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Organize Your Home to Sell

...and Create Space for the Buyers

1. Clarify

What will your life be like when you move into your next home?
What will you be doing?

What do you want to have, do and enjoy in your next home?
How will it differ from what you are doing now?
How much will it cost to move things you may not use?
How long before you move into your next home?

2. Let Go

Keep only what you love, what you will use and what makes sense to move.
Let go of the things you don't want to move or won't have room for.
Give away what is in good condition, recycle what you can and throw away the rest.

3. Sort

Sort what you’ve kept into 3 groups:

Cold — Won’t Use NOW Pack everything you won’t be using in the next 4-6 months but you still want to keep AND move. These are out-of-season clothes, supplies for hobbies you want to continue but are not doing right now, cooking appliances you use only once a year, and collections (books, photos, music, videos, figurines, art, etc.).

Warm — Unsure Pack the extras. Clothes you can wear now but they aren’t your favorites — pack it. Extra sheets, towels and linens — pack it. Pack away all but a few of the children's favorite toys. These are things you could use now but don’t need. Pack as much as you can.

Hot — Routinely Use You have to live a normal life while you are waiting for your home to sell, but keep these things to a minimum. Keep these well organized and nicely packaged. Remember, create more space and less personality. Use a basket for your personal toiletries. Limit your shoes to what fits on a shoe rack. Put mail & bills away. Even limiting the food in your pantry and cupboards will create needed space. When the house has sold these are the items you will pack last and unpack first.

4. Pack

Pack as much as you can and as early as you can. Set a goal of packing a box a night or some other goal that is manageable. Do not put off packing. Besides, you’ve already done the hard part — letting go and sorting.

Pack like with like. Pack all the clothes together. Don’t pack the coffee cups in with the t-shirts. If there is space left in a box, use packing material to fill it and then close the box. DO NOT go hunting for something to fill the space.

Mark each box with the contents and the room. That way, when you move all the boxes can be placed in the appropriate room to unpack. This make unpacking easier and quicker.

5. Store

This it the one and only time I recommend that you get a storage space and use it. Moving your packed boxes to storage allows the buyer to see all that useful space in the garage and house.

6. Contacts

Create a list of people you might need to get you ready to move and your house ready to sell.

Cleaning | Electrician | Excavating | General Contractor | Gutters

Home Staging | Handyman Services | Mortgage | Moving

Organizing: simplify@dhucks.com Shawndra Holmberg, Dhucks

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