Want to know more about using home decluttering and organsing as a home staging tool? If you’re planning to move house, there are two reasons why it’s useful to declutter and organise your existing home now:
- Home staging, the process of preparing and presenting your home in the best possible way to attract buyers, can make buyers perceive the property with a higher value than other properties on the market. It can also make a property look more attractive or more spacious, and as a result you might be able to sell faster and/or receive more money from selling. Home decluttering and organising is an important part of home staging and can really pay off.
- What you get rid of now, you won’t need to pack and unpack when you’re moving house. Great time saver! And possibly even money saver, if it means fewer trips between your current and new house, or trips in a smaller van/lorry. When you organise your belongings now, you can be very methodical about packing up your stuff, making unpacking and organising your new home much easier.
In this blog I’ll share my top decluttering and organisation tips as part of home staging.
Do you need to buy more storage?
Be mindful of not simply purchasing extra storage solutions to put all your belongings in. Yes, your clutter will be out of sight, and it will make the room look neater almost instantly. However, all this extra storage can also make the room less spacious, because:
1) You will need to put all of this storage somewhere and this will take up (floor) space.
2) Potential buyers might open up your cupboards, or other storage that you’ve bought, and if these are filled to the brim with stuff – perhaps it’s even difficult to close the door – then your home might still give off a cluttered vibe.
No time to declutter everything pre house move?
If you have no time to declutter and organise everything in your home, then at least tackle all those flat surfaces in your home that have attracted clutter. The work surfaces in the kitchen, and the tops of your chest of drawers, side tables, coffee table, microwave and fridge.
Empty these surfaces and put everything back to where it belongs. If you don’t have a space yet to store these items, create a space somewhere.
How to avoid these flat surface areas getting cluttered again? Try to always tidy away your items where they belong immediately after use. Or, if that’s difficult (I understand – we’re all busy, tired, lazy sometimes!), put a holding tray or bowl on a flat surface so that you can put items in there temporarily. It will look a lot tidier than just putting items loose on a flat surface. When the holding tray gets full, it won’t take long to put all items in their actual storage space.
Aim for homely but not too personal
When I help people to declutter and organise their homes without them having plans to move out, the focus is on maximising their home for them. Making it their happy place.
When you’re decluttering and organising to prepare for sales/viewings, the focus is quite different. You will need to think about the prospect buyers. What does your home need to look and feel like, so that a potential buyer is more likely to buy, and at a great price?
When you’re decluttering and organising your home for yourself, you want it to end up homely and very personal. When you’re decluttering and organising your home to prepare for sales/viewings, you want it to end up homely but not too personal.
Here are some examples of what you can do if you want to go for homely, but not too personal:
- Art on the walls, or displayed in picture frames, instead of photos of your family
- Some nice plants and candles instead of holiday souvenirs
- Displaying your books by colour can make it more of a pretty feature rather than your collection of books. It can make the difference between a cluttered bookshelf and an attractive display.
Do you start to feel ready to use home decluttering and organising as a home staging tool?
Other home staging “hacks”
A few other things to consider when staging a home, besides decluttering and organising, which don’t cost the earth:
- Clean and clean some more
- Fix anything that’s broken (leaking taps, holes in walls, etcetera)
- Apply a fresh lick of paint
- Banish bad odours and let in fresh air
- Use blankets and cushions to cover up worn out furniture
- Use clean and coordinated bed linen and towels
- Add some plants and flowers
- Hide cables and extension leads
- Where possible, give each room one purpose. Let the living room only be the living room instead of it being the living room slash games room slash office
- Improve your home’s kerb appeal and don’t forget about the garden at the back of the house
- Renovating your kitchen and bathroom could also be part of the home staging process. This will obviously cost a bit more
Need help with home staging in south east London?
I’d be delighted to help you prepare your home for home staging. Or, if you don’t need help with home staging, I can help you to declutter and organise to make packing and unpacking easier.
Do you live in Lewisham, Greenwich, Blackheath, East Dulwich or surrounding areas and are you planning to move house? You can work with me from a half day up to however long you’d like my help.
When you go to my services, you’ll find out more about my single sessions and packages. From 4 hours to 60+ hours, there’s bound to be a service just right for you. Interested in finding out more? Just book in a free consultation with me, and we’ll have a talk about your decluttering and organising needs.
