DavinStrand's blog

When You think about getting a home ready to sell, where do you start?

Looks mean a lot, and one way to make a home market ready is to highlight its best features. You can make a good start be decluttering every room, kitchen to closet, and basement to attic. While you don't want to make a home look empty, you do want to make it look spacious, so removing possessions such as knickknacks and perhaps a few pieces of furniture will open up the space. Many people forget what their house looked like back when they first moved in, and before they began to furnish and decorate it.

To declutter a kitchen for example, the counters must be completely cleared, with extra items stored in cupboards. If this creates a logjam in the cabinets, extra pots, pans, dishes and small appliances need to be boxed up and stored, preferably off-site. By Limiting the amount of items in cupboards, prospective buyers will be reassured that the cabinets and cupboards offer plenty of space for their needs.

The same holds true for closets. They need to be only half-full rather than crammed full. By boxing up and storing clothes, shoes and other items and storing them elsewhere, the closets will echo the feeling of spaciousness that will be displayed throughout the house.

The concept of removing a favorite recliner of floor lamp from  a home may seem foreign, but an overabundance of tables, lamps, chairs and couches take up the floor space. Empty space allows buyers to visualize how they could fill it.

In living, dining and family rooms, the window treatments should be minimal, furniture and knickknacks should be reduced, and photos and protraits of family and friends should be put away. It's easier for buyers to imagine themselves in a house when its owners and their family members aren't in view in frames on the walls or tables.

Once some of the clutter has been relegated to boxes or bins, the temptation is strong to head right downstairs, or to the garage or attic and pack them away. Sadly, it's a temptation that must be resisted. Storage space needs to be obvious, not hidden underneath all those boxes. Again, buyers need to be able to picture themselves in the home.