I didn't really remember how much of an emotional rollercoaster moving can be. Every single house that you fall in love with then not get, each person who walks through your house. Your hopes high, your hopes dashed. I've been learning a lot about myself and getting a great lesson in patience. I have been listening to Gabby Bernstein's book Super Attractor again, to help attract that one person who will love our house just as much as we did.
We started looking for a new house a few years ago. Once we became minimalists, we realized that our current house was no longer serving us. We've been searching for that perfect house that reflects more of how we want to live this one life we want to live. Finally, we found our dream home! It’s complete with a stream in the back yard. It’s so absolutely perfect and I’m so in love with it that I can’t wait to move there.
There is only one problem. We have to sell our current home first. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been so grateful that I started my minimalism journey 2 years ago. We found out we got the house on a Sunday, we had the house ready by Wednesday, the photographer in on Thursday, the pictures online and house listed by Friday! Less than a week!
When our agent came through, she kept commenting, “not much to do here” “this room is good” etc. The biggest challenge was cleaning - not tidying) my monster house (more on the monster house later, I promise).
Had we not gotten rid of our clutter in the last 2 years, it would have taken us the entire time we had to meet the condition of selling our house just to get it ready. Had we not become minimalists, we wouldn't have been able to even put an offer into our dream home. We would have been so much more stressed out trying to clean and declutter our home.
I feel proud that my house is able to be shown off in the pictures, rather than my stuff. I'm excited that our house lookers can look into our closets, storage spaces, and garage and see the spaces rather than the clutter. I was excited that we had so little stuff in our home, our realtor had to bring IN some furniture!
Being able to move quickly is reason number 12,345 to simplify your life.
My 7 Tips on Simplifying to Sell:
Start with your closets. The cleaner they are, the easier it is to put stuff away.
Start early. If you know you want to move next year, start decluttering now.
Always keep a box for donate stuff in your garage, ready to go.
If you have time, make more than one pass. When you practice simplifying, you get better at it and you will be able to get rid of more things in the first few places you decluttered.
Think of what you want to move. If you don't want to move it, you probably don't love it.
Getting rid of big furniture you don't love makes a huge impact on your space.
Don't worry about having too little stuff, it generally makes it easier to stage and sell.
Now, our house is listed and we just have to sell it! I wouldn’t mind if you keep your fingers crossed for us that it sells and we can move into our dream home!
Know someone who is thinking of selling their home? Send them this post. They may just shower you with thanks when they do list their home and their process was made that much easier.
