Potential home buyers don’t want to see your niece’s finger paintings. They don’t care about your wedding photos. They’re not here to see your dusty collection of dolphin ornaments. In short: your personal belongings and memories may be ruining your chances of securing a sale.
When it comes to staging your home for sale, less is more. Potential buyers want to see the house, and the only way to let your house speak for itself is to declutter. By removing all your personal items and excess ‘stuff’ and sticking with the bare minimum, people who show up at your inspections can do just that: inspect the house without being distracted by, say, a sensual nude portrait in the bathroom.
If you’re preparing your home for sale, these things have to go:
- Family photos. You might look back at your trip to Disneyland fondly, but potential buyers don’t need to see it.
- That unnecessary armchair in your bedroom that’s making the space look smaller than it is.
- The ‘love lives here’ sign in your living room, because ew.
Once you’ve gotten down to the bare minimum, potential buyers will be able to appreciate the house itself and picture themselves living there.
Minimalist Home Staging Makes Your Home Look Cleaner
Those excess pieces of furniture and random knickknacks are standing in the way of a tidy and spacious-looking home. You can clean to your heart’s content, but having unnecessary stuff in your room is going to make it look cluttered, closed-in, and not as clean.
Potential buyers don’t want to see your stuff; they want to see your house. Stick to the bare necessities of furniture and cull the clutter to make your home look tidier.
Potential Buyers Can Picture Themselves Living There
It can be tough for potential buyers to imagine their own stuff in your home when it’s packed with your personal belongings. Keeping each room bare apart from the basics allows people to picture how their own furniture and belongings would look there.
Your home office doesn’t need 3 chairs or stacks of booking hiding your desk. Keep it simple with a desk, chair, and bookcase to keep your study looking functional and tidy.
Quick Tips for Minimalist Home Staging
Not sure how to take your home from mediocre to minimalist chic? Read on.
Remove Personal Items
Potential buyers don’t want to feel like they’re sticky-beaking through all your stuff. Get rid of all your personal decorations until the inspections are over.
Top Tip: Put them into a storage unit during renovations or while selling so you know that they’re secured and are already in one spot for when you move to your next home. See what size you’d need right here.
Cull the Clutter
That extra recliner chair in your lounge room takes up too much space and makes the room look small. Stick to the basics in furniture to keep rooms looking tidy and open.
Organise Cupboards and Drawers
People like to see how much capacity cupboards and drawers have, so don’t think anything stashed away is safe from prying eyes. Keep cupboards and drawers organised to demonstrate how much storage space your home has. Pack your items away neatly within boxes to keep everything neatly together – see our Box Shop for packaging options.
Do a Thorough Clean
After moving and culling furniture, you’re sure to find some accumulated dust here and there. Make sure your home is spotless for inspections by cleaning thoroughly – this includes the walls and ceilings. See our simple guide for a spring clean here.
Add Interest with Artwork
If after culling your excess furniture and personal decorations, you feel your home is looking a bit dull, use artwork to add some colour and interest. The right abstract painting can bring any room to life, and generally pleases everyone. Keep those painted portraits of your dachshunds to yourself.
Minimalist home staging makes your home more appealing to potential buyers. If you’re looking to cull the clutter and give excess furniture the boot in order to up your chances of making a sale, you can keep you stuff safe in one of our self-storage units in the meantime.
