hope to have the rug done by next Friday, and I will be sure to show you how I am doing it.  It is perfectly normal to be trying to pack up a house and also take on a huge craft that you think will help “stage” your house better for showings, right!?  I am feeling insane.  I know I should be packing or something else right now, but writing all this out will help me remember these days and is an outlet.  I think I would be going insane if I didn’t have an outlet for me during this time.

I had a cupboard full of fabric.  Although I threw a lot out, I sent the rest with my in-laws (except for a few pieces that I have plans for if this house doesn’t sell right away).  It was hard to let it go.  I kept thinking I hope this house sells fast, but clearing out a fabric cupboard gave me room to put all the homeschool manipulatives and school stuff that was once on the shelf hidden away.

We are buying a dvd case to throw all those DVD cases from our movies (in the above picture) out too.  Have you done this yet?  I know it’s probably good to throw out the cases, but it feels weird too.

The biggest thing we have accomplished this week is replacing our 53-year-old ovens.

I say “we” but Matt is responsible for really all of this.  He researched the size, tracked down two new-er ovens on Craigslist that would fit the SMALL space (these are not normal size ovens), built a box for the new ovens to rest on, and installed them.

I did help get the ovens inside, but my brilliant husband came up with this leverage way to hoist the new ovens up into the hole, so we didn’t break our backs.  He’s a genius.

The difference in the ovens is remarkable!  We still need to close out the hole at the bottom and give it a little paint, but it is crazy how that oven updated our kitchen so drastically.

Today, I am thankful for my mom to come and take the kids for a few hours so I can go through their rooms and all the toys without little “persuasion speeches” being made on behalf of broken or forgotten toys.

I know the list is still long of all we have to do, but I am encouraged to see all these pictures together of what we have done.

It’s hard to know how this will play out.  We have such a range of opinions coming at us.  They range from how our home “is in the best location” and we “could have a contract in three days” or even how there could be a “bidding war over the house” all the way to “an inspector will go crazy on your house” and “your house wont sell for what you are asking.”

This is emotional.

This is personal.

This is hard.

If you feel led, please pray for us as we go through this next week.  As I am sure you know, stress and crazy to do lists can easily bring shorter tones and less patience.  Above all of this house stuff, I want to love my little family well and grow tighter together through this.

I hope you have a good weekend!  We will be busily continuing with the House Attack.  On Monday, I am so excited to share with you what is making us do all this to try and sell our house.  To follow more closely with our daily process, you can follow my instagram or my husband’s.