How to Declutter Before Selling Your Home

The decision to sell your home can be a process that takes months to arrive at. Typically, owners start to think about moving 12 - 18 months before they actually get the process underway and speaking from both personal and professional experience, I can say this is true. 

When it comes to selling your home, my advice is to always get your home looking its best before we list it. Presentation can make a big impact on how buyers perceive your home. Ultimately, the goal with preparing your home for sale is to achieve a welcoming space that allows anyone to imagine themselves living there. Let’s be honest, most of us don’t have homes that are ready to be featured in Architectural Digest. Those large piles of laundry that you’ve grown accustomed to on the floor next to the washing machine become a sort of feature in your daily life. However, when a space is overly cluttered or unorganized, it has the unwanted outcome of being overwhelming and distracting to potential buyers touring your house. We want to highlight all of the positive aspects of the home and ensure its best foot is forward.

There are some key areas of the home that have a big impact on buyers, which I will highlight below:

Kitchen and bathroom cabinets: It’s true - you can never have too much cabinet space. Organize your kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Remove the random tupperware pieces that don’t have matching pieces and throw out those expired hair products that you forgot about at the back of the drawer. This will free up a lot of space and allow the true size of the cabinets to show. If you don’t think people are peeking inside your cabinets when they walk through your home, I am here to tell you they absolutely do! Storage space is important to people.

Closets: Similarly, closet space is another factor that weighs heavily on buyers. Now, we can’t all have walk-in closets the size of a main bedroom, but we can give the illusion of ample space by minimizing the items in the closet. Go through your clothes and create a donation pile of items that you haven’t worn since Club Monaco sweatshirts were all the rage. Box up off-season items and tuck them into the basement, garage or storage locker (if you live in a condo). What’s left is a fraction of the items that you started with, and an inviting space that won’t scare buyers away!

Toys: Admittedly, this can be a challenge because little ones don’t fully appreciate the reasons as to why their toys should be tucked away. I find that involving them in this process will make life a lot easier and smoother. Decide which toys your child uses most often. Store big toys away as these take up a lot of space and make the home look cluttered. Consider purchasing a cube storage unit where kids can easily put their toys away in bins. This will allow for easy clean up and make the home look more open to buyers. 

Mantles and walls: These aspects of the home are generally where we display our knicknacks, personal items and family photos. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with having these items on display, keep in mind strangers will be coming through your home. I typically advise my clients to pack up sentimental and valuable items to remove any risk of them being broken or worse, stolen. Similarly, family photos make the space feel very personal - which is what we want in our home - but can be distracting to people who are considering that space for their own family. Remember, the ultimate goal is to allow people to imagine themselves in that space - less is more!

A good way to approach this process is to view it as the first step to packing, which you will need to do once your home is sold anyway! By organizing your home now, you are getting a head start on discarding unwanted items so that you don’t waste time and money packing them up and bringing them with you to your new home. 

It’s not always easy or fun, especially when you have little ones to take care of, but I promise you, the hard work you put in to organizing your home will pay off.  Melanie and I are always here to offer you guidance if you feel overwhelmed!

Melanie McConnell is a professional organizer and the owner of Mello Spaces. She helps busy professionals and parents, in the Lower Mainland, get organized. Follow her on Instagram: @mellospaces

Leah Chandler is a real estate agent with RE/MAX Colonial Pacific Realty in South Surrey. She helps both buyers and sellers with their residential and commercial real estate needs in the Southern Fraser Valley (and beyond!). Follow her on Instagram: @leahchandler.realestate