Opinions about showing a house and play areas/ toys

So our house has been on the market since the spring. When we started the process we really DECLUTTERED our living room. We left a few small toys for DD to play with out and the rest we put in the basement playroom (which we hardly use bc dd is stil young so isnt able to go downstairs alone.
And I spend more of my day on the main level.

Is it THAT bad if we make her play area upstairs on the main level again. We used to have a small play area for her in the front of my house in the living room (I have a huge living room) So her play area was where the porch used to be (its one big room now if that makes sense to anyone).

Its not like I would have toys all over my house for a showing, We are always nuts and make sure everything is in meticulous order prior to any showing, but I would have her toys shleves, toy chest, her kitchen and some other toyus out in the "play area".

Would this turn you off as a potential buyer?
I was all for nothing out, but let's face it we do have to live and poor DD is 2!And this selling a home thing is taking a long time!

Message edited 11/3/2011 2:39:01 PM.

Re: Opinions about showing a house and play areas/ toys

Honestly, i would keep one or two little toys out that can easily be hidden. I would put the rest downstairs. I hated seeing other peoples stuff when we looked. I do realize you have to live there, but clutter of any kind is a huge turnoff. I know you are supposed to look past the stuff and all that, but sometimes you just cant.

Re: Opinions about showing a house and play areas/ toys

I think if the area where you have the toys is the only common living area on the main floor, then I would NOT keep the toys there. I would try to put them in your child's bedroom or the basement playroom. You can bring them up as needed, if you prefer your daughter to play in the living room, but then put them back in another area when she'd done playing (or at least before a showing).

Here's my reasoning: Your rooms should be staged to appeal to the broadest number of buyers. If you have one living room, then most buyers would want to use that as a more formal, or at least "adult" space, for entertaining and so forth. So it should be set up in a way that makes those buyers envision the living room as such a space.

If you have a den and a living room on the main level, then I think it's fine to have the den be more of a playroom area, as long as it's neat. But if the living room is inundated with toys, people may assume there's not enough space in the house to have both a living room and a playroom. And that's not the case, because you have a finished basement. In fact, keeping the playroom downstairs would also help to emphasize the utility of the finished basement as a casual hangout/playroom space, which not every house has!

I have seen homes where formal dining rooms were set up as play rooms, because the current owners didn't use a formal dining room. But again, most buyers want a dining room and would want to see it set up as such. Buyers aren't good at using their imaginations! Those homes with dining rooms as play rooms were harder sells.

In the age of HGTV, people expect magazine-ready, staged homes, and will buy those homes more quickly (and pay more for them).

I know it seems like a small thing, and it would be more convenient for you to have toys on the main floor, but I would not make the living room a play space, honestly. In this market, where there's a lot of competition, every little thing counts.