So, So Sick of This . . .

Perfect time to declutter & pitch!
Then get a portable storage bin & pack up everything you don't need NOW.
That will all make it easie to show (and SELL).
If you house has been on the market for 6+ months, I'd consider dropping the price.
I think you also need to be looking for the next place now
Good luck!

What gives you the impression he doesn't really want to sell?

I don't think you're being childish. Just leave it as is and think of it as "staged." :)

I'd just start with the deep cleaning and decluttering. If you can get that done, the surface cleaning should come easier because there won't be so much stuff to deal with.

Good luck!!

ETA: For decluttering, the best tool I have found is my local Freecycle website. Basically, go through your house and find things that you KNOW you don't need, and post on your local Freecycle website for pick-up. I have gotten rid of a TON of stuff this way. I suspect I have ADD, so decluttering is vital to my well-being.

No. you are not being immature at all!!

I think you and your husband need to talk about your future plans. If you have no plans about where you are going to move, then why are you selling?

It sounds to me like you have outgrown your home - if you are using every inch of it between home schooling (YOU GO GIRL!!) and your husband working from home? Yeah. I can understand putting it on the market. What I can't understand is NOT KNOWING where you will go once it sells.

That would have me climbing the walls and pulling my hair out!! I NEED a plan. You tell me the plan and we'll work it. But don't just say "hey we're putting the house on the market and I don't know what we'll do when it sells"

Tips to keeping your sanity?
1. Have the kids put away whatever they take out. they are home schooled so they should be old enough to put stuff away.
2. Pack anything that you do not use on a daily basis.
3. Get rid of anything and everything you do NOT NEED or haven't touched in six months. Have a garage sale, freecycle, craigslist, etc.

Can you start cleaning as though you were moving. Purge, pack and store, get one of those pods, or line up the boxes in the garage. Put away everything but the bare essentials. You will have little around, so there is little to deal with.

When you do sell, you will have a leg up on the packing for the big move.

PUT dates and inventories on the boxes. Keep everything in the computer. If you don't move any time soon, and you find that you lived perfectly happily without the corn on the cob holders, grandmas teacup collection, 15 boxes of legos, you can sell or donate the stuff that's been boxed and have it permanently out of your life.

Other tips-
go out, a lot. if you aren't at home, you can't dirty it.

good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

First,I would de-clutter your house now so you don't have to much to clean or arrange every time you get a call.

Also, because if you are going to de-clutter, give away & organize when
you move anyway, there is no time like the present.

This will help assist you in your "clean up" when you need to show the
house.

I'm sorry you're going through this because selling a home is a difficult
task. I hated having to keep the house in pristine condition w/kids,
animals & just plain me in general. :)

Find an area to designate & organize as your home office area for your
husband.

Designate an area (if you can) to where you will teach your kids when you
home school them & where they can study.

Next, organize these areas neatly w/desk-top bins, file folders, magazine
holders, pencil cups etc. Look around at your local Office Max type of
store for organizational tools (shelves for the top of desk etc.).

Get rid of things now that you do not want. Donate. Sell. Less to clean up.

Good luck & hang in there!

Check, please. I'm done.

Immature? Maaaaaaaybe.
Inevitable? Absolutely.

As a homeschooler for almost 5 years... Take this suggestion as meant: time for summer break.

I know. Personally (and most hs'ers I know) only KINDA take breaks (hence the as meant: permission, not a solution). Our stuff is constantly being drug out, a cool thing worked on, a bored moment naturally filled with something academic. So it may be impossible to 'put the books away'. But I am officially giving you permission to play video games and hang upside down from trees for 104 days... Just like many awayschoolers do. 104 days where (theoretically) you're not picking up manipulatives, testing the tensile strength of your table (ours, at least, gets BURIED under projects), science experiments in full swing in the kitchen and bath... Etc.

We ALSO did a Swiss Fam Robinson mini unit at one point, and another time got avalanched in for a week at a hotel. School WITHOUT school SUPPLIES is a quirky / fun thing to do from time to time. I don't know about you, but at least 1/5th of my day is beating the school mess back with a stick. I did the SFR unit, because -purely- I needed a break from cleaning. 'so we worked out what we'd do in a shipwreck, war zone, natural disaster, etc. we'd OBVIOUSLY keep learning... So without all our STUFF, how do we do that? It was a fun week. Both times.

We have a second home that is vacant, not on the market because we don't feel like dealing with it. I know this doesn't answer your question but just saying I feel ya.

One of these days I am taking some lighter fluid.......not really but damn tempting! Then I would only have land to sell!

Just wanted to add that you control when the realtor can show your place. We finally sold ours and my husband worked from home too. So we set rules that the Realtor followed and the only Exceptions were if she had really qualified the Buyer as serious and capable.

