Meal Plan Monday and some chatting


It's Meal Planning Monday over at Laura's place...so go on over and visit with her and everyone else and maybe you might get an idea or two.

Monday......Jambalaya and Salad

Tuesday.............Sausage Bean Soup with cornbread

Wednesday.......Leftover Soup

Thursday............Steaks, Scalloped Potatoes, Green Beans with almonds...Homemade Bread

Friday.........Girls Night Out......Dad and the kids will order out

Saturday.......Grilled Chicken Pasta with Strawberry and Mandarin Orange Salad

Sunday.......Appetizers I have looked at from Overwhelmed with Joy's Super Bowl Sunday Favorite Appetizers

Today...I'm cleaning the house and starting to de clutter things.......see we have 3 couples who would like to come see our home and we haven't even put a For Sale sign in the door yet.....so I need to start getting it together. That means cleaning out closets and cabinets and boxing things up. Can you all give me some tips on trying to sell your house? Anything I need to know to make it look more bigger or cleaner.....or desirable? You let me know. Hope you all are having a great Monday.....the kids are better...well Madison is....Miller is still whining with a stuffy nose and coughing he is on a steroid so I guess this is making him feel yucky.
But for the most part this week I'm getting back into the groove. Off to clean I go.

Comments

Jennifer said…
Hey, I'm glad everyone at your place seems to be on the mend. We've only begun with Andrew starting us off with a high fever this weekend. When we sold out house two years ago, it was way too small for what we needed. One thing we did was what you are doing, de-cluttered. Making space is very important, because if stuff is crammed under stuff like ours was, people will think there is not storage. Cleaning windows, that sort of thing helps. Some will say to take down personal stuff so that people can imagine themselves in your house, but I say leave it up as long as it isn't cluttered, so it seems like a family lives there. Replace light bulbs, and just clean clean clean. We sold ours in four weeks, which was wonderful for the market we are in. We figured it would be a year or so. Good luck!
mom of 2 said…
A good friend of mine is in real estate and just sold their house after only a little over 1 week on the market. For where we live that is nothing short of a miracle!! Our neighborhood is fairly new and you can drive a few miles away and build a brand new house for about the same amount of money. Anyway, she cleaned out EVERYTHING! They rented a storage unit and put off season clothes, some of the kids toys and anything else that cluttered up the house. She kept her kitchen & bathroom counters totally cleaned off. She also said that most people leave their knick knacky stuff up because they think it looks pretty, and it might, but she said you want the potential buyer to be able to imagine their stuff in your house. That's my 2 cents. Good luck and I hope it sells quickly for you guys!
Good meals you have this week! I love most any soup and grilled chicken pasta sounds really good.

Glad your kids are getting better! Sounds like a lot of work ahead of you to get a house ready to sell. I don't have many ideas but mostly I hear that de-cluttering or storing is the way to go. Good luck this week!
Nicole said…
I need to be cleaning my house, but am having too much fun blogging this morning to stop just yet.

We haven't sold a house, so I have no pointers. My parents are always moving it seems. My best advice is to do what you are doing. Cleaning. No one wants to buy a dirty house. They can always paint and some can invision their furniture, but if it is dirty, on one will even want to come in to do those things. Good luck.
uuu said…
on the planning to sell --- i just wish you good luck and a speedy sale! :) no tips - as we've never sold; prior to building this house, we've just rented.

glad to hear that everyone is getting better in your house - that sure makes things easier! :)

dinner sounds great this week.....

happy monday!
Yummy, I want to come over and eat :)

Have fun at Girls Night out, and on Super Bowl Sunday too. We're having some friends and family over to munch and watch the game :)

Please send your cleaning vibes my way, and the decluttering ones too. Have a long list but haven't made much of a dent in it. I have no experience selling a house, so I'm afraid I'm not much help there. I've heard that you should make it fairly impersonal, take down family pictures, etc and try to declutter countertops, etc. Try to make it where others can picture themselves and their things in the house and not just yours. No idea if that helps though :)

Have a great day Jen!
Jill said…
Love the menu this week! I don't have any advice on the house, just wanted to wish you good luck!

Have a great Monday!
Mike said…
If it were up to me, I'll always order out.

Hope you get a great price for your house, and have a great week ahead.


Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/
Laura said…
Hey Jen, guess who isn't nursing anymore??? Yeah!!

As for showing your house, just do whatever you can to make it appear as large as possible. This usually means removing as much clutter as possible. Doesn't mean you have to throw it away but whatever you don't think you'll need in the next little while, just box it up nice and tidy and sort it in the garage or somewhere out of sight. People really need to visualize how the space will work for them so take all guessing out of the question.

Hope that helps,
Laura
Barb said…
Hi Jen,

Your menu for the week sounds great.

When I was selling my mother-in-law's house, I painted the whole interior. I only did that because it's was a 70's house with green bedrooms, bright yellow kitchen and family room and so forth. The first thing the realtor told me was the house would sell a lot faster if it were all repainted a very neutral cream color.

But it was a huge job and took forever. So I don't know if I'd recommend it unless your walls are as weird as her weres.

The only other thing I learned was to turn all the lights on when a potential buyer is coming over. Oh, and if you can, you should be out of the house when it's being shown. A pain, but apparently it's important.

Good luck. I wish you a speedy sale too.
Anonymous said…
I just sat down to take a break from my cleaning...so I'm with ya! =) I think you are on the right track...I think decluttering makes any place look bigger & cleaner. Good luck!!
Could you set an extra bowl on the table tonight, so I can have some of that jambalaya? YUMMMMMM
Susanne said…
Good luck selling your home. What an exciting time. And also a busy time. Before the people come to see the house heat some water with cinnamon, allspice, clove, nutmeg on top of the stove. It just needs to heat and your house will smell delish but not overwhelming like with a candle or oils. Just like you've been baking.
Kim said…
Hi Jennifer, I hope the kids are feeling much better. Your sausage bean soup sounds good; you should post your recipe. Last fall when my girlfriend sold her house, she stashed some stuff in my garage to make hers look more wide open. She brought things like the Christmas totes and off season clothes. Good luck!
Tina Leigh said…
Jen your moving???!!! What did I miss???!!
Marcia Francois said…
Hi Jen

Thanks for visiting me. I just bookmarked your site last night from Org Junkie's blogroll to go have more of a read when I have some time, and here I find you leaving me a comment. How cool is that?!

Hmmm - your grilled chicken pasta sounds delicious!

I help people with decluttering for house sales and all I can say is (like Laura above), make it as empty as possible. People want to see themselves in your space. When we were looking about 18 months ago, I myself walked out of overly cluttered houses as I just couldn't picture myself there.

All the best
Marcia
A girl's night out? Good for you! :)
I am happy to hear your little man is feeling a bit better. He's had a rough time of it.
We have bought and sold quite a few homes. I can tell you that decluttering and cleaning it is half the battle. Also, taking away personal items (stuff on counters, pictures on dressers, etc) works. Nice smelling candles that smell like pie or cookies lit on your countertop, a vase of fresh flowers on the table....just a few ideas.
I think it is a good sign that you have people already interested before the sign even goes up. Good luck.
Unknown said…
How do you do your Grilled Chicken Pasta? It just sounds 'delish'!