How to Keep Your Home Clean for Showings: Daily Habits & Quick Cleaning Tips
Selling a house is hard and exhausting! So, I’m all about strategies to make home staging easier. Here are the simple routines and habits I follow to prep for showings and make the process as seamless as possible.
Did you hear the news? We’re moving! We put our house on the market a little over a week ago and the showings have officially begun. We’ve sold two houses before, but I find that the older (and messier) our kids get, the harder it is to keep the house clean and juggle regular showings. It’s been nearly 6 years since we’ve had to do this and – OH BOY – it’s exhausting.
One thing I’ve learned that makes a huge difference when you’ve got a regular stream of people coming through your house is that routines and habits are key. So today, I’m sharing a few of the things that help take some of the stress off and make the whole home staging process feel a tinnnny bit less painful.
10 Tips + Routines to Keep Your Home Show-Ready
Here are 10 of my best tips and tricks for making thing as easy as possible (while also making sure your house is ready for a showing at a moments’ notice!
Have a family meeting to set expectations.
The first thing we did the night before our house officially hit the market was sit down with our kids for an official family meeting. We make them clean up after themselves on a day-to-day basis, but we knew this would require a whole different level of effort. We told them that we needed to work as a team and set expectations for what they would be in charge of. Then, we’ve held them to it (which is often the hardest part). Everyone has a job and they’re expected to do it daily! It also helps that making it a whole family effort can be a great way to mentally prep your kids for the fact that you’re moving!
Do a cleaning sweep every single morning.
I know it sounds obvious, but making this an intentional part of your day is absolutely key to keeping this whole showing thing from getting too stressful. As soon as the kids are off to school, I’ve made it my routine to go through the entire house (including the backyard!) to make sure it’s clean and show-ready. It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes because we’re staying on top of things in the evening too. Once it’s done, I can settle in and get some work done knowing that the house will stay clean at least until the kids get home from school!
Have everyone do a quick clean-up in the evening.
Paired with that morning clean, a post-dinner clean up is VITAL to everyone’s sanity! The kids know that as soon as we finish eating dinner it’s going to be all hands on deck to go around and put everything from the day away. When we’re all working together it only takes about 15 minutes, and it prevents anything from getting too out of hand. When we get a last-minute request for a weekday evening showing, it’s really helpful to have already done a quick clean-up.
Create a on-the-go kit for your car!
We have two dogs and that means that every time we get a showing request, I’ve got to drag them out of the house with me. Some days I can just take them on a walk while people are in the house, but it’s been cold and windy around here so often that’s the last thing I want to do. I put together a little basket of essentials to make it easier to hop in the car and just go. I included the dogs’ leashes, a couple of snacks for the kids (just in case!), and a few books to keep the kids busy. It’s come in clutch a few times when we need to dash out the door and don’t really have a plan!
Focus on smells (but don’t overdo it!).
Ohhhh smells! This is SUCH a huge thing when you’re house hunting! Smells when you’re selling a house are a little like Goldilocks – you don’t want it to smell BAD, but too much of a “good” smell isn’t great either! We were in a house the other day that had so much air freshener happening I got nauseous and had to step outside!
While your house is on the market, it’s helpful to stay away from any stinky foods for dinner (no broccoli, no fish!), and it is also great to have a plug-in air freshener set on low, or spray some room spray right before you leave. Last time we were selling our house, I would pour a little bit of my favorite all-purpose cleaner into the toilet bowls right before we left so the bathroom had a just-cleaned smell!
Simplify your dinner routine.
Listen, selling a house is stressful enough. You don’t want dinnertime to add to the chaos. We’ve switched to mostly paper plates for the time being to cut down on post-dinner cleanup, and I focus on dinners that are easy to clean and don’t take too much time.
I find it really helpful to plan out meals a few weeks in advance, even in my normal life, and it’s been even more helpful during the moving process! The less I have to think about what I’m feeding my family for dinner, the better! We’ve also been focusing on cleaning out our freezer and pantry with our meals – because that will make the move itself a little easier, too!
Designate a “GO Basket”
This was probably the MOST helpful thing I did last time we sold our house, and it’s proving to be just as useful this time around. I grabbed a medium-sized basket that we weren’t using for anything else (a laundry basket is perfect for this!) and I told everyone in the family that it’s the GO Basket. I keep it under the entryway table, and if we ever need to get out of the house in a hurry, we simply run around and toss anything that isn’t super easy to put away into the GO Basket.
Hopefully if you’re staying on top of the cleaning routines in the mornings and evenings, there won’t be much to pick up here. But, it never fails that someone requests a showing in 5 minutes when you’re in the middle of a board game or the kids are building a massive domino tower. Just trust me, the basket helps. You can see ours in the photo below, right under our entry table!
Pack a box or two each week.
As soon as we start thinking about moving, I start packing. I’ve always done it this way, and it’s always made things much easier for us in the long run. I make it a goal to pack up at least one or two boxes each week – typically with things that we don’t use all that often and know we can live without for a little bit.
Things that work great for this are seasonal decor and dishes, kitchen supplies that you don’t use on the regular, family photos, off season clothes, or any knick-knacks that you can find around the house! Simplifying your decor is a great move when you’re moving, and if you’re going to be putting stuff up you might as well go ahead and get it packed, right?!
Keep disinfectant wipes in the bathroom for a quick clean!
Before we listed the house, I went around to each bathroom to make sure that the cabinet under the sink was stocked with a fresh pack of disinfectant wipes. Every time we have someone coming for a showing, I go through each bathroom and wipe down all of the surfaces.
It doesn’t matter if the bathroom actually needs to be cleaned, just having that fresh-cleaned smell in there makes the house feel loved and taken care of!
Stay on top of laundry and dishes.
And, of course, the bane of everyone’s existence – laundry and dishes! I try to stay on top of these things all the time, but I take it much more seriously when we’re showing our house. My routine is to run a load of laundry every other day, and make sure it actually gets put away. And, I set a rule with the family that dirty dishes shouldn’t ever be in the sink for the time being. You can either wash it, or it can go directly into the dishwasher. It doesn’t really take any extra time in the moment, but it saves a TON of time on the back end!
And, who knows, maybe some of these little habits will actually stick when we move? Wishful thinking?!
A Few Bonus Home Staging Tips & Tricks
And, just for fun, here are a few more tips that will really help take your home over the top when you’re showing it:
- Don’t forget to turn on all the lights before you leave. You don’t want people to be searching for light switches when they’re trying to see the house!
- Oh, and be sure to close all of the toilet lids.
- Keep a squeegee in the shower to do a quick wipe-down after each shower. This is great for anytime, but especially helpful when you’ve got showings.
- Be sure to swap out your air filter before showings start, and clean air vents and light fixtures!
- Keep a handheld vacuum charged and ready to do a quick clean of the couch, or any high-traffic spots on the floor.
- This is a great time to buy some fresh, fluffy white towels. Brand new towels in the bathroom send a “this place is really taken care of” vibe!
- Clean your doors and door knobs. Have you ever notice how the fingerprints really build up over time? Probably not, because it’s really easy to ignore. But, cleaning the doors is a process that’ll take you an hour, tops, and it’ll make the house feel WAY cleaner.
What are YOUR best tips for getting the house show-ready – and keeping it that way?
Me over here taking notes on good habits even though I’m not planning on moving any time soon…