You want your home to look spacious, fresh and clean to the buyers. To make it more spacious, it probably needs some decluttering. There are two main reasons for decluttering before a move. The first being that if the closets and cabinets are too full, it will give the buyers the impression that the home doesn’t have enough storage space. The other great reason is that you wouldn’t want to pay for items to be packed and moved – just to donate them on the other end.
Here are tips on how to organize and prepare your home for selling:
- First, is to grab a box and packing paper and pack away all the personal photos.
- Start eating up what’s in the pantry and freezer.
- Have a bag ready to put donations in it. These are all the items that you no longer “use or love”. Do one space at a time. Be ruthless, but mostly be honest with yourself as to whether you still use it or love it. This should take a few days because you want to hit every spot in the house.
- Found a gift still in the box? It’s okay to let it go and bless someone else with it.
- Then, go through the bathrooms to edit the unused. Afterwards, you can move items from the countertop into the drawers.
- When it comes to the kids’ rooms, you can get them to help or overcome the fear of donating their things by sharing that the items will be going to kids that don’t have as much.
- Box up excess toys because you’ll need to tidy up the toys every time you leave the house – in case there’s a showing. When you unbox them at the new house, they will seem like new toys!
- The master closet is the most important one so be sure there are no clothes on the floor. Edit shoes no longer worn and purses no longer used and straighten up everything. Make it look as spacious as possible.
- Remove everything from the outside of the refrigerator and any other clutter or papers in the kitchen.
- Try to remove 95% from the countertops.
- Pack up any collections you have as these are like photos – they’re personal.
- Spend some time organizing the pantry so it looks more spacious and organized. Use bins or baskets to gather same type items (pasta, snacks, chips). This will make it look less cluttered. Try to not leave any or many items on the floor.
- Invest in a few small faux plants for around the home. Even a 6″ plant de-sterilizes the bathroom.
- Lastly, try to have only 3 items per bookshelf. Décor sparingly.
YOU DID IT! Your home is ready to put on the market! Best of luck!
