When Your House is For Sale

Our house is not yet on the market (well it was and now it's sold), but I have found myself putting things out of sight and in the most unusual places. I thought you would like to see to get inspired or laugh at me...I fine with either!

I put the two cat beds which they rarely use inside the bottom and top drawer of our dresser. Perfect spot since my husband doesn't have his clothes in there! This is actually the most unusual, the others are more obvious because the items are at least near where they are used.

I put a basket that we normally keep on the kitchen counter inside a kitchen cupboard. It's decorative and holds salt, pepper, cinnamon sugar and some Italian seasoning we use regularly. I just decided it was one item that could be put away temporarily to avoid too much on the counter.

There is usually as space heater and a scale on our bathroom floor. Time to put those out of sight too. One went in an empty bathroom drawer and the other in the cupboard below the sink. The only bad things about putting the scale away is that I won't weigh myself, but I wasn't doing to great at it lately anyway!

I put a rug we usually have by the door to our deck away in a closet. See it folded on the shelf there? I decided it was too much visual clutter and the floor looked bigger without it. And of course, I think making an area look bigger is a selling point in most cases. 

(I don't usually buy swiffer cloths, but use flannel fabric pieces instead...it was a splurge to get ready to move)

The girls shoe basket is usually right in our entry way and visible to guests. I don't mind for guests and people we know, because we live here. However, I didn't want one of the first thing people see when the walk in the door to be shoes of strangers. So I tucked the basket into the floor of our front closet. I did have to move my vaccuum to that closet in the picture above. And I'm sure the buyers did look in the closet and saw the shoes, but that is more expected. 

We usually have our trash cans out for convenience. But no one really wants to see into a trash can, right? I would always empty a trash can at a minimum before having a home open for buyers. I decided that even when empty they are kind of distracting and not necessary to what is trying to be achieved...seeing the cabinets, lighting and counters. So I tucked nearly all trash cans under the counter and behind cabinet doors. Still important to empty trash before any showing regardless of where the trashcan is. 

A few posts back I wrapped up how my youngest daughter's room turned out. Quite a bit of her clutter on the desk, dresser and her bed headboard ended up underneath her bed in the bin on the right. I don't think most people look under beds during a showing. At least I never have! 

A few more examples of things I put away: magnets on the fridge and everything they were holding up, personal pictures taken off the walls (for some frames I put generic landscape type pictures in and kept them on the wall) and all toiletries were removed from showers and tucked under sinks as well. People buying homes don't want to see any of your personal stuff/gear/toiletries or pictures when they are visiting. They are even more distracting in pictures. At least for those of us like me that are visual and see quite a few details in pictures.

The point is tuck away as much as you can for a open and visual canvas when you are selling your home. If you can find a place to tuck a trash can, rug or some spices on the counter you need to declutter some more!

What do you think of all my hiding spots?