Clutter Busting
STORY CONNIE JESKE CRANE
TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL STAGER ON ORGANIZING YOUR HOME BEFORE A SALE.
When you’re living in your home, storage goals are simple. It’s all about attractively corralling your family’s shoes, homework, jackets and – ouch! – stray LEGO pieces. But when you’re selling, says Kristyn Pereira, lead stylist and account manager for home staging company Well Dressed Home, there’s a twist.
“We look at resale value, and all our recommendations are potentially to make the seller more money.” When it comes to organizing your home before a sale, Kristyn says things become stylized and not terribly realistic. “Nobody actually lives like that so it’s kind of creating this facade.” You’re striving, she says, to create clean, fresh spaces buyers can imagine themselves living in.
Decluttering and staging is a lot of work, Kristyn admits, but she says it can really pay off. “It all comes down to your photographs,” she says. “Because when people are shopping they’re scrolling through photos that their realtor sent them, or they’re on realtor.ca. And when those photos stand out, that’s the house they want to go and look at. You’ll see that a staged house is going to get more showings because people get excited looking at this beautiful space.”
THE FOLLOWING ARE KRISTYN’S INDUSTRY- TESTED TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR HOUSE READY FOR THE MARKET.
DO A WALK-THROUGH
Moving is a good time to start purging and looking at what you really need and what you are actually using. With her clients, Kristyn likes to start by doing a walk- through of the entire house. “It’s usually an hour-and- a-half to two hours and we go through every nook and cranny.” She recommends looking at everything with fresh eyes to decide what needs reorganizing or purging to create that sublime first impression for buyers.
DO A CLEAR-OUT
Cull, and once done, Kristyn recommends a couple options. You can neatly store excess belongings on-site. “If you have an unfinished basement, garage or storage room, as long as those spaces are fairly organized, then it’s OK to load those spaces up.”
Alternatively, if you live in a condo or have a lot of clutter, off-site storage can work too. Kristyn uses a company called Second Closet, which will pick up and store homeowners’ belongings and return them after the sale.
RESTYLE YOUR CLOSETS
With closets and cupboards, ensure they have some negative space. Kristyn says, “If the closets and cupboards are overflowing, buyers think, ‘If you don’t have enough space, then we’re not going to have enough space.’ ”
UPGRADE YOUR CLOTHES HANGERS
Weed out those skinny wire hangers from your closets – “They’re very distracting to the eye,” says Kristyn. For a beautiful, clean look, make sure your coat hangers are all matching.
MAKE USE OF BINS
Bins and baskets are great for attractively organizing items on closet shelves and bookcases. Colour co-ordinate and even add labels to lend extra style, says Kristyn. “It gets people excited to see those types of things.”
PARE BACK IN THE BATHROOM AND KITCHEN
Remove clutter and keep surfaces clear in both of these important areas. For example, in the bathroom, Kristyn says, “With shampoos and conditioners it looks very messy to keep them in the shower itself – so we usually ask sellers to put them in a basket and store the basket in a cupboard.”
STYLE KIDS’ ROOMS
With kids’ rooms, Kristyn suggests creating a dream and using a light hand with décor: “Sometimes we’ll put a little stuffed animal on a bed or add a cute piece of art,” she says, suggesting you can style bookshelves with items like piggy banks and a few books, and place cute toy storage bins on the floor.
CONSIDER YOUR TARGET MARKET
Finally, unlike with your personal décor, when you’re decluttering and staging for sale, Kristyn says you should stay away from anything too trendy when it comes to colours, furniture and styling. “Most of the time we want to be in the mainstream area because that’s where most people are.”
