Classic rookie mistake. Are you trying to get ready for sale by organising and storing your belongings? #konmarifail
Always sort before you organise. Sorting and decluttering always comes before dealing with storage and organising.
Take a weekend or two to sort through your personal effects, treat this as a family wide project and tackle it together.
Your aim: Identify what you want to keep and take to the next home.
This is a hard job. So here’s a framework to make these decisions.
Hold the item in your hand, or touch it and ask yourself if the item brings you joy. Is it necessary and beautiful? Does it fulfill a purpose or add significant meaning to your life? If the answer is no (or not really or maybe) pop it into one of the piles below.
We use the KonMari method of organising and tackle this not by room but by category of items. It’s also a service we can provide to help you get through it all quickly – and without family feuds!
Sort what you are not keeping into groups like:
- Sell – things that you can offload for money on ebay or a local Facebook buy sell and swap group. The Facebook groups tend to be quicker if you price it right. Ultimately you don’t want to have to pay to store, move or stuff around with it, so just get it sold.
- Donate – My rule for donation is only donate those things you’d be happy to give away to a family member or close friend. Most stores can’t use that broken desk or old microwave that only works on one setting or marked children’s clothing that you are really just struggling to let go of.
- Recycle – Don’t just bin your items, there are great recycling programs available for electrical waste, things like old clothes and sheets can be recycled into rags and more. Most of the time they will come and collect it too. Check your local government website for more details
- Bin – If it doesn’t fit into this category. Bin it. Once you have done this major sort you need to identify those personal items and furniture that support the effective staging and styling of your home. Your Property Styling Melbourne’s Property Stylist will help with this. Anything that isn’t being let go of or used during the Property Styling -should be moved to temporary storage.
A Word on Reducing your Stored Items
Storage is one of the main things buyers are looking for in a home because it’s often a fixed factor. How big your linen closet is, what size your pantry is, whether there is a walk-in robe or any built-in robe, are all on the checklist of a buyer.
During open for inspections expect and prepare for the fact that while they shouldn’t open things like the drawers of a moveable piece of furniture such as a bedside table, buyers will open closets and built in cupboards.
Even if you are taking your major shoe collection to the next home, even if you do fit food for a family of six in your pantry, consider reducing what you are currently holding on these shelves and in these cupboards.
Highlight the clean, chaos free storage your home doeshave by simply reducing the number of towels andsheets you have on hand during the sale period so thatthe home is shown in the best possible light.
If your garage has four bikes, two scooters, three trikes and boxes and bags of sports equipment (like mine), find another temporary home for them. They will make your garage appear cluttered and diminished in space.
You can also claim a free consultation with a member of our Property Styling Melbourne’s Team.