Being cooped up in these weeks just as the spring market was really poised to take off has some advantages. For example, you have time to spring clean your property and toss out or donate the items you no longer need. This may not sound like fun now, but a neat and organized home will be more appealing to buyers when the spring market does hit full-force (even if that’s in the summer this year, thanks to COVID-19)—and this tidying up could help you stand out from other properties, resulting in selling your home faster.
These are a few areas you can target during your Marie Kondo moment:
Basement and Attic
These storage spaces often become catchalls for items that you haven’t decided what you want to do with just yet. Well, now is the time! Decide: “Do I keep this or that—even if I haven’t used this Flowbee in 10 years? Or, do I set it aside to take to Goodwill?” It’s amazing how quickly things can pile up in a well-lived-in home. But extra storage is a huge selling bonus, and if buyers see an organized basement that they can easily stroll through, it’s easier for them to visualize what that space could become once they move in.
Closets
We agree, it’s very impressive that you ran on the track team all three years of middle school, but do you really need the too-small T-shirts to commemorate that time? Closets are another area where things tend to pile up, and organizational measures like the shoe rack, toy bins, etc. tend to go by the wayside. Now’s the time to purge the Lego sets that have gone out of style (looking at you, Pirates of the Caribbean), the clothes that no longer fit, and the fish food for the pet you never ended up getting. Voila, now buyers can see how big those closets really are!
Kitchen
In this one, we’re looking out for your pride as much as your ROI. Prospective buyers want to see everything, including the inside of your kitchen cabinets. Now is the time to organize that small avalanche of mismatched Tupperware (we’re not sure our insurance covers Tupperware-related injuries), and to sort through the pots and pans (let’s be honest, we know you only use 20% of them). Just like that your home becomes aspirational. Ina Garten would feel right at home whipping something up in that organized kitchen.
Bookshelves
The pristine edition of “Moby-Dick” does make you look smart, but how many times have you actually read it? We won’t judge, it’s a lot of whale facts even for a New Englander. Bookshelves not only get overwhelmed with books we thought we’d read when we were feeling ambitious, they also get clogged with papers, family photos, loose recipes, notebooks, trinkets, you name it. By boxing up a few items for charity the books you really love will be able to breathe again and your newly organized shelves will bring a chic factor to your home.
Phonebook
Perhaps most important on this list is to clean out your phonebook. We want to make sure you can find our name and number in a flash when it’s time to list your property! Reach out anytime, we can’t wait to hear how your spring cleaning went: nextdoor@unlimitedsir.com or 617-942-1741.