Declutter For Better Listing Photos

Your listing photos are doing more selling than you think and sometimes it’s the tiniest, most normal household habits that quietly wreck a great shot. We’re back with a playful but genuinely useful countdown of the top 10 things Megan removes from clients’ real estate photography before a home goes live online, because buyers scroll fast and clutter gives them an excuse to click away.

We start with easy wins that make a kitchen look expensive and spacious: ditch the tea towel on the oven door, clear the benchtops, and keep the focus on clean surfaces and storage. From there we get into what makes rooms feel smaller in photos, like rugs covering new carpet and crowded drawers and shelves that pull the eye everywhere except the room’s size. If you’re selling a house, these quick decluttering and home staging tweaks can lift your property marketing without spending a cent.

Then we hit the spots where real life shows most: coat racks, shoe piles at the front door (very Kiwi), and windowsills that photographers may need clear so they can handle light and sky edits. We also talk “controversial” items and privacy, including why it’s smart to remove family photos and anything that identifies your job or routine. And yes, we go fully bathroom-specific, from toilet mats to the item Megan removes from almost every home, plus the great toilet roll over-or-under debate.

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Transcript

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Why Photo Styling Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Okay, if you're looking to sell your house and you wondered what sort of stuff you should be doing, part two, we're gonna talk about things that are removed from the photos normally. The most removed items from the photos. Hello, Megan. Hello. I had to think about it twice. I was like, which way am I saying? So we had a good fun about it. And I wonder if people can guess with us as we're doing this. We've got 10 items and we're gonna count down from 10 to 1, one being an absolute winner. So if you guys got it right, be honest, reach out to us, I'll send you something cool in the mail if you got it right. But let's start with number 10.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yes, so these are the things that this is just my personal opinion, what I remove from my clients' photos. So number 10 is the least offensive. A

Kitchen Quick Wins For Clean Shots

SPEAKER_00 1:01

tea towel hanging on an oven door. If you have a nice oven, you don't want to cover it up by a tea towel, even if it's a cool tea towel, like just take the tea towel off the oven door and have that beautiful clean look. Number nine would be stuff on your bench tops. So have you can have one appliance out. I would vote for your coffee machine because you know, coffee is life. Or, you know, whatever your five favorite, most clean appliances. Maybe it's a microwave, maybe it's an air fryer, whatever, but don't have all your appliances on your bench top. We want to see your bench looking clear and beautiful, like it's ready to cook a meal. Number eight, if you've got new carpet, don't put a rug over it. Even if it's a cool rug, the only time I would leave a rug in a room

Rugs And Bedroom Surfaces

SPEAKER_00 1:49

is if your whole room is neutral, like neutral carpet, neutral walls, and it just actually needs a pop of colour. But if you've got nice cover carpet, don't cover it up. You'll make your room look smaller.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Okay, number seven.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Number seven, stuff on your chest of drawers. No, knick-knacks, little doilies, things like that. Clear them off. Don't distract the eye from the size of your bedroom. If it's a big room, then celebrate it. If it's not a big room, clear out everything to make it look bigger. Number six, coat racks. We know that if you're like George, you have multiple hats and jackets. He clutters up our coat rack every

Coat Racks And Shoe Piles

SPEAKER_00 2:31

day. And I'm constantly taking coats and hats off our coat rack. For the photos, just leave one coat on or one or a couple of hats. You know, don't overload it because all it looks like is you don't have storage. We actually do have storage, he just doesn't like putting them away. Um, it's the same with shoes by the front door, which is number six, just highlights the storage issue. And it's it's not very fair because in a family, of course, we have lots of shoes and we come in and out the front door, especially as Kiwis, we all take our shoes mostly take our shoes off at the front door. So they tend to kind of pile up, but for your photos, they don't need to be part of your images that go online. Yeah. Number four is an interesting one.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

The shoes were number five, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yes, they were. Yeah. Number four is anything on your windowsills. So our photographer sometimes needs to add blue skies. Like if the house is needing to be sold quickly, like maybe they've offered

Clear Windowsills For Easier Editing

SPEAKER_00 3:30

on another house or they have a reason to sell quickly. We might not get the most amazing weather. It might be slightly overcast and she might need to put blue skies in. It is really hard to Photoshop around a plant or in a regular shaped object. So it's better just to leave your window soles completely empty.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

I'm looking at mine right now and I'm going, yep, no, I'm not ready for the photos.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I would clear those off for you. Number three. Now, this gave us a giggle. Controversial items. So things like large religious items, anything nude or you know, a little bit revealing

