One of the more daunting tasks of selling your home can be decluttering it. We hear here time and time again – “where are all my things going to go?” “Half this stuff may not fit in my next home” “I’m overwhelmed with this process.” That’s why I’ve curated this list of a few simple ways you can start to declutter your home in preparation to sell – and let’s face it, even if you’re not preparing your home for sale, we could all use a little help getting rid of the extra things we have lying around we don’t need.
Getting Started –
Start with the things that have been on your mind for a while. You’ve been thinking about getting rid of these items, but instead they’ve been sitting in a corner or in the back of the closet collecting dust, because just maybe one day it’ll l come in handy. But we really know, “it’s gotta go!”
One Room at a Time –
Go room to room to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed with how much you may truly need to go through. One room, and one space at a time helps break up the task and makes you feel more accomplished once you complete a section. Sometimes we don’t have all day (most days we don’t) to go through our entire house on a cleaning spree, breaking up the time to accomplish something each day will keep you on a helpful pace.
How Often is it Used?
If you have something that’s been sitting around a while, like grandma’s cookie cutters, you may have used a half dozen times in the past five years, is it really worth keeping? Some items we have hold sentimental value, and we want to keep those, and that’s fine! Other things may have been gifts forgotten, that although you wish you would’ve used more, you just haven’t, so it may be time to let them go.
Move it Once!
A motto we like to share with our sellers is – “move it once.” What do we mean by this, and why? If you’re moving you have so many other things on your mind, and the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time packing up all these things you don’t really want, then lugging them to your new home to then sit in boxes, never to be unpacked, not used, and Then.. eventually gotten rid of. If you don’t need it, don’t move it with you. *Pro tip – even if you have movers helping you, the less you have for them to pack and transfer for you, the less it will cost as well.
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The next time you’re feeling overwhelmed about decluttering your home, preparing to sell, downsizing, or just in general cleaning, use these tips and let us know if they’ve made an impact for you!