When you’re a busy parent, you can’t expect to give your home a thorough cleaning every week, and that can be a problem if you’re trying to stage a home for sale because even the most conscientious children are likely to leave toys, clothing or school papers lying around. What you need is an easy fix, some way to keep everything organized for those last-minute showings when time and your work schedule won’t allow for on-demand, top-to-bottom cleaning sessions.
Once you’ve done the hard work of decluttering and deep cleaning, it’s important to maintain the impression that yours is a pristinely clean property.
Off-site storage
As you go about the process of decluttering, consider renting an off-site storage unit for oversize furniture, off-season clothing, extra kitchenware and other objects that can make your home look overwhelmed and disorganized. It’s a cost-effective way to keep your cleaning needs under control. The average cost of a self-storage unit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, over the past six months is $95.34.
Emergency clutter zone
You need a cleaning “safety valve” for when an interested buyer wants to drop by on short notice. Invest in some plastic storage bins that will fit in a deep closet, storage space or in the basement and fill them with all the loose accumulated objects you don’t have time to keep up with during the week. It’s a highly useful option if you have to do one of those emergency “scoop-and-hide” jobs to prepare for a showing after a busy workday. It’ll allow you to look well-organized when you need to and declutter it all later.
Trash stations
Those small, decorative trash cans that look so nice in your bathroom can be inconvenient when you’re trying to clean the house quickly. Kids have a bad habit of tossing uneaten food and other inappropriate items into the bathroom trash, and it’s difficult to collect trash from multiple rooms when guests are expected at any moment. Those huge plastic trash bags that are so handy during leaf-raking season are equally as handy in your house when timeliness and cleanliness are of the essence. Hang one from the door knob in your children’s rooms and at other strategic points around the house so all you have to do is grab them and head for the trash cans. This way you won’t be pressured to race around the house frantically collecting and emptying trash and risk forgetting or overlooking something that might make a poor impression on a potential buyer.
Speed cleaning
One of the most dreaded scenarios for a home seller is to receive a text from a realtor at 4 p.m. saying that an interested buyer wants to come by at 6:30 that evening for a viewing. Once you’ve fought through traffic and gotten home, there may be less than an hour in which to make sure everything’s shipshape at home. It’s time for some good old-fashioned speed cleaning. Without time to focus on small details in every room, set the timer on your smartphone for 10 minutes and go for it. With such a time restriction, you’ll be forced to concentrate on the larger, more obvious things, which an attentive buyer couldn’t possibly miss. This is the ideal time to utilize those plastic bins for toys and clothes that aren’t often used. If you have an older child or if your spouse is home, divide and conquer by assigning trash duty to someone while you do your speed cleaning.
You invest a lot of time and money in getting your home ready to sell, making it as appealing as possible to prospective buyers. You can make effective use of the little time you have during the week to prepare for viewers with simple strategies that make last-minute cleaning easy and efficient.
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