Tips for De-cluttering Your Home to Help it Sell
The following is a contribution from Lauren with Inzopa.com.
Look around your home and take note of how many items you have that you don’t use or need anymore. If you are going to be selling your home, your realtor is going to be taking a lot of photos to get buyers interested. When prospective buyers see a lot of clutter it tends to be a major turn off for them. Before listing your home, follow these tips for de-cluttering your home to help it sell.
Take it little by little
You can’t expect to de-clutter a single home in one weekend, especially if you have kids. Take it one room at a time. Give yourself at least a month to clear everything out. It’ll be much less stressful than having to do it all at once.
Put three boxes in a centralized location
Label one box sell, one box donate, and the other garbage. As you start to de-clutter, simply toss the items in their respective boxes. Once you have them all sorted, you can take care of them all at once rather than have to deal with multiple groups of items. You will find this to be a major time saver.
Do the 5 in a room method
Every time you walk in a room, pick up five items and decide whether you’re going to donate them, toss them, or sell them. Be harsh on yourself and really decide if it’s something you should keep or get rid of. The five in a room method is an easy way to get the job done quickly. You may even get so inspired that you move past the five and keep doing more.
Use vacuum seal bags
Do you have bedding, sweaters, and fancy dresses that you use only sparingly throughout the year, yet they’re taking up precious storage space? If so, toss them into vacuum seal bags to trim them down in size. This will create a bunch of extra storage space, and will help everything look neat and organized for when buyers arrive.
Lose the furniture
It’s not just the little things that can make a space look cluttered, it’s the furniture as well. Think about what you really need and get rid of what’s just taking up extra room. Not only will it help you de-clutter your space, but it will also earn you extra money when you sell the items.
Go through the kitchen cabinets
Many families have extra food in their kitchen cabinets and pantry that are way past their expiration date. Make sure you have it all cleaned out and organized. You may think buyers won’t go in your cabinets, but you’d be surprised how many will take a look to see how much storage space they would have.
Put it in storage
We all have certain items that we just can’t part ways with even though we know we don’t need them anymore. If you can’t seem to get rid of the furniture and knick-knacks that are cluttering up your house, then you should consider renting a storage unit. As long as it’s out of the house, buyers will be able to see a nicely organized home. Unfortunately this means a lot of extra work moving items and an extra expense to pay for storage.
Final Thoughts
Don’t think that de-cluttering means taking everything that’s visible and hiding it in the cabinets and closets, because buyers are going to open doors and drawers to look for space they can’t see. When a buyer is searching for a new home they are looking for something that they can picture themselves living in. Use de-cluttering to your advantage by giving yourself some extra room and earning extra money in the process.
Lauren is a contributing write for Inzopa.com. Inzopa is a private network of homebuyers, owners, mortgage lenders and real estate agents.