Declutter To Sell Your House Faster

Everyone has a little "clutter" lying around the house — and some of us may have more than others. When you're selling your home, managing your home's look and feel is one of the best ways to maximize your chances of selling quickly and for the most amount of money.

Real estate pros know decluttering allows potential buyers to see your home as "their home" and makes it appear bigger with more storage space. Use these steps to get started:

• Set a schedule. Sit down and look at your time. Don't worry about how much you have, just find some — twenty minutes a day, an hour, and five— whatever you can put in. Add it to your schedule, and set aside time specifically for decluttering. Determine deadlines as well. For example, plan on finishing the kitchen in a week and the bedrooms in two. Or have an overall deadline for the whole house. Decide what works best for you. Once you have your schedule, stick to it.
  
  
• Move room by room. Looking at the whole house can feel overwhelming, so take it room by room, area by area. There are always trouble spots, like closets, desks, or cabinets. Tackle those first. Move steadily through each room until you're done.
  
  
• Make three piles. As you go through things, make three piles: a keep, get rid of, and maybe pile. Once you've finished each area, put back the things you're keeping in an organized manner. Implement any organization systems as you go. The maybes should be put in a box and stowed for a few weeks. Revisit them and decide whether you really need them or not. Address the get rid of right away.
  
  
• Get it out quickly. The key is to remove things as they come up. Have a plan — donate, garbage, or sell. Set aside time each week to do those things. List items on Craigslist, take a trip to the dump or run by the thrift store to drop items off. If you keep it around, clutter has a habit of working its way back into your home.
  
  
• Learn to let go. One of the hardest things can be to let go of stuff. It may be sentimental; you may be saving it for when you really need it. Research on the web, or read a book about decluttering. Many resources have a series of questions to ask yourself to see if something is really worth holding onto. You can also ask if it is something you'll actually use and find time limits as to how long to hold onto certain things (like paperwork and clothes).

Decluttering Before You Sell Your Home

Not only can decluttering help you prepare for a move, but it also gives you a boost mentally. You'll be one step closer to staging, and you reduce the amount that you'll need to transport to the new house. In a way, it prepares you mentally to make a change. Decluttering gets you in the mindset to embrace a new setting, and you can make that new setting a new home.

It's true-decluttering is hard, but the rewards you'll reap are more than worth it.

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