My mother once told me, “Everything has its own place”, which is the mantra I have lived by since.
We are talking about clutter.
Decluttering
Now, I am not saying I am a self-proclaimed “clean freak”, but I do have a fair idea about clutter. It’s time to clean up and remove all those items that create clutter in your home. Clutter and untidiness can significantly affect the appraised value of your home in conjunction with current market conditions.
Some of the benefits of decluttering before your home appraisal or having it put on the market are endless, such as:
- It can increase the value of your home – think more pretty pennies in your pocket.
- It makes your home look bigger than it is.
- Inspires buyers’ imagination – allows prospective purchases to envision themselves living in your home, leading them to place a higher value on the space.
- Fewer distractions – ensure prospective buyers are looking at your home and all that it is in its entirety, rather than mess and clutter, which can often be a complete turn-off to prospective buyers.
- It’s easier to clean afterwards.
- It makes it easier to stage your home for photos.
- It’s more appealing to look at.
- It’s normal to be confused with knowing what exactly clutter is. Clutter can be defined as disorganised possessions that may accumulate in areas they do not belong.
Clutter might be like having a duplication of kitchen utensils, several items on your bathroom vanity or even a pile of clothing that “might fit one day”.
Identifying and dealing with clutter will help you get to a space you love to live in.
When decluttering, it’s time to turn on your ‘minimalistic vision’, meaning to look at things practically and critically when cleaning. Assessing the space, identifying and subsequently removing anything that doesn’t belong. Of course, some items will be precious, so you must allocate a special place for each item to belong.
Where to start?
Decluttering can be so rewarding, and simply spending a little time and effort to makeover your space can lead to a clearer home, a clearer head, and, of course, a more attractive-looking space for prospective buyers.
There are numerous hacks to declutter your home that can be found on the internet, so find one that you resonate with and enable you to achieve your decluttering dreams.
Some of our favourite tips:
- Ask a friend to come over and help you declutter by offering honest opinions.
- Check out decluttering hacks online, like the 12/12/12 method or the 20/20 rule.
- Create a ‘Decluttering Checklist’ or find one that resonates with you online and download it.
- Group your items together. Sometimes, it might be easier to group certain items: sell, store, fix, dispose, and donate. Then, you can work through each group of items, one at a time.
- Take a photo of each room as you go, circle items that make the room look messy and out of order, and then remove and put away those items. Take a second “after” photo to see your progress. It gets exciting … who doesn’t love a good ‘Before & After’.
- Don’t move around. Do one room at once, and only shift your clutter from one room to another if that’s where it belonged in the first place.
- When it comes to donations, place these items in your car immediately to drop off the next time you’re in town (we know that you’re in town more than once a month, so they don’t need to slide around in your boot for months on end).
- Invest in storage boxes, especially if you want to clean up but need to downsize. Store items away that you don’t use very often, or break items up on a seasonal basis and store them on top or beside each other.
- If you’re now inspired to put your cleaning shoes on and get down and dirty, I’m glad! The next thing you’ll become is low-key obsessed with your newly cleaned home!
