Getting your home ready to sell is not an easy task that you can tackle in a few days. Most homeowners have a lot to clean, go through, and get rid of.
The idea of going through your entire house and cleaning and decluttering it from top to bottom is exhausting. Just talking about it is exhausting.
Most people struggle and become overwhelmed because they just don’t know where to start. But that’s okay.
We want to help show you how to deep clean and declutter your home to sell without all of the stress and without all of the mess.
Clean and Declutter: The Process Step-by-Step
So where do you start?
There is just so much to do when selling your home. But cleaning and decluttering the place is one of the biggest things that you can do to help your house sell faster and for more money.
Cleaning up the clutter is a big deal for buyers. They want to see the home as a place they will have plenty of space and can truly make their own. It is kind of hard for them to do that if the house is packed up with a bunch of things, clutter, and sentimental items that aren’t their own.
Making the entire home feel light, clean, and relaxed is what will make potential buyers feel more drawn to the property. After cleaning up the place, you can also look into staging the property to help it sell faster.
But for now, let’s focus on getting the house ready using this step-by-step process. First, you need to go room by room.
Go Room by Room
The room-by-room method is a great way to help keep your home intact while cleaning and decluttering.
Sectioning off your house into rooms is one method that has been proven to work. When you look at the problem in sections and work on one room at a time, it is less overwhelming and less disruptive.
So simply choose which room you want to tackle first.
It can be easier to start out on rooms that you don’t use as often. For example, start with a bedroom or a storage room. The living areas are going to be more difficult to organize because they are communal and more people will be using them more often.
And remember, you might need to temporarily rent out a storage unit. A storage unit will come in very handy while you are clearing out your clutter. So those items that you aren’t sure you want to keep or things you know you want to keep won’t be in the way taking up space.
Declutter
Now comes the hard part. This is where a storage unit will become a huge lifesaver.
You need to declutter your house. And that honestly means a few different things.
Focusing on getting rid of the mess, the clutter, and the items that you no longer need is going to be important. But that is easier said than done.
One way of getting rid of clutter is by establishing 3 different piles. What you want to keep in the house, what you want to keep in storage, and what you want to get rid of (either by donation or throwing away).
Personal
Just start going through things and remember to ask yourself, is this personal? Any and all personal items should be put away in storage. That means family pictures, memorabilia, artwork the kids did growing up, and anything of that nature.
You want potential buyers to picture themselves living in the space. And that is hard for anyone to picture when all you see is someone else’s memories and loved ones. Not to mention you don’t want anything getting broken or taken during an open house.
So anything personal or of great sentimental value should be put away for safekeeping.
Junk
When it comes to cleaning out everything else you need to ask yourself, is this important? Or is this junk? A good rule of thumb is to ask the question, “When was the last time I used this?”
If you aren’t using it very often then you need to seriously consider if it is something you need or want to keep at all. Then, once you decide to either keep or get rid of it you can move on.
To be honest, you’d be surprised how many things get piled up in the closet or in your storage area that you really don’t need.
Deep Clean
Once the mess and the clutter is gone, you will have the room you need to clean the house properly. Whenever you want to deep clean and declutter your home to sell you must remember that everything is going to be looked at.
The floors, the walls, the trim, the ceilings, the lights, the grout between the tiles, the soap scum in the bathtub, the dust on the ceiling fans, the dirt in the windows. When we say everything we mean everything.
Buyers aren’t looking for a house that they will need to clean themselves before they move in. And if the house is messy or dirty the buyers won’t want to pay more for the home.
Take a look at our in-depth home cleaning guide that will help you properly prepare your home to sell.
