Decluttering is one of the biggest returns on investment a homeowner can make to showcase a property. It makes the space more appealing to potential home buyers! To start the process, our team at Staged Interior suggests clients ask the questions below to see where to declutter their houses.
Hiding In Plain Sight?
At Staged Interior, we ask home sellers to go through their homes as potential home buyers would and critique everything in plain sight. Often times, home sellers have gotten so used to their surroundings that they essentially have blinders on and are not able to see anything negative in the home anymore, including clutter.
Behind Closed Doors?
Is there an overflow of items behind a closet door, cabinet, or drawer that needs to be addressed? If the overflow is keeping the storage space from closing properly, then it’s time to remove the clutter behind it! It’s important to keep items stored neatly, while also having enough room to get to them without a struggle. Our team suggests home sellers go through all closets, cabinets, and drawers before the home goes on the market. Here’s a tip: if an item has not been used in the past six months, it may be time to part ways.
Wasting Valuable Space?
Many times, clutter can hide a part of the room that’s a positive feature and should be a highlight for buyers to see. When clutter overrules the space, it looks like the clutter doesn’t have any place to be stored. That leads home buyers to believe there is not enough storage space in the home! If this is the case, start by taking one area of the home and lessen what you have stored by following the 4 strategies below.
but a home buyer will.
1- Start Small
Organizing a home is an evolving process that changes with the homeowner’s needs. Feeling overwhelmed with a decluttering project? If so, it’s important to start small by choosing just one room, one closet or one corner. The important thing is to start somewhere, but make it count. One way is to tackle the first cluttered area a home buyer would see when walking in the front door.
2- Schedule It
Tight on time? Consider scheduling blocks of time (2-4 hours) or even just 15 minutes a day depending on what needs to be done to start the decluttering process.
3- Put Everything Away
For each item in the home that will be needed while on the market, create a place for it. Remember to group like items together, as well as store items that correlate with one another together. Of course, the trick to keeping the space in order is to make sure every item is returned back to its “home” after use.
4- Adopt Good Habits
By always returning an item to its “home”, a home seller is building good habits. These good habits can be implemented in the new home and avoid clutter there too! Another good habit to adopt is to take 5-10 minutes every night and put all out of place items away. That way, the property is ready to show off the next day.
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