A place for everything and everything in its place—that’s what prospective buyers want to see in your house. Plus, a fresh, clean home will better showcase your house’s unique personality and give buyers a good view of what you have to offer. To help keep things tidy and ready for visitors, try our tips to stay on top of the clutter and keep your home sparkling clean.
Ditch the Coat Rack
As handy as coat racks are in your home’s entry or hallway, they may be sending the message to potential buyers that you don’t have a coat closet or adequate storage. Put coat racks away while you’re giving a home tour (and clean out your coat closet while you’re at it, too).
Manage Magazines and Paper Piles
Having a few magazines around can make a home look inviting and lived-in. But, having a few years’ worth might make you look like an eccentric pack rat—people will wonder what else you’ve been hoarding! Have a few inoffensive magazines (home and garden publications are good; they make you look like you care) on your coffee table or in a nice magazine rack, and box or recycle the rest of them.
Edit Bookcases
As lovely as bookcases are—especially if they’re architecturally attractive and built-in—they’re a turnoff if they’re too stuffed with books or a catch-all for clutter. Edit your bookshelves so that they feel just a little bit empty. Stack books in interesting patterns and accessorize lightly.
Enlist Storage Baskets
The humble basket is a space-saving miracle worker when you’re trying to hide clutter. Everything from your multiple remote controls to out-of-season table linens can be stored in one kind of basket or another. For sneaky storage that’s also attractive, stack baskets or vintage suitcases under a coffee table or in an unused fireplace. Put a covered basket or decorative box on the foyer table to hold incoming and outgoing mail, or in the bathroom to hide extra toiletries.
Clear the Kitchen Counters
When it comes to showing off your home’s kitchen, a little bare is best. Too many small appliances on the counter signals you don’t have enough room in your cupboards. Speaking of cabinets, make sure yours are up to snuff, with pull-out shelves, silverware organizers, and Lazy Susans.
File It Away
Don’t know what to do with newspapers, office files, or out-of-season clothes? Slide some slim boxes under your bed for your sweaters so your closet feels more airy. File tax records and other personal files into decorative cardboard boxes on the shelves in your office. Store bathroom towels in an over-the-commode shelving unit. Put newspapers in a recycling bin in the garage (prospective buyers will like that you’re “green”).
Corral Landing Zones
All that stuff that you usually find plopped down right inside your back door—everything from shopping bags to hockey sticks to shoes to umbrellas to gardening gloves to backpacks? It all has to be corralled and stored so potential buyers don’t get frightened. If you see a trouble spot, fix it with a built-in storage bench with a cushion, or a row of pegs. In fact, if you deal with all that stuff the right way, buyers will go away thinking your house has built-in clutter control. Have just enough of your day-to-day stuff organized on mudroom pegs and shelves to show that real people live there—and hide the rest away.
Downsize Collections
Your 10,000 earrings, Janie’s stuffed-animal menagerie, that wine cork collection? Best to put them safely out of sight. It’s OK to display a small selection of fine china or figurines in a glass-front cupboard or on a bookshelf, but you don’t want the buyer to not be able to see the fine bones of the house or imagine her collections there because of the overwhelming presence of all your stuff.
Organize the Bedroom Closet
If you haven’t put in closet organizers, now is the time! You can purchase or build your own system that will use your space more efficiently and make even the smallest closet look larger. There is nothing like opening a closet door and seeing shoes stacked in plastic boxes or on a shoe rack, belts hung together, and clothes all lined up neatly. To make the closet look even bigger, store half of what you own and hang the rest on new matching hangers.
Medicine-Cabinet Makeover
This is one of the few times in your life when strangers will think it’s OK to look in your medicine cabinet! Clean it out, and paint the interior with a fresh coat of white paint (there’s nothing worse than a rusty old medicine cabinet; replace it if it can’t be brought up to snuff). Keep only benign objects in the cabinet (perhaps first-aid or tooth-cleaning items) and put all of the embarrassing stuff—prescriptions, birth-control pills, ointments—away in a safe, private spot.
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens. Used with permission. ©Meredith Corporation. http://www.meredith.com. All rights reserved.