Personal Items Privacy And Taste

SPEAKER_00 4:06

that could put somebody off or not. Photos of your children, or anything that identifies your profession if you work in government or maybe the police or customs or some kind of role where you wouldn't want somebody on the internet looking at your photos and knowing where you work.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Where you live.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Yeah, where you live and where you work, sort of like yeah. It's just it's best practice not to kind of be too revealing. Um if they come through your house and they see a picture of you, then you can put them back up afterwards. But I wouldn't encourage that for your photos.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

My neighbour, I've got a funny story for that. We're just gonna pause for a minute here. In Parapurumu, I had a neighbour, she lived across the road from us, and she was selling her house, and she said to me, Oh, I do want to come around and have a look, you know, first before we put it on the market. And it was a giant, absolutely giant photo of her naked in the bedroom. And and then on the other side of it was the cross, funny enough.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

I mean, good on her. Good on her. I'm all for body positivity.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

But I couldn't believe it, and it actually made into her real estate photos as well. Oh, they didn't take it down, they didn't take it down, and I couldn't believe it. Like, I was like, oof, okay. Well, I mean, she was in her 60s and 70s, she probably didn't care at that stage. She probably thought, oh, you know, look at me, I looked kind of cool and hot bacon. But yeah, I couldn't believe it, and to me, that was a huge shock as well. And it was a big red wall. Like, I still remember it's embedded in my head now.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

You can't forget it.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

I cannot forget it, I cannot unsee it.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

I mean, we're pretty open-minded people, and we go into people's houses and we go into their bedrooms, we see all sorts, but that's kind of our job. Like, if we've booked a private viewing on the spot and you maybe have left some clothing on the floor, I would just scoop it up and hide it. But for your photos, yeah, you definitely don't want those things in the photos. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Number two.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Number two, how do you feel about mats around a toilet?

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Oh, no.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

If your toilet lino is completely terribly worn

Bathroom No Gos And The Winner

SPEAKER_00 6:01

and the mat is pristine and quite new condition, I'd hesitate to still endorse that. I just don't think a mat around a toilet should make it into a real estate photo. And number one, wait, wait, wait, wait, the drum roll.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

The drum roll. Okay, guys, are you ready? Have you been thinking about it? What's the number one item that gets photoshopped in Megan's photos? Probably some other real estate agent.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Well, I actually remove it. You remove it? Physically pick it up and take it out of there because I do not want it in my photos, even by mistake. And it's not a cat. And it's not a dog. Every time I take it out, it's it's probably the thing I have to take out of every single house that I go to. And it is bathroom related.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Oh, let me guess. Let me think. Let me think. Oh, what is it? What is it?

SPEAKER_00 6:51

It's something none of us like to admit we have in our bathrooms. It's a toilet brush. The toilet brush! It should not be in the photos. We don't need reminder of that item's job. We're lid down, all the way, lid down. And the other thing is, how do you feel about toilet rolls? Are you a roll over or roll under? Oh. Because I turn the toilet rolls around.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

So that people don't feel uncomfortable if they're an over or an under. Do you know what I'm talking about? We're not talking about wiping here, we're talking about like how the roll is.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Thank god you're clarified there, Megan.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

It's just like people might be a bit confused. How the roll is on the wall. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

I like the way the hotels do, you know, when it's over lips with the little triangle. Oh, yeah. And I love, love, love this lady that comes, and every time, you know, she comes, she only comes like once a month to clean my house, and she always leaves my toilet rolls folded in that little triangle. That is quite cute. Very cute. I love it. But you're right, like it's one of those items that you do notice on the thing. One of the things I noticed recently in one of the listings I was looking at, it had um toilet paper seat cover. Uh sorry, not a paper.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Oh, a seat cover, like the fluffy seat cover. I'm not a fan. You probably worked that out. I'm not a fan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I mean, put it back on for viewings if you must, but not in the photos. We could take it off.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Sounds good. Well, this has been a very entertaining uh just a bit of fun, right? A bit of fun. I loved it. And if you guys think of other items, please send it through

Wrap Up And Listener Suggestions

SPEAKER_01 8:19

to us. We'd love to start making a collection of these things because it is fun, it is life, and at the end of the day, you know, we're human and we are professionals, but we do like to have a bit of a laugh as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

So and we've got you. We will make sure there's no toilet brushes in your photos. Love it. Thank you, Megan. Thank you.