For those who know me in real life or have seen my whining on Facebook for the last month, you probably know all about my hubby and I trying to sell our house. It’s an adventure, for sure, and you learn some interesting things along the way.

Such as…

1. Your house is NEVER clean enough. 

No matter how much cleaning you’ve already done, the second your agent calls to schedule a showing, you find at least twelve more things that need cleaning immediately and will have you jumping off the couch at lightning speed.

2. Interested house buyers will notice the weirdest things. 

Like, there;s dust around the heater vents on your ceiling. Really? I don’t think I’ve ever really looked up and inspected my ceiling vents, but what do you know? There’s definitely dust up there. Awesome.

3. The moment you decide to sell your house, your appliances will revolt. 

Our vacuum broke. And our other vacuum broke. At the same time. Before a showing. It’s winter. Which means the grass in the back yard is dead. Which means every time the kids or dog go outside, they track dried up grass back in. Yeah. You need a vacuum.

4. Your kids and dog will never make more messes than they will ten minutes before a showing. 

This is he one time you daughter will spill her pot pie on the floor, or track dog poo into the house, or your puppy will lose a tooth and bleed all over stuff, or your son will…okay, he’s usually pretty neat, so he’s in the clear.

5. You can’t please everyone. 

Those “not at all interested” responses on the feedback website sting, but honestly, there’s nothing I can do to make our backyard bigger or our driveway flatter. Eh, it wasn’t for them. Move on to the next person.

6. After living in your house for six years, the moment you decide to sell is when you’ll finally decorate. 

Maybe it’s because we always felt like we were going to move or build again, but we just never had the oomph to really spiff up the house and decorate until we decided to sell. Oh well, all the spiffy new paintings and clocks and doodads will go with us to the new house!

7. Selling a house will eat up your whole life. 

We’ve been blessed to have a lot of interest and lots of showings, but it’s draining on the whole family trying to clean and keep the house neat that much with two kids and a puppy and all the regular life stuff going on as well. Trying to keep the kitchen clean is the worst. It makes you want to eat out every night just so you don’t end up dirtying any dishes!

8. Waiting for an offer is worse than waiting for a response from an agent or publisher. 

We have the new house picked out, even have an offer on it. We just need to sell our house before the new house vanishes. No, it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t work out, but waiting and waiting might just make you develop one of those weird twitches.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but now that we have a contract in hand and the packing is starting in earnest, I’ll soon have a whole new list of things I’ve learned!