Selling Your Home: Dealing With Clutter

One of my clients recently put an offer on a home and within 24 hours, rescinded the offer.  What happened?  Clutter!  A very small percentage of people can look past the stuff to imagine what the home would look like without the clutter, and these people evidently were among that small percentage.  The transaction quickly fell apart when they had doubts that the seller would be able to get it all moved out before closing.  They were worried that on moving day, they would be dealing with closing extensions or piles of trash.

Friends of our family had a similar experience with a home they bought.  On closing day they showed up for a final walkthrough only to discover that at the last minute, the seller had left piles of trash everywhere.  Both agents were mortified.  The seller’s agent was in tears.  In the first situation, the buyer sensed the potential for a clutter disaster and walked ran away early.  In the second situation, the buyers didn’t have many good options.  They would have been homeless if they walked away.  Instead, they ended up paying over a $1000 to have several loads of trash hauled to the dump.

Clutter is a serious issue if you are selling your home.   Often the job of sorting through it all and cleaning it up is overwhelming.   For many people, the piles of “junk” the rest of us see is really a lifetime of memories.  Angela Voss, of Designology Home Staging in Spokane, Washington has a great article called The Emotional Attachment to Chaos that addresses the bigger picture.  She also has a step-by-step method for dealing with the overwhelming task called The STACKS Organizational System.   If you need to sort through and pack a lot of things quickly, her system is invaluable.  If you follow the link, she even has a downloadable worksheet.   It works great for both large and small spaces alike.

Remove as many of your personal things as you can from the home before you start showing it.  Buyers won’t tell you what they really thought of your home.  But when we asked them to take a survey, they weren’t shy at all.  Here are some of their unedited comments:

clean and decluter, less is more poeple are buying the house not your stuff so clear as much out as posible
PLEASE, store the everyday clutter away
Clear out the clutter!
Remove clutter from everywhere, including excessive photos on the walls.

Funny thing is, the survey wasn’t about clutter, it was about real estate photos.  Instead of complaining about dark photos or crooked photos, they vented about clutter.  So if you are selling your home, take note:  it’s a big deal for buyers, big enough to walk away.  What kinds of experience have you had with clutter?  Add your insight to the comments area below.

Additional Resources:

The STACKS Organizational System by Angela Voss
It is the best organizational system for even the largest of cluttered spaces. This step-by-step method will save you time and tears. In less time than you think, you will have an organized home ready for potential buyers.

Get direct consulting from the pros online, along with a weekly “menu” plan of organizing projects, multimedia tutorials, articles and other great tools.