My Top Tips for Keeping a House Show Ready

Selling your house, while entertaining a 3 year old is comical. Honestly, it's like a miniature tornado just follows you around while you are trying to make it appear that no one lives in the perfect house you call home. Throughout the time my house was on the market, I found a few tricks to keeping it "show" ready at all times and keeping my sanity intact. 

1. Declutter - There is no way around this. The less you have in the house, the easier it is to clean it up! We got rid of the toy room and kept a small bin of toys. We made the packed toys easily accessible and if needed, we would rotate the toys that we kept in the bin. We also seriously decluttered our closet, kitchen and guest bedrooms. No matter how attached you are to the 5 colanders you have, you can live with 1. I promise!

2. Keep counters clean - This is hard when you have a family. I get it! But, the idea is once again that the less you have out the easier it is to pick up. We had a large wine rack on our counter that was super useful, for obvious reasons, but it was one of the first things to go. It collects dust and makes the counter look smaller than what it is. Since we had decluttered the cabinets in the kitchen, we made pre designated areas for storing the convection oven and coffee maker while not in use. This helped to free up the counter space. This goes for your bathrooms too! 

3. Keep your toiletries in a carry tote - I hated shower carriers when I was in the college dorms and I still hate them in my 30's. But, they were a necessary evil for me. You do not want a bunch of stuff in the shower while your house is showing, so keeping it all in a cheap carrier from Wal-Mart makes it easy to clean and easy to organize. We cleared out space under a sink in our bathroom and stored it there. 

4. Invest in cheap laundry baskets - My older sister had this idea and I must pass it along. No matter how prepared you are for that unexpected call, there will be a few times when there is stuff everywhere and you have 10 minutes to get ready. So, for those times keep a few cheap laundry baskets around and throw all debris into them and pack them up in your car during the showing. Have dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, but your dishwasher is filled with clean dishes? Throw the whole dirty lot in the basket. Your toddler decided that it was a good time to organize his Legos? Throw them in the basket? Your dog wanted to play with every toy in her toy basket at once? Throw them in the basket. You get the idea. Just make sure to remember to unload and organize once the showing is over, it will make future life easier! 

5. Go to bed with a clean house - This is harder than it seems. At the end of the day you do not want to pick up clothes and toys and sweep your bedroom. But, it makes the next day so much easier. An added bonus is that your significant other is there to help with the process! I was also very meticulous about making sure the kitchen was picked up every time we left the house. It was a pain and it added time into our routine, but that was the one room that I knew was ready at all times. 

6. Be flexible - Your house won't sell if you don't show it. Our first showing was at 7:45 PM on a Tuesday night, which is exactly when Luke gets in the bath and exactly the time that I become attached to the couch and my remote. But, guess what? We made a fun night out of our freedom, got ice cream and took him to the park for some late night play. You must be flexible if you are wanting to attract the right buyers.  

Our market out in Tucson is a bit slower than the rest, but luckily we were able to sell our house in about a month and a half. I have found that selling a house is WAY more stressful than buying a house, and we weren't even house hunting throughout the process. It takes patience and a bit of a thick skin, there were a lot of conversations with my husband that started, "But, we LOVE our house why don't they?" 

Don't things personal and don't get frustrated with the process. The right person will come along and love your house just as much you do! 

Happy selling, 

Goodbye, Star Valley

These last few weeks I have been doing a lot of walking through my neighborhood and the trails that surround it. It has been pretty nostalgic and I find myself looking back over the past two years of running through these roads.

I never wanted to be a runner, I don't have the body to be a runner, I am not the fastest runner, but about 2 1/2 years ago I set out to run three times a week and little did I know it would start one of the biggest passions of my life. A passion I wasn't asking for but a passion and I definitely needed at the time.  Motherhood was a hard transition for me, I am not the type of person that can be needed 24/7 by somebody else, I need my own time and I need my own goals. I had never not worked and all of a sudden, I found myself at home with a miniature human being who relied on me solely to thrive. I knew that being home with him was best for my family, but I needed to find something to throw myself into. I didn't start running to lose weight or to become a healthier person, I started running to become a better mother.

I know all the mile markers in this neighborhood. When I pass tthe 35 MPH sign know that I've gone 1 mile from my house, when I enter the trail I know that I have a short mile and a half until the end of it. On Mother's Day of last year, I ran one of my fastest 10K races with my best friend by my side, through this neighborhood! I set goals and I crushed those same goals, all in this neighborhood. When I was caught in a downpour, I went to visit the fire station for shelter and for a Ziploc bag to keep my phone dry. When I was out of water on a day that turned out to be a bit hotter than I expected, I stopped by Lisa and Jay's house so they could fill up my water bottle. This past New Year's eve, I went on a run with my sisters and we laughed and joked the whole way. Something that I never thought would happen! Imagine that, it is possible to run and talk at the same time! There were a lot of early morning and late night runs in the dark training for my Ragnar midnight run. And trust me a lot of jumps along the way. It all happened in this neighborhood, where Ryan and I bought our first house, welcomed our first baby, and found out that we would be moving to Japan.