Good luck- I know it isn't fun.

On the other hand, you will see/learn that people take very little pride in their house when it comes time to show. Really sad but true.... doesn't have to be immaculate but picked up so the buyer can "see" themselves in your home.

That sucks. I'm not a big fan of the buying and selling process at all. I just want it to be done and over with. I imagine that you get a few people that just don't show. I like QueenoftheCastle's idea about de-cluttering now so you have less cleaning later. The only thing that might help with the no shows is to confirm the appointment the day before and a few hours in advance. A lot of people just like to look at houses with no intention to buy. So, it's not a big deal to them. It's a hobby for some people.

Well, I think your husband needs to be in charge of cleaning and de-cluttering since he's so determined to keep it the market!

Also, use FreeCycle or have a yard sale to get rid of stuff - that's beneficial whether you stay or leave. And start with getting rid of your husband's stuff!1 LOL.

Why not take it off the market for 60 days just to get things in order? Then you can really tear the place apart, get rid of stuff, and do some deep cleaning without worrying that someone's going to come for a showing. And make this a family affair.

As someone else said, once the heavy work is done, it will be so easier to do light cleaning.

As for the appointments, do you have a realtor who is handling the showings or are you taking calls because you are selling it yourself? I think you can have SOME leeway about when the house will be available for showings. Obviously you want to accommodate to prospective buyers, but if you can keep it in show-worthy condition, these calls won't throw you for a loop quite as much.

We had our house on the market when I was homeschooling and it was such a mess. Back then the market was good and houses sold. I just had people call and let us know in time to pick up clutter. They didn't do that though. :-( They have to realize you live while the house is for sale so just do what you can and don't let it disrupt your life too much. Later when we sold the next house we had less kids home, not homeschooling but I told them I wouldn't leave the house if not convient as I was babysitting a grandson who may be napping, etc. We sold it fine like that but today with the market like it is you have to go above and beyond and still may not sell. I'd do what you can, live your life, don't let it control the schooling, etc. Clean deeply and thoroughly and then just do daily pick up, dusting, etc. and don't worry. It's a real pain. If people can't picture your home in their mind with their things there then they probably won't buy it anyhow.

I would take down every item I could and pack it away. Depersonalize the house as best as you can. Once you do that you can still have a home to live in, just the stuff you don't use every day will be out of the way.

I think this is the hardest part of selling a house. I could not do this. I would rather move out then clean and put it up for sale.

I do realize that is often not the way it works though. So I would keep the dishes washed up, either in the dishwasher all the time when they get dirty they automatically go in, then the beds made as soon as the kids and hubby is out of them, I would have a laundry stash place so that on the days right before laundry day when they of course call for someone at the corner wanting to see the house you can stash the laundry very quickly out of sight and possible opening of a door and it cascading out...lol.

Hopefully it will sell quickly and you will be able to start the adventure of finding a new place. Living in an apartment for a couple of months is not a horrible thing. It gives you time to look and make sure the house you like and want is a good fit for your family.

I agree no one should have their house on the market half assed. Be all in or all out, because its too much having it ready to show all the time. That said, in our area, housing prices are on an upswing and summer is a great time to get top dollar (relatively speaking) for your house because everyone wants to make their move before fall school year starts. I do believe housing prices are going to bounce along the bottom here for years, even going down a bit more (not that you should trust what anyone tells you about what real-estate is doing, but my track record is that we sold our house in Phoenix in 2006 because we suspected a crash was in the eminent future) So from someone who nailed it, this is a good time to sell (in our area). People want to take stock market profits this year because capital gains taxes will be raised next year due to Obama Care. So knowing that some people (not me) have stocks that are up, Its a good time for those people to take their profits and drum up a down payment for a house. Next year will likely be a different story. If you get a good offer, I'd recommend renting for 6-9 months and wait for the inventory to improve after summer.

No, it's not immature. If we ever decide to sell our house I'll be insisting we move out to an apartment while it's on the market. My husband and son leave a mess in their wake and getting them to pick up after themselves is like pulling teeth - even when the house needs to be clean for something.
I just don't think I could deal with the stress!

We're relocating to the Chicago area and are surprised at the length of time houses are on the market. OK, it's a soft market but if you want to sell your houses reduce the price! We have sold our last two houses (in California) within a week. They were priced well, decluttered, and looked great. I understand the frustration with keeping the houses clean for showings. I don't know how people do it for months on end. I'm wondering if a lot of people are like you - they put it on the market to see if people will pay what you're asking but aren't really motivated to sell. That said, I've been in a lot of houses were people have stopped trying to keep the place neat. By coincidence, we aren't considering any of those homes but those homes also aren't priced competitively. Good-luck.