How to Keep Your Home Clean While It Is On the Market
When working with sellers, the question: “How do I keep my house show-ready while we are living here?” comes up a lot. So much so that I have created a checklist for my selling clients to use to keep themselves organized and show-ready at all times. Keeping your home maintained is especially tricky with kids, but it isn't impossible. It is important that you keep your home as clean, organized, and staged as possible not only during pictures and showings, but also for the inspection and appraisal.
I have collected my top 5 pieces of advice when helping my sellers to help you get the most showings and offers, and ultimately-more money!
Do one load of laundry every night. Listen, laundry separators, I fully understand the benefits of sorting out your laundry. Just for just a few weeks, though, I recommend considering throwing all laundry from the day into one load in the evening. This means you wash, dry, and put it all away before morning so that everything always is in place. You absolutely do not ever want dirty clothes, undergarments or towels hanging out when potential buyers walk through your door.
Buy towels only for showings. Speaking of towels, I recommend you go buy brand new, fluffy white towels before listing. (Of course, if you choose to list with me, I provide towels for clients as part of my staging.) These are only to be used for display during showings until your home sells, but then you have fresh towels to take with you to your new home. Simply take your old, used towels off the towel bars in the morning, put them in the washing machine for your daily laundry, and add in your clean white towels before you leave for the day.
The less stuff you have to keep organized, the better. Before any of my clients list, I help them do an extensive declutter on their belongings. This not only makes their house look better, but also helps them stay clean and organized through the selling process. I tell my clients to box up decor that is super personal, and other belongings that they can live without for a few months. If you don't have a place to store boxes, it is ok to stack them in the garage or basement. That is still better than having extra clutter throughout your house. My rule of thumb is to make every single storage area half full to give the illusion of more space. So go ahead, edit out as much as possible. You can thank me on moving day!
Give surfaces a wipe down every night. If you cook dinner or any meal in your home, make sure that all dishes are cleaned and all surfaces are wiped down afterwards. Yes, it is ok to leave dirty dishes in the dishwasher, just keep in mind that some buyers may look inside if it is staying with the property. It is also important to do a walkthough of all bathrooms and wipe down sinks and toilets every day. This all may sound redundant, but if you commit to cleaning daily, it is easy and quick. You never know what a buyer might want to look at, and you wouldn't want any embarrassing bathroom situations to kill the sale. Part of this cleaning routine should also be dumping out all trash from the day so your house is always smelling its best. This is especially important for cat litter if you have cats.
Extremely personal items should be locked away. Anything with names, addresses, medical info, social security numbers, etc. all need a home, preferably in a safe. Shred and discard as many old documents as you can before listing. Also, any prescription drugs, jewelry, weapons, loose money, and other high value items should all be locked up for the duration of the listing period. Although we want to trust people, and buyers should have their agent with them during showings, it is possible for groups to split up. Buyers can get downright nosy, and sometimes have sticky fingers. Take control of personal items before anyone steps foot in your house, and have a system for processing all mail every evening.
If you are selling in Kansas City, I assist all my sellers with these tasks (and more!), and provide my listing checklist to help make the process easier for my clients. If you are ready to learn more about selling your house in KC, I would love to chat! Just use the form below to get started.