Selling your home is not easy nor convenient. When you have children it is even more challenging and much more inconvenient.
A common theme I run into on most Home Staging Consultations is toys. It seems as though young kids just have a lot of them. I’m sure it is all because of Grandma and Grandpa. 🙂 
Many parents struggle as to what to do with all the toys that are in the living room, the dining room, their bedrooms, the family room, the bath tub and just about everywhere else.
Here are my recommendations:
Toys Are Not the First Thing the Buyer Should See When They Walk In The Door
In other words, whatever rooms you can see as you enter should be toy free zones. So if those rooms for you are say the foyer, living room and dining room, those should not have any toys in them. I am not saying toys are bad but they just need to be contained and the home itself should be the first thing the buyer sees.
The Best Place for Toys Are the Kid’s Bedrooms:
The kids bedrooms are the perfect place for toys. It’s a kid’s room after all and it is totally fine to find toys there. The toys should be neatly arranged on shelves, toy chests or neatly against a wall. Not in disarray around the room.
One End of a Family Room Is Another Great Place for a Toy Area:
If you have a large or long family room, designating one end of the room for a toy area works well. You could have the play kitchen, stove and refrigerator along one wall with the small table and chairs ready for tea in the middle. Whatever it is, again it should be neat, tidy and orderly.
A Toy Designated Toy Room is Fabulous:
If you have an extra bedroom not being used or a non-conforming bedroom, it is totally fine to have this room as a designated toy room for all the toys. But remember rule #1 still applies……it cannot be a room the buyer sees right when they walk into the home. In this room you could have the legos table with legos on it, the coloring table or whatever it is your kids like to play with the most. The rule however is no chaos. Still have the room neat, tidy and orderly so the buyer can walk through the room and isn’t overwhelmed with all the things. 
What To Do With All the Other Toys:
Many homes I walk into are filled with toys and they won’t fit neatly into a child’s bedroom and one end of a family room. Many sellers wonder what they will do with the rest of the toys and here is my recommendation. Most children don’t play with every toy every day. In fact there are probably many of the toys that they haven’t played with for a while.
First pack up or donate all the toys that they have outgrown or just don’t play with anymore. If the remaining toys are still too plentiful to fit neatly in the 2 designated areas then I recommend buying bins with lids and having your child pick 2 bins of toys that will stay at their home today. The toys that are not selected are packed into remaining bins. Place these bins in storage or a storage area of your home if you have one.
Tell your children that in two weeks (or one week or three weeks, whatever you agree to) that the two bins that are staying in the house will be packed away and two new bins of toys brought out. I find that the children get excited about the two bins that will come next week and when they open them up the toys are new and fabulous again.
Rotate the bins as often as you need but hopefully by having your home in top selling condition and show ready it will sell quickly and all the toys can come back out. Or leave them in the bins as they are all ready packed to go to the new house!
Another incentive for your children in packing away their toys is that any toys left out will probably be played with by children visiting with their parents to look at the home. If your kids don’t want certain toys played with by others, it will make their decision process easier.
If you are struggling to get your home ready for sale and need advice, call a Professional Home Stager for assistance.
