There are lots of ways to declutter your home before listing. Some may sound fun and others sound like you’d rather go to the dentist. The Marie Kondo Method has really brought new light, (and fun) into the importance of an organized home.
While it’s a nice process to do for yourself, it’s also incredibly important to do before you put your home on the market.
Ridding your home of unnecessary items will make it more marketable to buyers by creating a peaceful and organized space. It also points out how much storage space you have when your home is well organized.
If that’s not enough to make you want to begin the process of removing clutter, just imagine packing, hauling, moving, and unpacking items that you aren’t using, will never use, and will take up more space in your new home.
Here are eight ways you can declutter your home immediately.
Declutter your baking supplies.
Trust me, you have way more baking supplies than you need, use, will use, or have ever used.
Tackle this category first for some instant gratification.
Empty your kitchen of all baking supplies and put them in a spot where you can see everything at a glance. Organize the items by use and count how many you have of each. Choose the ones in the best shape and rid your home of the rest.
Declutter your movie collection.
This may be the easiest and smartest way to declutter on this list. These days, services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and others have made physical copies of films obsolete.
Donate or sell your VHS tapes or DVDs and don’t worry about replacing them.
Wait until you feel like watching the movie again, and check if it’s available online. You’ll likely find it for free or for a small rental/purchase fee.
Organize your paperwork.
It’s a good idea to have copies of important documents for reference and peace of mind in case you ever need them. But the chances of you actually needing most documents you hoard are slim to none.
Shred what you can, scan the rest, and save the documents electronically on a secure external hard drive.
Make those magazines useful again.
Stacks of magazines take up lots of space, provide very little use, and are heavy to move. Unless they’re educational material that you reference frequently, recycle them.
Expired medications / toiletries should be thrown out.
A super easy (& satisfying) way to declutter before selling is to clean out your medicine cabinet.
There are places to dispose of certain medications safely, so do some research on that before simply throwing them in the trash.
Don’t forget about all of the travel sized bottles that are half-full or empty. Now’s as good a time as any to toss those out before you start packing.
No one wants old paint cans.
Pay close attention here. If the paint color is currently on your walls and the can is not expired or dried up, keep it.
You’ll likely need it to patch nail holes before the move, and the new buyers will appreciate having spare cans that match the walls.
If the paints are dried up, dispose of them properly before you start packing. There’s no need to bring them with you to your next home.
Segment, separate & donate clothing.
It’s easy to accumulate clothing and accessories, but they take up so much space. Grab a few bins, label them keep, toss, store (seasonal), and donate.
Completely empty your closets, and then sort through your clothes, accessories, and shoes. One trip to the local thrift store and your closets look 10 times larger and more organized. Closets are a big deal for buyers, so don’t skip this step.
How many dried-out markers and pens do you have?
The amount of craft and art supplies one family can accumulate is impressive.
Find ways to declutter by creating a fun game with the kiddos and have them find as many dried-up markers and pens as they can and throw them into a bucket.
Whoever wins gets ice cream! Just kidding… you all get ice cream because getting kids to help with de-cluttering with this much ease deserves treats all around.
