Declutter Before Potential Buyers Tour Your Open House!

Your open house is frequently your biggest change to make a great first impression on potential buyers. But you’d be surprised how little attention is paid to decluttering your home before the open house, and how impactful an organized home can be to your visitors.

The real goal of an open house is to let people see your home, not your stuff! Messy counters, mail stacks and clothes piles, however neatly placed to you, can be an impediment by creating the impression in buyers minds that your home is less than desirable. Your mess literally gets in the way of a possible sale, so it’s important to let people see the house, not the mess!

With a little planning, you can maximize the opportunity to make your home the most desirable for sale home in your neighborhood & even prepare you for when you home finally sells! Realtor.com provided some great tips on areas to organize in your home to ensure that your home is clutter free before your next open house:

Furniture: Pare down the pieces in your living areas so your rooms have an open flow.

Entry: Clear out any shoes, coats, umbrellas and other outdoor items from your foyer or mudroom.

Equipment: Put exercise equipment in storage or in the garage.

Bookshelves: Edit your shelves so that you have a neat, orderly space with books and perhaps a few decorative items. Don’t have overflowing, sagging shelving units weighing you down.

Periodicals: Recycle old newspapers and magazines clogging up your coffee tables and nightstands.

Photos: Take down any personal photos. Buyers need to imagine pictures of their own family on the walls, tables and shelves.

Cables and cords: Organize the cords for your televisions, computers, and other electronics so that they’re not hanging out all over the place.

Plants: Toss sickly looking plants and keep only a few healthy ones on display. If you have a lot of greenery in your home, edit your plants and put some in the backyard.

Kitchen counters: Remove everything from your kitchen countertops, keeping only essentials like a toaster and microwave. Decorate sparingly—buyers need to envision the kitchen without your stuff all over the counters. Clear magnets, coupons and children’s artwork from the refrigerator.

Cabinets and pantry: Arrange the shelves neatly with items and labels pointed in the same direction.

Bedrooms: Make sure the beds are made and the floors are clean.

Nightstands: Put away tissues, medicines and magazines and just keep lamps and maybe a book or two.

Closets: Organize your closets so they aren’t overflowing with clothes.

Bathrooms: Put all toiletries and medications in a cabinet while your house is being shown. Spruce your bathrooms up with fresh soaps and towels.

If your home is for sale, don’t wait to pare down-declutter your home now and get ahead of the game! Give us a call today & we’ll help make your home more desirable to sell & lighten that load for your move!