You’re probably here because you are putting your home on the market, but the idea of decluttering to prep it up for selling is making you feel overwhelmed. Your home looks all messed up and you don’t know where to start decluttering it. There is no space to move around and all your extra stuff is overflowing from the cabinets & drawers. You’re probably wondering if anyone would actually be willing to buy your home.
Your home might have everything that makes it buyable – a spacious garage, exquisitely beautiful kitchen countertops and aesthetically attractive wooden flooring. But all these positives would fail to be of any value if your home is packed with clutter. And even if it does get a buyer, clutter might force you to settle for an amount lesser than what your home deserves to be sold for.
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For a potential buyer to find your home liveable, you need to make your living space look like something one would love to come back to. While you may think that it’s useless to spend time in decluttering a home that you are about to leave, a nice declutter is worth more than what you imagine. Clutter can hide the space available in your home making it look smaller and insufficient to a buyer. Clutter also adds up to the negative energy that can be a huge turnoff to the buyers.
Decluttering your home can make a huge difference to how your home sells and the value it gets.
So if you’re finding yourself paralyzed by the thought of decluttering your home to sell it, look nowhere else. Below are a few things you need to do to make sure that your home looks attractive to the potential buyers and sells quickly:
1. Maximize Space By Minimizing Stuff
You need to declutter your home with a viewpoint of a buyer. Put yourself in the position of a home buyer and envision your idea of a perfect home. Now turn this vision into reality by getting rid of items that are acting as a roadblock on the way of making your home look perfect.
Clutter tends to hide the actual space available in your home thereby making it look small. You don’t want the buyer to open the closet doors only to be attacked by a pile of clothing in their face. This will probably make them think that your home doesn’t have enough closet space and they’ll most likely won’t buy your home.
Move around the furniture in your living room and bedrooms to make the dimensions of every room clearly visible. Remove excess décor because it can be distracting at times. If needed, move some of these excess items out of the house or pack them away until your house gets sold. You can also ask a close friend or a family member to keep the extra items in their garage for time being.
2. Make Every Room Look Purposeful
Make sure that you are using every room only for the purpose it was meant to serve. If there are kids’ toys and games strewn around in your living room, put them all in the toy chest. If your bedroom is also being used as a study, make it right by getting rid of the office supplies that don’t belong there. You want your buyer to believe that every corner of the house is perfectly serving its purpose.
3. Create A Lifestyle That A Buyer Will Yearn To Live
If your home exhibits an ideal lifestyle, the buyer will look nowhere else for a home. You want them to see how your home can serve to their idea of a perfect lifestyle by using the best areas to your advantage.
If there’s a walk-in wardrobe in your bedroom, make sure that it catches the attention of the buyer. Declutter or store away excess clothing and organize your wardrobe in a way that makes a buyer want to use it. Use decorative baskets for your accessories, fancy hangers for your clothes and a nice boot organizer for your boots & shoes.
If a particular corner of your house is a great sunlight spot, make it visible by moving your study table or couch or your indoor plants into that corner. Tell a buyer how it’s a great place for you to relax and work during the day. If the balcony of your home has a great view, keep the doors to it open to make it easy for the buyer to notice it. Highlight large-scale artwork, if any, by playing around a bit with the room lighting.
4. Take AFTER Pictures To Market Your Home
Make sure that you don’t put pictures of a cluttered home while marketing it. A picture is what will bring a potential buyer to take a look at your home and you don’t want to turn them off by presenting the picture of a house stuffed with unneeded objects.
As soon as you’ve decluttered your house, call in the agent and ask them to take as many pictures as possible. Use different angles and camera settings to get the best possible pictures and choose a few that make your home look sale-worthy.
5. Keep Your Home Looking Great Till It Gets Sold
Your home will likely be visited by many buyers before one of them signs an agreement to buy it. Make sure that you are decluttering it on a regular basis to avoid last minute clutter pick-ups.
Ask your spouse and kids to return everything to its rightful home after using it. Spend 15 minutes every night for clearing off the flat surfaces and eliminating visual clutter. Make your bed every morning and mop the floors on a regular basis.
I hope these decluttering tips to prepare your home for selling turn out to be useful to you. Decluttering is the best way to maximize the space in your house before putting it up for sale. Make sure that you keep it clutter-free and looking good at all times until it sells.