How to Properly Say Goodbye to Your Family Home

Your family home is a special space where you created loving memories, laughed and cried. It’s a place where you had many happy firsts and sad lasts. You know every scuff mark and creaking floorboard, what aromas filled the house during the holidays and how rain sounded on the roof. 

Your house is your history and your living scrapbook, and grieving the loss of a family home when you leave it is essential to moving on. Consider these steps on how to say goodbye to your home so you can embrace the next chapter. 

Saying Goodbye to a Home Full of Memories in the Greater Kansas City Area

It’s natural to have many emotions when selling the family home. Here are six ways to honor it and ensure that you celebrate its legacy. 

1. Visit One Last Time

Your family home may no longer be your primary residence. Still, it is important to visit one last time. Be prepared that it may already be different than you remember. It may have been painted, filled with packed boxes or left standing empty.

Take the time to walk through the house. Sit in your favorite spot to reminisce and grieve.

2. Take Photos and Videos

Photos and videos last long after your home is sold and may bring comfort in the future. Do a video walkthrough with commentary as you enter each room. 

Take photographs of the different rooms and the small details that made your house a home. 

3. Share Your Favorite Memories With Loved Ones

Closing the chapter on your family home can be heartbreaking, especially if you associate it with a family member who is no longer alive. Sharing your favorite memories to grieve and honor your home can help you work through those emotions before selling the property. 

Mention your fondest and funniest memories and what tugs at your heartstrings now that it’s time to say goodbye.  

4. Take a Keepsake

Taking a souvenir with you lets you keep a little piece of the home you loved. Get a plant from the garden and take it with you, or keep a key that you can place in a frame, a book, a special drawer or even on a chain.

For a simple memento, you might snip a piece of an old carpet or pick up a pebble from the walkway. 

5. Have a Memorial Ceremony

Housewarming parties are a great way to celebrate a new space. The same idea can work for saying goodbye to a house full of memories. Have one last picnic, barbecue or meal in your family home to bless it and ceremonially bid it farewell.

6. Create Something to Honor Your Home

Write a poem, social media post or letter honoring your home and acknowledging the end of its role in your life. If you can, paint a picture or create a scrapbook that houses your keepsakes and photos taken there.

Trust Cates Auction to Sell Your Family Home

For more than 80 years, Cates Auction & Realty Company has helped people say goodbye to their family homes in Kansas City and the surrounding areas. When selling your house, Cates Auction & Realty Company is here to make the process simple, so we work with expert brokers, agents and auctioneers. We understand that saying goodbye to a house may be difficult, so you get to set the terms and auction date for your home to give yourself time to grieve.

Contact us today to learn more about selling your residence through the auction process.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

DOWNLOAD OUR APP:

FOLLOW US: