Top tips on decluttering and decorating your home ready to sell

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You may not be thinking about moving house anytime soon, but wouldn’t it be nice to take the pressure off and get a head start on the big move?

Here are our top tips and recommendations to help you declutter, decorate and retouch your home, before putting your house on the market.

It’s time to have a sort out

If you’ve been putting off a wardrobe de-clutter, a sort out of old children’s toys or avoided ‘that’ cupboard for a while, perhaps now’s the time.

Start with one room or space at a time and set yourself goals as well as time limits. As you go through your things dedicate separate boxes to items you use every day, items you no longer have use for as well as sentimental items.

With the items you no longer have use for, work out what could be sold on a resale group such as Facebook Marketplace and for clothes Vinted.co.uk. Some items may be suitable to go to your local charity shop and others might need to be recycled or thrown away.

Inside & Outside

With the decluttering done it’s time to move on to maintenance and DIY.

Have a good walk of all the rooms in your house and make a note of any walls that are crying out for a lick of paint, light bulbs that need replacing and small fixes that can be done to make a big difference.

A few things to look out for are:

  • the working order of any built-in appliances
  • loose hinges on doors
  • hot and cold options working on all taps and showers
  • the ventilation in bathrooms is working properly
  • chipped floor and/or bathroom tiles that need replacing

You’ll also need to spend some time on your home exterior. We’d recommend:

  • maintaining the lawn length and weeding any flower beds
  • make sure your patio is structurally sound and give it a power wash
  • checking any gates and/or garage doors open and close smoothly and have working locks
  • storing any children and/or dog toys away neatly

Final touches

You’ll be glad of your early preparation when it comes to listing your property and when the viewings begin. During the countdown to those first viewings, you’ll now have time to sort out those all-important final touches to make a great impression on potential buyers.

These include:

  • Windows – get them cleaned by a professional window cleaner 
  • Hoover – make sure you cover the whole house and remove traces of animal hair – not all prospective home buyers love pets as much as you!
  • Filing – don’t leave paperwork with personal details lying about
  • Bins – make sure they’re empty before viewings, open windows to let the fresh air in or pop on a natural smelling diffuser.
  • Watering – water your pots and plants so the garden is alive and vibrant
  • Tabletops – buy a few bunches of fresh flowers to pop in vases in preparation for viewings
  • Cushions – make sure they’re plumped and in place right before viewings – here’s a quick ‘how to’ YouTube tutorial

As you get closer to moving out of your old home and into your new one – take a read of our first night in your new home blog which is full of tips and lists of first night essentials!