Getting Organized
Photo credits: Pinterest
January is a time of new beginnings - a new year ahead, usually accompanied by resolutions that we intend to keep. If you’ve considered selling your home, this is the perfect time to get your home ready for market before we get deep into the Spring market.
Preparing your home to sell can seem like a daunting task, especially while we’re still very much all working and schooling from home in some capacity. But if you make a plan and do a little each day, you can easily and efficiently declutter, organize and get your house show-ready.
Whether you’re looking to sell your home, or just looking to improve the function of your home, getting organized is a feel-good activity! With a few simple tips from the ultimate organization queen, Marie Kondo, you can turn your messy rooms into neat, buyer-approved spaces that will be sure to wow.
Keep only what brings you joy
It’s simple - keep only what brings you happiness and joy, and get rid of everything else. If you haven’t touched it or used it recently, then don’t let it bog you down. If it doesn’t bring you joy, then you certainly don’t need to haul it to your next destination. This can be a simple trinket, an article of clothing, or even a large piece of furniture.
Tackle categories, not rooms
Decluttering a room can seem daunting, but if you have a plan in place, it will help you through the process. Try to focus on organizing by category, not by room. For instance, you probably have lots of towels scattered throughout your home. If you take stock of all your towels at once, you can get rid of towels that are past their prime or that you have multiples of. But in the process, be sure to have crisp white towels in bathrooms for photos and showings.
Remember when?
We all have momentos from a family vacation or fun weekend activity, but they usually end up on the dark side of your closet in a junk drawer. But it brings me joy, you say! If that’s the case, then consolidate those items and display them in a shadowbox frame or scrapbook. Otherwise, they’re moving out!
R-E-S-P-E-C-T your belongings
Do you have dresses slipping off hangers in your closet? Or expensive shoes that are just thrown in the corner of your closet? If we don’t respect our belongings, do we need them? We don’t want to wear a wrinkled dress that fell off the hanger or shoes scuffed from just being thrown on the floor. If you haven’t worn an item in the last three months, you probably won’t do so in the next three months. Find these clothes their next happy home (but don’t let them travel to your new home).
Peace to the paperwork
Do you still own a filing cabinet? If so, it’s time to kick it down the road. In our digital age, you can find copies of almost every paper in your home office online. At the very least, keeping scanned digital copies saves a ton more space than paper files. You will still have important documents like birth certificates and passports, but consider keeping those in a safe or a bank deposit box.
When it comes to removing items from your home, don’t feel that you need to purchase multiple trash cans to send it all away. There are many organizations that will take your unwanted items to repurpose them. For unwanted towels, blankets, etc. consider donating them to a local animal shelter or veterinary clinic. Home of the Sparrow is an organization that has been serving homeless women and children since 1987, and they have donation centers for clothing in good condition, furniture, household items, etc. Check out their locations throughout the Northwest Suburbs including Cary, Palatine, and Woodstock.
Tackle a new category each day and before you know it, you’ll have organized your entire home, gotten rid of items that have been weighing you down, and you’ll have no angst in having the Vesta Home Team come to view your home to discuss listing!