How to declutter your home to sell

Written by Team SM

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September 24, 2023

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In your journey to selling your property for the highest price possible, decluttering is the most economically transformative move. The art of presenting your home in its best light starts with removing excess furniture and personal artefacts. This allows potential buyers to envision themselves in the space.

Navigating decluttering a home for sale comes with its challenges. The key is to strike a balance for an inviting ambiance while avoiding that sterile feel. Detaching emotionally from your home is tough, especially if you’ve spent years living there and cherishing every corner.

❌ Clutter means little storage space
❌ No space devalues the property price
❌ Too much stuff means too much to pack
❌ It’s cheaper to clean and declutter than it is to renovate

Your handy declutter-your-home-to-sell checklist
🌟Cull callously
🌟Showcase living and dining
🌟Clear the way in high traffic areas
🌟Beautify bedrooms
🌟Bare-ify bathrooms
🌟Maximise storage

Remember: You are not selling your home. You are selling your house.

Our handy tips to declutter your home to sell

✅ Depersonalise. Declutter. Pack.

Preparing your home for sale is a crucial aspect of the selling process. Potential buyers need to picture their lives in the space and decluttering plays a vital role with this.

Decluttering means depersonalising the space. When your personal items dominate every room, it’s a challenge for buyers to imagine their own lives there. Pack up trinkets and family photos that don’t serve any design purpose. Through art, decor and a minimal approach to showcasing your property, you can easily strike a balance between depersonalisation while maintaining a warm, inviting ambiance

Decluttering also streamlines the moving process. Pack up excess belongings and clear anything unnecessary to save time and stress during the move. It’s definitely a step towards embracing the exciting new chapter ahead.

✅ Prepare to let go

Emotional attachment to our homes is natural which makes the process of packing up and moving challenging. Decluttering will help with breaking the emotional bond, gradually transitioning from seeing your property as a home to seeing it as a house – absolutely necessary for a successful sale.

While decluttering might seem overwhelming, decluttering is fundamental to fetching the best price for your home. Get help from friends or family to be decisive about what to keep, donate, or discard. Organise a garage sale – it’s a smart move to sell unwanted items and pocket extra cash for the move and new home.

✅ Begin decluttering

As soon as the thought of selling crosses your mind, start the decluttering process – or at least once you’ve found a real estate agent, and definitely before photography is scheduled for listing. Allocate a day or two to tackle each room based on its size, working backward from your set deadline.

✅ Where to declutter

Focus on the aesthetics and function of the kitchen and living areas first. Bedrooms and bathrooms are also significant attractions for potential buyers so pack them down and get them bare and presentable.

If a spare bedroom has been repurposed, restore it to being the spare bedroom. Space matters in real estate. And the more functional space available, the higher the price tag.

Remove items altering the use of the space and store them. If the room is empty, stage it to give it purpose.

Once these spaces are decluttered, move on to the communal areas, neutralising vibrant feature walls while removing personal touches to appeal to the broader buyer market.

✅ Find storage solutions

Expect numerous boxes of belongings during the decluttering process. Rent storage space or ask a friend or family member to temporarily store these boxes until the property is sold.