Lots of stroller miles logged on these roads!

Mother's Day 10k with Briana!

While discovering my passion for running, I also finally realize that running is about so much more than the actual exercise. It's about meeting people that you have something in common with. It's about finding mom's that need someone to talk to you just like you do. And most importantly it's about showing yourself that you can do so much more than you ever thought possible. Who would have thought that I would be the type of person who looks for a running group to join in my new country, before my house was even packed? It is wild and I can not wait to get back into it. 

Goodbyes can be sad. Especially when you have no idea if you will ever visit this area again. But, I can't wait to set new goals and crush them. I can't wait to meet new running friends, and call my friends back here and share the goals of overcome. I am so excited to look out at the ocean as I can run, what a difference from having to watch my step for snakes and cacti! There have been some tears on my walks, yes, but there have also been so many smiles and so many laughs thinking about everything that I did throughout the streets and the trails of Star Valley! 

Thank you, Arizona for the memories! 

Wow! It's been a long time....

Wow! It has been SOOO long since I have done a blog post and I am so sorry. I had the best of intentions to keep up the blogging, do lots of "second baby" prep work and just be overall really active on social media this summer. Alas, that did not happen.

A few things play into this, the first being that we listed our house back in July. At the time, we were thinking it was a good time to sell and to "get ready" for orders that may or may not come this year. Getting a house ready to sell is a lot of work, doing that work pregnant and with a 3 year old running around is near impossible. Since our house is still relatively new, it was some cosmetic and cleaning up work that we had to do. I am happy to report that after a month and a half on the market, we are under contract and awaiting our closing date, keep your fingers crossed!

Second was the fact that being pregnant while raising a toddler is HARD. I worked full time while I was pregnant with Luke, but this pregnancy has been some of the most tiring and draining days I have ever had. Ok, so Luke has slept really well for the past 2.5 years (like, really well) so I am not use to going on little sleep, but the naps that I have been taking during this pregnancy are epic. So good that there are many days where Luke wakes me up and let's me know that it is time for "Fireman Sam." I have gained more weight than I wanted to, but am still really active and getting in some good workouts at least 3 times a week so that is a plus. All in all, I am healthy, baby girl is healthy and Luke is still beyond excited about the addition so there is not much more I could want. 

The military is funny because things can happen rather quickly. Sometimes you have an idea that something is coming and sometimes you have no idea. We have been trying to move for about two years now, not because we don't love Tucson, but because one of the benefits of living this military lifestyle is that you get the chance to live in places you would never have even thought about living. You can raise your kids in another country, you can live in a state that was never even on your radar (hello, Arizona) and you get to do it all while having some job security. Some may not agree but for us, those experiences is a huge reason we decided to make this a full career for Ryan.

So, when he received the email that we were headed to Kadena AFB we were thrilled! That's right in one month we will be headed to Japan to live for 4 years. Crazy, right?! We took a few days to process the information before telling anyone. We knew our family would have mixed emotions and honestly, we had mixed emotions. They wanted us there in November which was a few weeks before my due date, we hadn't sold our house, our dog would be no where near her finishing her quarantine period by the time we would arrive and most importantly this was a HUGE move. I also took a LONG time to announce to the blogging world our big move. This was for a lot of reasons.  Things can always change in the military and mainly I was so busy and focused on getting everyone and everything ready for this move that it left very little time to do much of anything else. 

On average you get 6-8 months to prepare for a move this big, we got a 2.5 month notice. There are medical things to do beforehand, there are passports to get, there is lots of money and lots of vet appointments involved to get your dog ready for the island and then throw in the fact that I am pregnant and we had to keep the house ready for showings. It was a wild month of July and August but I am happy to report that the house is under contract and the we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact the movers are here right now packing up all, OK half of our stuff, for the big move.

This blog has been so important to me for the past year and half. I kept it going through a 4 month deployment, which is a huge feat in itself, and I have been so happy to see how the recipes and the stories have helped people. I will continue to blog. Yes, you may see more traveling and military lifestyle posts, but I hope you stick around to see our life and adventures in Okinawa. The next few months will be sporadic posts, since I won't have my computer, we will be in the process of traveling to Japan and well, don't forget about baby #2 that will come a short month and half after we arrive on island. I have SO much I want to share with all of you about this process, and I have a few posts in the works, but for now I am excited to showcase the freezer meals that I have been preparing for the time we will be in the house with no household goods before we leave AZ. Every day next week, I will showcase a recipe on my Instagram account. So make sure to follow along if you are planning a move or need some "Back to School" inspiration!

Also make sure to follow along on this crazy journey, using #NYEfamilymovestoJAPAN!

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