We are going to put our house on the market next week. I've been working like a dog this past week to get it clean, clean, clean and organized for viewings. We also discussed having an open house with our agent.

We have been looking at homes, two of the things that turn me off is smelling other people's food when you walk in and of course a dirty house.

I want to stage our house for the open house and will buy some flowers for the dinning room table and I thought I would put a bowl of lemons or green apples in the kitchen. I wanted to buy some nice toileteries for the bathroom and have already bought new towels and bathmats. DH wanted me to buy some air fresheners, the kind you plug in but I don't like the chemicals in them floating through our air space and I don't like the smell. Not a big fan of scented candles either.

Any suggestions on how to make my house smell appealing? LOL! Any other suggestions on staging the house for selling?

By Tripletmom on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 01:48 pm:

We sold our home just over 9mths ago.It only took 4 days(Thank God) When people came through I always had fresh flowers on the table.I burned this candle that had a baking smell(Grammas kitchen)We got rid of any clutter and I made sure all the lights were left on in every room to make the rooms look brighter. Good luck it can be very stessful.

By Heaventree on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 02:01 pm:

Hey Sherri,

Thanks for responding, 4 days is wonderful, and thanks for the formula info it was really great to see your schedule.

I noticed you are in Ontario, we are in the GTA and considering a move to Guelph.

Oh and Welcome to Mom's View!

By Tripletmom on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 02:06 pm:

Wow-We are not far from eachother.I'm in Hamilton.Good luck with selling youre house.Geulph is a nice place Ive only gone fishing there but it seems nice

By Hlgmom on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 02:14 pm:

How about a room spray from Bath and Body works or a scented candle...potpourri on the stove...

Also try putting several lemons in the dish disposal- leaves a great lemony fresh scent!

By Heaventree on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 02:18 pm:

Heather, what's a dish disposal?

By Sandysmom on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 05:59 pm:

I'm kind of sensitive to strong smells so anything like a strong scented candle or room spray irritates my sinuses. I don't have a dish disposal but I LOVE that idea! Or a lightly scented candle would be nice. Good Luck!

By Kate on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 06:23 pm:

I would wash a set of towels or sheets in a lot of bleach...I LOVE the smell of bleach in a house. That smell tends to linger a bit, so if you do the load right before the open house, it might work.

By Feona on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 06:33 pm:

I don't like any smells either. Someone burnt a apple pie candle in the kitchen when we were looking at houses but I like a no smell myself.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 06:47 pm:

I had a potpourri burner, that I would turn on, when we were selling the house. Now, some of you say you would prefer no smell! LOL! The house sold in 2 months, though, so we must have done something right. I know it wasn't easy keeping the house soooo clean, while working 32 hours per work and trying to take care of a 3-1/2 yo and an almost 1 yo! LOL! I'm glad it was only 2 months!

By Missymelissy on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 08:44 pm:

Try boiling some water with lemon peels.

Bake some cookies/cake before your open house.

Check this site - its got some ideas.

http://rubyglen.com/decor/fresh.htm

Good luck with the sale of your home.
________________________________________________

I am in London.

I also have relatives in Guelph and surrounding area.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 08:49 pm:

You may already know this, but our realtor has told us to clear, clear, clear things out. If you're not using it, store it. Little to no personal photographs around. Basically so it doesn't look "lived in". We are getting a storage unit, de-cluttering closets, and putting away some furniture that we don't really need out. She also mentioned having curtains, blinds open for natural light to come in during showings.

All of the things you have done so far sound great! Good luck!!

By Annie2 on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:29 pm:

Also, make it look appealing from the outside. That will be the first impression as they drive up.

New doormat, clean windows, curtains or blinds/shades all drawn the same way. Yard raked, swept, nothing around the walks.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 07:40 am:

It's hard to make a house look appealing, when you are selling in February/March and there are no flowers yet and the yard still looks horrible from winter! LOL! We left in April and my crocuses were only starting to bloom. It's got to be better to sell a house after the lawn has turned green and the flowers are growing. We didn't have a choice in the matter, though. Gary got the new job in February and that's when we had to sell.

By Truestori on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 05:05 pm:

I know that the realtor who shows your house will often bake cookies if you ask! We were in the same boat, and the funniest thing happened. I had put a sign out but hadn't advertised on the MLS because we still had last minute touchups etc..Any how this man asked if he could come in and I agreed. While showing him the house I realized my cat had puked all over my wood floors right by the biggest, brightest window! OMG I was so embarassed, kept apologizing and to my amazement he put an offer in the following week!

By Heaventree on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 05:10 pm:

Augghh I can so relate, my cat is 18 years old and throws up regularly. Usually the dog gets to it before anyone else does and cleans it up herself. Yuck! She's also put a boycott on the litter box these days and will only drink from the toilet.

By Alberobello on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 05:23 pm:

Oh Heaventree!!! That is absolutely disgusting! But i guess pretty practical, isn't it?
Your cat sounds like fun!

By Cat on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 06:10 pm:

Our house went on the market yesterday. I haven't been able to post here much this past week (I had 30 emails when I got online this morning, not including my junk mail box!!!) because we've been SOOOO busy cleaning, decluttering, packing, storing, etc. We rented a storage unit and also have a good stack of boxes in the garage. I gotta say my house has never been so cleaned out! lol They're coming tomorrow to take pictures, inside and out. Of course all our grass is dead and brown and the dogs keep tracking it in EVERYWHERE (so do the boys!). I told our realtor I needed enough notice for showings to vacuum! lol We took a lot of pictures off the walls and patched and painted the holes from the nails, as well as any other minor repairs and touchups. We've contracted with someone to replace three interior doors that have holes or cracks (karate kicks gone bad, kids running into them, etc). Our realtor has a contract with each of the boys that if they 1, keep their toys picked up, 2, keep their clothes picked up, and 3, make their beds every day, he'll pay them $25 at closing. They're excited about that! We're also going to pay them to keep the rocks out of the grass (we have 3/4" rocks bordering our yard). We did store two desks that don't get used (opened a whole corner of the great room downstairs and makes it look huge now!) and some other small things that we didn't need in here. Our new house will be done in late April or early May so we've got a little time. Idealy we'd like to sell our current house before May and then rent it back until June 1st so we can use dh's VA to buy the new house with (he gets 40% disability so there'd be no funding fee, which if we used my VA it'd be about $8000). Like dh said, someone just needs to smile on us. Good luck getting your house ready. I know how hard it can be. There were times when we went to bed feeling like we'd been hit by trucks from working so hard all day. We're so close now, though. You'll get there!