House prepared for sale
Preparing a home for sale involves more than staging furniture and depersonalizing photos on the walls. A thorough clearout of unwanted items helps create a smoother, more efficient process for all parties involved. Whether you’re preparing a home for sale after a move, inheritance or other major life change, it’s important to approach decluttering and getting rid of unnecessary belongings in a strategic, efficient manner.
Decluttering your home ahead of time allows you (and your cleaning or restoration team, if applicable) to easily address any repair or other issues, take photos and show the home to prospective buyers. It also makes it easier to leave only the items behind that you want to, so the transition of the home to its new owners goes off without a hitch.
Clear High-Impact Areas Before Sorting Categories
When decluttering your home to sell, focus on removing as much clutter as possible to highlight the features of the space, from natural light to built-in shelves or cabinetry. Clutter can make a space feel smaller than it is and hides storage space from buyers. Start by decluttering common problem areas, including:
- Living areas, hallways and entryways
- The kitchen, including counters, cabinets and the pantry
- Linen closets and bathrooms
- Bedrooms, especially closets
- Sheds, the garage, basement and/or attic
You don’t necessarily need to remove every piece of furniture when preparing your home for sale, but large, unnecessary, unused, outdated or damaged pieces of furniture can make the home feel smaller and hinder foot traffic. Removing large items early in the decluttering process can also help you better assess what cleaning or repairs may be needed.
Sort Belongings by Category
It can be tempting to declutter a home room by room, but this can actually slow down the decluttering process. It may be more efficient to tackle decluttering by category, instead, deciding for each item if you want to:
- Keep it
- Sell it
- Donate it
- Recycle it
- Toss it
- Set it aside for other family members to go through and choose items from
This can be especially helpful if you’re clearing out an inherited home or dealing with other emotionally-charged items, as it can be helpful to separate the process of deciding what to do with everyday items from sorting through more personal or sentimental items.
If other family members are choosing items from the house but don’t live close by, have them name the items they want within a certain window of time, say, 14 days, and note what items will and won’t be claimed. This helps prevent the selling process from getting bogged down with items that ultimately won’t be salvaged.
Protect Records and Identify Valuables
Before emptying out boxes, storage bins, closets, desks, file cabinets and the like, be sure to go through them to look for important documents that you may need to shred or keep (keep fortune.com/recommends/investing/how-long-to-keep-financial-documents open if you’re going to need the details), such as those relating to:
- Finances and investments
- Legal matters
- Medical information
- Insurance
- Taxes
- Deeds and other documents pertaining to the home
Don’t simply toss important personal documents, shred them or dispose of them responsibly.
You may also want to set aside items that could potentially be of value to take the time to determine next steps for before tossing, recycling, donating or selling other belongings. These can include:
- High-end or unopened household items
- Special or one-of-a-kind pieces for the home
- Décor or furniture that may be of interest to collectors or considered vintage
- Art
- Outdoor equipment and tools
- Collectibles, coins and/or jewelry
Match Professional Support to the Scope
Depending on the square footage of the home, number of floors, amount of accumulated items and/or presence of large or awkward pieces of furniture, clearing out a house can be a daunting project on its own. Add in tricky logistics, competing interests among family members or a tight timeline and it can quickly become overwhelming.
Household items organized for a cleanout
Professional house cleanout services can help by managing the entire process, from determining what items to sell, donate or get rid of to hauling items away, taking care of final cleanup and more. If you hire professional estate cleanout companies in Chicago for selling a house, be sure to get a sense of what’s included, how different items will be handled and if they can work with your realtor’s timeline.
Complete a Final Walk-Through
When preparing a home to sell, you want it to look open, clean and welcoming, not necessarily like a showroom. Once you’ve gotten rid of items you no longer want, take another walk-through to make sure you didn’t leave anything behind and identify any potential repair needs that may have been masked by clutter. Check closets, cabinets, the garage, sheds, attic, basement and other areas where items could easily be forgotten. Jot down a final list of items that should be in the home, as well as a to-do list of any last-minute repairs, cleanups or other projects to be accomplished before showing the home or taking photos.
