Are you thinking the time might be right to list your home? Decluttering, depersonalizing, and organizing are key ways to prepare your home for selling!
Not only will the steps outlined below make a better first impression and help your home look and feel more presentable to potential buyers, it might just lead to higher offers, too! Decluttering your home includes removing personal items like family photos or old keepsakes from daily living spaces. It may feel odd if you’re still currently living there, but trust us, it helps potential buyers picture their own items in your home more easily as they walk through it.
Did you know that…
Not bad for a few hours of work!
Organizing your space may even help you enjoy your time in your home more, too. Since messiness is the main cause of cleaning-related arguments in most households, organizing can help you avoid disagreements with others in your home during what can already be a stressful time (American Cleaning Institute October 2021). Even if you live alone, getting to live in and enjoy a clean, organized space will help you appreciate your remaining time in your current home that much more before you move. Wins all around in our book!
Ready to get started?
Go room by room and sort things into the six categories below to declutter and organize your home to prepare it to sell:
- Leave As-Is: If you love an item and it won’t distract or deter potential buyers who may tour your home, don’t overthink it! Leave it and move on to the next item.
- Donate/Gift: If your use or love for an item has decreased over time, that means it’s probably time to pass it along to someone else or donate it. What you don’t use anymore might be exactly what someone else needs!
Trash/Recycle: If you find something that is broken, stained, or has been so heavily used that its quality has deteriorated, donation centers may not take it. So, trash may be the option here. But please try to recycle items when you can (i.e. if it’s a paper product)! - Memory Box: Create a keepsake box for your warm fuzzies. Do you have items you don’t use regularly (or at all) but can’t bring yourself to get rid of due to sentimental value? While these momentos bring you joy, they don’t necessarily need to be on display for your visitors or future buyers. We suggest packing them all away in a container to keep them safe and close by, but out of sight.
- Storage: You may find an item here or there that holds value (monetary or sentimental) to you but isn’t necessarily enhancing its current space. In this case, we recommend clearly labeling and packing the item (if applicable) and placing it in storage so you can reassess where it should live in your future home.
Now that you know how to categorize your items, it’s time to get out those markers, Nesty labels, tape, and boxes, and get started. You’ve got this!
Once you have everything sorted, it’s time to visit your local recycling center, post on Facebook, or drop off your items at your storage facility. Then you’ll be one step ahead when it comes time to put your home on the market.
For more home organization tips, check out our blogs on spring cleaning: A step by step guide to organizing your home, and our exclusive 30-day clean up calendar.