Everyone wants more room, in fact its the number one reason for buying a new house.
If you are selling your own home, you should focus your energy on clearing out as much clutter to give your home a feeling of spaciousness.
Our tips for decluttering before selling your home:
1. Use a local storage facility to move as much furniture and personal items as possible prior to sale
2. Be ruthless. Keep only the furniture that accentuates the space in your home. Remove extra bookcases, coffee tables, desks and wardrobes that obstruct flow and which may also highlight a lack of built-in storage.
3. Make your pantry Instagram-worthy. Without a doubt, a tidy pantry is everyone woman's dream, and can be a make or break decider when buying a house. Remove any items you have not used in the past year and again, make plenty of space.
4. Clear the garage. Of course, you will want to keep your tools, so store them away from the home. What you need to present to potential buyers is the idea your garage has room to space for all the tools, toys and overflow.
5. Wardrobe cull. Make three piles: keep, bin and donate and be ruthless. Any clothes that are out of season place into vacuum bags and put into storage.
6. Toys. You paid good money for all the children's toys so unless they have grown out of them or stopped playing with them you should keep them for the next home. Place as many toys as you can into large plastic containers (clearly labelled) and put into storage.
7. Linen. I love a good linen purge however this is best done after you have moved house. Use your old linen and towels for wrapping fragile items and photo frames when putting into storage or before they are picked up by the removalists.
8. Remove all personal effects from the home, this includes photographs. Make your home more about the potential buyer than about who is living there now.
Before an open home:
It is recommended before an open house or prior to house photography to clean and remove all visible personal effects from your home. Here is a quick checklist
- Take all laundry (clean and dirty) off the line, out of the laundry and bathroom and put it in your car boot.
- Empty rubbish bins in the kitchen, bathroom and study areas
- Clean toilet
- Dust all surfaces
- Clean out cat litter / remove dog poo from yard. Clean up dog/cat food bowls (or remove)
- Clean floors are a must
- Put school bags, handbags and jewellery boxes into car for the day
- Turn on all your lights
- Open window and allow your house to breathe
- Do a quick tour of your house and pick up any loose items that you may have missed
What to look for in a storage facility:
- You will require a storage facility with 24/hr access. If you are likely to start decluttering after work hours or even on the weekends you will require access at all times.
- Camera Surveillance. Your memories are precious and it is important that your storage items are safe.
- Local Facilities close to you. Choose a facility that you can quickly drop off your goods to, saving you a lot of time and hassle.
- Cleanliness. Is there mould on the walls or are the floors stained and dirty? If you are storing furniture or mattresses it is important your belongings are kept clean.
- Availability of insurance