My parents and I recently put our house on the market for sale. I thought that the whole process was going to be smooth sailing, but it actually turned out to be a very grueling process. I spent countless days, cleaning my closet and getting rid of items that I no longer needed. I would try to pawn off most of my childhood items for profit, but in the end, I had to donate most of my toys to goodwill. I also was not able to sell my clothing online or at my own yard sale, so I gave my clothes to the salvation army. Albeit it is such a hassle selling your house, it is completely worth it to see all your hard work create an immediate change in your life; whether the reason being that a person is selling his or her house for a new job opportunity, to settle into a new area, to shrink down to living quarters for affordability reason, or to help a child pay for college.

So to start the fifth, most aggravating part about selling your home is making sure the realtor takes the best pictures possible in order to make your home more profitable in the housing market. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words, right? So why would anyone have a person take pictures of his or her home in shambles and little knick-knacks in every which corner? Before the pictures are taken and posted for all the world to see, you have to make your home look as presentable as possible and have your house look immaculate so that people can picture themselves living there. It is good to make sure that all the rooms in every picture look spacious and there are not too many pieces of pictures, surrounding all the rooms, making it look cluttered and caution sign worthy. This process can take as little as one day, but in extreme cases, it can take several days- no joke, making your house look picture perfect is exhausting, and it is best not to wait the day of in order to make the final, touch ups of your home.

The fourth irritating step to the selling your home process is moving your furniture. If your house is being remodeled or painted, it is a hassle to remove the furniture from its area. It is another thing to bring all your furniture back into the specific room it was originally. It is strenuous on your body to lift furniture, especially a large sofa into the living room when it has been placed in the garage. My advice is to never lift furniture on your own. Always have a professional do it because you could be seriously injured from your poor judgement. Use that extra money and don’t make any hasty decisions that can hurt you in the long run.

Third step is outside, home maintenance- also known as yard work. Yard work is already horrible enough as it is, but when you have to do yard work for home buyers, it is a really time consuming and unbearably boring. You have to make sure that your lawn looks spotless, no weed is left unattended or unplucked. The grass has to look freshly cut at all times, and there is no room for error because the slightest mistake determines the sale of your home.

Second step is removing items that have no value or interest to you. If you have lived in a house for a very long time, you are a victim of accumulating a ton of items that are no longer useful to you anymore- anything from childhood clothing to electronics. Most of the time you can not make a profit off your old items and have to donate your items or dispose of your items in the trash or in a landfill.

First, final and foremost the worst step, has to be cleaning your house from top to bottom. I cringed cleaning my house from top to bottom. I needed to make sure that it was so clean that I was able to see my reflection when looking at the floors. It is the step that you put off for several days until you have no choice but to clean the house until there is not a speck of dust left behind. Cleaning products and Swiffer become your new best friends.