When a house appears clean…
Buyer’s will know that you took care of the house.
As a Home Stager, my ultimate goal is to help the Seller market their greatest asset. For a homeowner wishing to sell their home, their greatest asset is their house. I want their home to sparkle and shine so their MLS photos look amazing for their online listings and more importantly for their Open House or Home Showings.
When I put my house on the market I cleaned every square inch. It was very stressful making sure that my house was clean and in pristine condition. Especially with two young kids, our family dog, and not to mention my husband had already left for his new job in North Carolina! I had to come up with an easy way to quickly clean all surfaces and make sure my house was ready at all times for my realtor to call for a home showing.
What I did was gather all of my favorite cleaning products (you can find Amazon.com links listed at the bottom of this blog) and dumped them into an empty plastic laundry basket that I could quickly pull out, clean, and hideaway. You could also use a plastic storage container — just something that is lightweight and be easily put out of sight. This way all of your go-to products are all in one single location so you can access them in a hurry. You want your home smelling fresh and clean for every home showing, so having this basket full of cleaning products at your disposal will greatly speed up the process for when your realtor calls and wants to show your home in the next 30 minutes!!
Toss your favorite cleaning supplies into a plastic laundry basket or storage container so everything is easily accessible for you to do a quick clean and then hide products away.
When we let our rooms go, we are creating more stress in our lives than we can imagine. We are also letting chaos reign, which in turn affects every other part of our lives, making us feel out of control. Presenting rooms which are clean and in good repair is imperative in order to get the best price for the home. Most buyers do not want to see any sign of dust, hair, dirt or stains. Do not let a simple thing like carpet stain turn off a potential buyer. A successfully staged home will sparkle, which in turn gives buyers the impression that this product was well taken care of!
We highly recommend bringing a cleaning service into your home for heavy, deep cleaning BEFORE the home is staged. It’s hard to be objective about dust and dirt because we get used to seeing it at times. Paying the extra money for professional cleaning reaps huge rewards. Here is a preview of our Home Cleaning Checklist to consider as you walk through the living areas:
Look around the room with fresh eyes and see if you find anything that needs repairing, refinishing, touch-up or TLC. Buyers notice these things right away, and if their mental “to do list” gets too long, no offer will be coming. In terms of living in the space, researchers have found that it’s the small, repeated irritants that provide the most stress in our lives, so be sure to DO your To Do list—don’t risk a lot of extra stress!
Below you can find my recommended cleaning products. Happy cleaning, successful SELLING!
Disclosure: This website contains affiliate links.
-Tiffani Michalenko
HSR Certified Home Stager & Expert eDesigner
