Selling? How to say goodbye to your home

Moving out of a beloved home — even if you’re moving to a beautiful new place — can be a roller coaster ride of emotions. You will no doubt be leaving friends and precious memories behind. To cope with this transition, here are some quick tips to help you stay positive.

Preserve your memories. Whether you’ve lived in your home for 10 months or 10 years, you’ve had some memorable moments that were surely captured in photos. Taking a little time to preserve those memories either on your smart phone or in a digital scrapbook will be the perfect project to complete before your departure. Snapping digital photos of special places inside and outside the home before you leave will also help keep those memories fresh in your mind.

Bid each room farewell. This may sound corny, but many home sellers, especially those with young children, have had success with this simple practice. They walk through each room, verbalizing a special memory, then saying goodbye to the room itself. This provides a moment of closure if there is emotion attached to certain rooms, like a baby nursery or family room.

Take some keepsakes with you. You will certainly be leaving with your furniture and many personal items, but you also may want to take something that has specific meaning to that house. Many people choose to uproot a small plant or flower from the yard to transplant to a new property. Others often take light fixtures (as long as they weren’t promised to the buyers), door knockers and other ornaments that can be replaced with something generic for the new owners. It’s a comfort to see a beloved fixture getting a second life in your new home.

Connect with friends. Finally, the relationships with friends and neighbors may be the hardest to leave behind. Make time to get together to say goodbye, and make plans to stay in touch with those you want to stay connected with once you leave. In the digital age, friends and family are always just a smart phone call or text away, no matter how far you roam!