Can Keep Clutter at Bay
Selling your home can be a stressful process—and that is doubly so for parents. Prepping your property is a full-time job when you have to keep it spotless for showings. Your kids’ lives haven’t stopped—or even slowed down—because your house is on the market. Here are ways to make keeping your home clean and clutter-free the easiest part of selling your home.
Hire a Housekeeper
If your lives are too busy to slow down, consider hiring a housekeeper just while it is for sale. Slightly different than a maid service, a housekeeper can help you with the everyday cleaning that can build into a mess. Specifically, a housekeeping service focuses on daily upkeep, making beds and changing linens, light yard work, meal prep, and general tidiness. Having someone else take care of the house’s upkeep can take a great burden off of your shoulders and let you focus on the deep cleaning and decluttering.
Get a Storage Unit
Renting a storage unit to store your excess possessions can help keep the clutter to a minimum because you’ll have less stuff taking up the place. This can also be a good way to stage a home for sale, as the more minimally decorated homes are on the rise. Free up closets for quick clutter clean-up and storage by moving seasonal items into storage.
Start a Chore Chart
Keep the floors shiny and the window sills dust-free by enacting a deep-clean chore chart. Each day, every family member is responsible for keeping the house spotless by tackling a specific chore. There are several different ways to go about doing this—a wheel, a chart, rotating duties, etc. The goal is to make sure your home will sparkle even at a last-minute showing.
Get the Kids involved
Since everyone is contributing to the clutter, try to get everyone involved in a daily maintenance routine. Before bedtime, have everyone take a room and pick up everything off the floor and put it where it belongs. This includes shoes by the back door and toiletries in the bathroom. Gamify it by creating a challenge—whoever has the cleanest room in the quickest time gets to pick dinner on Friday night.
Buy Decorative Storage
Use storage units that fit right in with your decor—and that can quickly declutter a space. Being able to scoop up your family’s day-to-day items and hide them in a storage bench or armoire can get you ready for a showing in half the time. Homebuyers will open opens, but they rarely touch your furniture or decor. Ottomans that open, woven baskets that stack, and under-the-bed organizers are all great ways to declutter the entire house in minutes.
Stay Out of Unnecessary Rooms
If there are rooms in your house that are infrequently used, you can keep them tidy by avoiding them entirely. For example, if you have a formal dining room and an eating area in the kitchen, just use the eat-in-kitchen for all your meals. That way you don’t have to worry about cleaning two rooms every day. You know you will need to clean your kitchen daily, even if you and your family ate most of your meals out. So, you can make daily clean up a breeze by only using the most necessary common areas.
You may have several reasons for selling your home—or simply one big reason—but either way, this time marks at least one major life transition. For parents, it’s not just one transition happening, but at least one for every member of the family. One of the most effective ways to lower stress when selling your home is to be considerate of each other. Keeping the clutter at bay will not impress homebuyers, but will also add to a serene, calm and low-stress atmosphere.
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