6 Key Steps to Decluttering Your House for a Sale
When you move into a new space, you make it yours. You choose new furniture, hang up pictures, and fill it with the things that make you happy. While this might make a house feel more like a home, it’s not so great when you’re looking to make a quick sale. In fact, the things that you cherish might make it much harder to sell your home. Fortunately, you can remedy the situation by decluttering your home. Below are just a few tips you can follow when you’re trying to clean up in order to get your home ready for a sale.
1- Make Goals
Every good plan should start with an end-point. What is your goal when you declutter? Are you trying to make your rooms look more neutral? Are you attempting to clean things up? Is your goal just to follow the rules of staging a home and get rid of everything that makes your home look a little too cluttered? No matter what your goal, it’s important – so know what it is before you get started. This will also help you to keep the end in sight as you go through the often laborious process of decluttering your home.
2- One Room at a Time
One of the best ways to prepare for decluttering is to divide up your space. If you can go room by room you’ll have a better chance to note problem areas and make plans for each part. This is also the best way to stop yourself from becoming overwhelmed by the whole process. If you’re able to break the process down into easily-tackled chunks, you’ll find it easier to tackle each bit. Don’t overestimate the benefits that come from feeling a bit of accomplishment every time you clear out a new room.
3- Be Brutal
Don’t get sentimental when it comes time to declutter. It doesn’t matter how much you loved an item or the personal tale of why a particular piece of furniture is in a certain place – it all needs to go. Remove emotion from the equation as best you can, especially when you’re trying to cut down the number of items in a busy space. The less emotion you let become part of the process, the better the decisions you will make and the more that you will be able to move.
4- Remove Everything Personal
While you’ve almost certainly spent time making your house feel like a home, moving means that it’s time for you to move out all of your personal items. While you might find the items tasteful and full of personality, there’s no guarantee that your potential buyers will feel the same way. Having too much of the previous owner’s personality attached to a home can make it difficult for prospective buyers to see themselves in that space. As such, it’s time to move out anything that feels like it’s got too much of a connection to your life.
5- Think About Value
It’s also a good idea to keep the value of what you’re removing in mind. Throw away trash, of course, but be prepared to sell the items that might fetch you a bit of money. If you don’t need them in your new home, they can actually go towards the cost of helping you stage the property that is for sale. Keep an eye on what’s got value so you can make better decisions about where it should go next.
6- Have Storage Ready
Finally, make sure that you already know where the items you will keep are going to end up. It’s a good idea to go ahead and rent out a storage unit or find space in a garage before you evening start the process of decluttering. This will not only give you a better idea of how much you can keep, but it should motivate you to get items out of your home and into the new space. While you don’t need to keep everything, having storage ready will reduce the stress of figuring out where things will go next.
Try not to get overwhelmed by the decluttering process. Make a plan, get some storage, and start going through what’s in your home with an eye on removal. With a great deal of hard work and a little sacrifice, you can make your home into the blank slate upon which a potential buyer can project his or her own tastes.
