You spent 1k on baby proofing services???

We've seen a ton of houses where they clearly have young kids, but no baby gates. And toys have all been put away in bins.

Gates stay - selling point for young families. Keep only necessary toys. Something like a toy kitchen should probably go unless it is in a basement or a bedroom. We just sold our house (5 yo and 2yo).

I think you try to confine the toys to canvas bins in the bedroom (that can be moved to the living room when you're actually playing) - can the toy kitchen go into the kid's bedroom too? If not, I'd store it or stash in a basement or attic. I think the gates need to stay, with a disclaimer that you can remove them if the seller doesn't want them to convey. if you're in a family-friendly area, the next buyer might want them.

Just leave the swinging gates open. I would not remove them while you live there.

Toys have to go.

We tried to sell last fall and we put away every toy into the basement, storage, or in a closet. We did leave the gates because we did still have to actually live in the house. I'm glad we didn't bother removing them since the house didn't sell.

I think the gates can stay, but not the toys. If there's room in the bedroom or playroom for the toy kitchen then move it there. If the stairs would need to be in any pictures, you might ask your realtor if the photographer can photoshop the gate out for marketing purposes.

Can you just leave the swinging gates open when you leave the house for a showing or for work in the morning? We had gates at the top of both sets of stairs and just left them open - no need for leaving instructions, etc.

Just went through this ourselves with 2 young kids. I put over half their toys in storage pods with other clutter crap, and kept out only the train table and a few bins isolated to a den/office space. For pictures and open house, we had no toys out, even in their rooms. Had we been on the market for a long period of time, I'm sure it wouldn't have stayed as empty!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kitchen in the living room to a buyer says - the house is not big enough.

We all know what it says in real life is - I can sit in the same room as my child is playing.

Also wrt the gates - you need to get rid of them. You do not want people breaking them / tripping as they step over them.

Agree about the toys, but I think the gates (are they just on the stairs? The swinging kind that you don't have to step over?) can stay. First, because OP doesn't need a catastrophe to deal with while she's selling her house, and second, because they're not a big deal, and are a plus to many people. We were just thinking about starting a family when we bought our house, and key features included things like 3br upstairs and kid-friendly areas. Gates would not have been an impediment in any way, and everyone knows they can be removed before closing.

OP here: Yes, easy to remove all toys (large kid bedrooms and tons of storage in basement; did I mention we love our house?? sigh...). The gates would be hard to remove as they are bolted to walls (we would have that completely like new when we sell obviously). They do swing, though I could see an agent struggle to figure out how to open them (we'd leave good instructions). They are only on the stairs. We have others elsewhere but those would all be removed. The gates were not cheap.

Can you leave the mounts for the gates, but remove the gates themselves? Agree that toys need to be removed or tucked away into baskets, storage ottomans, etc.

When I bought my condo, the sellers left all the babyproofing on the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen, although, of course, that wasn't visible. Several months into living there, my then-boyfriend finally had had enough of it and removed it all. Ha!

Anonymous wrote:The kitchen in the living room to a buyer says - the house is not big enough.

We all know what it says in real life is - I can sit in the same room as my child is playing.

Also wrt the gates - you need to get rid of them. You do not want people breaking them / tripping as they step over them.

Agree about the toys, but I think the gates (are they just on the stairs? The swinging kind that you don't have to step over?) can stay. First, because OP doesn't need a catastrophe to deal with while she's selling her house, and second, because they're not a big deal, and are a plus to many people. We were just thinking about starting a family when we bought our house, and key features included things like 3br upstairs and kid-friendly areas. Gates would not have been an impediment in any way, and everyone knows they can be removed before closing.

The kitchen in the living room to a buyer says - the house is not big enough.

We all know what it says in real life is - I can sit in the same room as my child is playing.

Also wrt the gates - you need to get rid of them. You do not want people breaking them / tripping as they step over them.

Clear out the toys, but leave the gates. My sister just bought a house and one of the big selling points was that it was already baby-proofed. They put it in the contract that the baby gates would stay with the house and the seller actually picked them over a higher big since they didn't have to remove the gates.

I think it all needs to go. You're selling a "dream life" not real life. In dream life, kids have 1-2 toys in their rooms, preferably something like Lincoln logs.

How do you think people would tour your house with baby gates everywhere? You want them to focus on your pretty stairs, not the gates.

We are about to list our home and I'm wondering how much toys and baby gates will affect people's perceptions. Our house looks great. It's in top shape and we love it. We wouldn't even be moving except I have a child with special needs that needs a school that has too long of a commute for us. Because we weren't planning on moving at first, we recently spent 1k in baby proofing services... So we have very secure gates on all stairs that can't just be removed and replaced for pictures. We also have a lot of toys in main living spaces. I want to clear out most, but do we need to clear out all? Like the small toy kitchen in the living room, etc...? This felt so much easier before kids! Anyhow, just wondering what others think.