Decluttering your home for sale Part 1
The Reason is Here
If you have ever sold a home, you know that there is usually a lot to do before you list your house, and a lot of it involves decluttering. The less clutter your home for sale has, the more spacious and ultimately appealing it will be to prospective buyers.
My very good friend and Real Estate Agent Rebecca Paterson with Royal LePage Prime in Winnipeg (Rebeccapaterson@royallepage.ca) has graciously agreed to give me a few tips on decluttering your home for sale.
“Staging to sell your house or staging to breathe new life into rooms and spaces in a home you are living in and need/want to re-envision, is simply rearranging and editing what you already have. The simplest list to make is, “what stays in the room” instead of a list about “what leaves the room”. Typically people are trying to envision less clutter, so the list for what stays is shorter and clearer. If you are selling, a buyer for your home is consciously or subconsciously attracted to light and space. Space is directly linked to floor space. So the least number of pieces of furniture or things on the floor the better.”
Bravo Rebecca! This makes total sense to me - think of decluttering your home for sale as focussing on getting rid of extra things that make the room look full and cluttered. Building on this great advice from Rebecca, lets dive into some of the key decluttering notes for your home when you are listing it.
#1 - Declutter all of your closets
Be ruthless! This doesn’t mean throwing out everything, but get rid of stuff you no longer need whether it be clothes, shoes, outerwear, etc. Also, once you have done that, you may even want to remove even more items and store them elsewhere (basement box is an example) so that your closets appear as spacious as possible. You can do the same with food pantries, and mudrooms. This is not to say that prospective buyers and going to go through all of your closets and drawers, but it will ensure that anything that is looked at is a cleaned out as possible.
#2 - Declutter your books and photos
Another important activity is to declutter your books and take out and get rid of any that you no longer need for give away. You may also want to take this one step further and store some of the remainder so that bookshelves and other spaces do not appear cluttered and jammed.
You can also apply this same task to framed photographs that you may have out and on display. As much as we value these pictures of loved ones, when selling a home we want the buyers to imagine their own families and loved ones in the space, so removing ours can help them create these images while touring your home.
#3 - Declutter furniture (if you can)
One of the things to remember when you are decluttering your home for sale is less is more. If you are able to go room to room in your home and get rid of extraneous furniture that may be taking up space, this is a great idea. The less furniture in a room, the more spacious it will appear and also, this will allow buyers to imagine their own furniture and objects in the room a bit better.
#4 - Declutter counter tops and shelves
The concept behind this one is clear - the less visible clutter in your home for sale the better. Clean off kitchen counters, bar tops, shelves, basically any exposed counter spaces should be as clutter free as possible. Nobody needs to see your basket full of knickknacks or collection of mismatched pens: put them all away.
Feel free to add to this list; it is not exhaustive to say the least, and good luck selling! Also, don’t be afraid to bring in a fresh set of eyes like a friend or colleague to give you feedback - we all get used to our surroundings and sometimes a fresh perspective is key!