Organizing & Selling our house

First of all I wanted to tell everyone, Thank you!!! In the past 12 hours I have already had people looking at my post! I was really nervous that would not happen. Jeff and I have so much that we do to save money. In a few words or less, we have alot of information coming!!

Our house. Many people know that when we purchased our house it was an investment and a stepping stone for our family. We knew how much we wanted to spend and did not budge at all. Our realitor was not pushing us to buy the more expensive house that bankers told us we could afford. This was a huge blessing last year when we were a one income family and Jeffs hours were cut.....almost in half. Many of you who also know us know that on one income were are doing the following. Paying off our current mortgage, saving for another house, sending 3 boys to private school and feeding 3 boys. These are all huge tasks that have taken alot of penny watching and penny pinching.

So here we are 5 years later. The house that we repainted and had just perfect is now needing refreshed!!! I have done some reading by realitors and frugal blogs, amazingly enough...getting our house ready for sell can be less money than I thought. First thing is first. Purge!!! Toss things that you don't use!! If you haven't used it or worn it in a year, TOSS IT!!! Have no mercy!!! Take a day and drop the kiddos off with Grandma or take a day off when they are at school. Go through their toys. Remember...NO MERCY!!! Go through their clothes if you need to put them in a tote to store for a later child or get them ready for a sale. I will go into a great consignment sell here in a few minutes. Once you have went through things don't get trapped in expensive organization gadgets. The most things that are helpful to me...a lable maker, clear plastic totes of all sizes and clear packing tape.

Whew!!! This probably sounds like alot! Take it little by little. Don't tackle your house all at the same time. For the boys room I took and sorted things. All dinosaurs together, all of the thousands of little cars together. You probably get the picture by now. Then to help them put them in the right totes when they clean up I took and found pictures on the internet of a dinosaur and a car. I colored them brightly and made the words on the computer in primary colors. Arranged them on the front of the totes and attached them with the clear packing tape. This has worked for over a year for the boys. The cost was probably about $8 to $10.

Also for our stuff, i.e. bathroom & extra hygene supplies. This is all things I stock up on with coupons when a good sale is upon us. I have taken the Do!!@r Store shoe box size totes ($0.99) and used my lable maker and organized away.

I hope I have not bored you...but being frugal falls in step with being organized. You are not buying things you already have but could not find. I can glance at our supplies and see we need toothpaste or shampoo. When we do show our house during our days of selling, it should not be a mad rush to clean. So that will be good for the blood pressure!!! It also helps to do this when we are snowed in (like now) and it is one step towards spring cleaning.

Also last year I took part in a wonderful consignment sale. Also I have taken clothes to local consignment shops to help reduce what we are storing and make money to buy new clothes for our boys. This is a tremendous help. In my next post I will give a link to a great consignment sell.

Thanks everyone!! Please share any frugal organizing ideas!! Here in a couple of weeks I will have some pictures and more personalization to my blog!!!

Wendy