The Gale Force Organizers Podcast

Chaos to Cash: Turn Your Cluttered House into a Buyer's Dream

• Tami Gale • Episode 3

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How Can I Prepare My Home To Sell Quickly And Look Its Best?

Selling your home requires more than just listing it on the market - it demands strategic preparation to attract buyers and maximize your selling price. The secret formula? Declutter, depersonalize, and deep clean.

When potential buyers walk through your door, they're not just evaluating your property - they're trying to imagine their future lives unfolding within those walls. Your personal belongings, while meaningful to you, can actually become obstacles to this crucial visualization process. By removing approximately half of your possessions, you transform your lived-in home into a blank canvas where buyers can project their own dreams and aspirations.

This preparation process delivers remarkable financial benefits. According to recent data, sellers who thoroughly declutter and clean can increase their home's value by 3-5% - translating to approximately $11,000 in additional profit. Beyond the financial advantages, the act of decluttering helps you emotionally transition away from your current home, allowing you to see it as a marketable asset rather than the backdrop of your memories.

We explore practical approaches to this process, from tackling every room systematically to making low-cost updates that dramatically boost curb appeal. You'll discover how strategic furniture placement creates the illusion of spaciousness and how professional organizing assistance can transform your home in just 24-30 hours of concentrated effort.

Whether you're planning to sell soon or simply want to understand how organization impacts property value, this episode provides actionable insights that will help you achieve top dollar for your home while reducing the stress of both selling and moving. Ready to bring calm to your chaos and maximize your home's potential? Connect with Gale Force Organizers today and transform your selling experience.

To learn more about Gale Force Organizers visit:
https://www.GaleForceOrganizers.com
Gale Force Organizers
719-653-5610

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Gale Force Organizers Podcast, where clutter gets conquered and chaos meets its match. Hosted by organizing pro Tammy Gale, helping Colorado Springs families and small businesses bring order and function to their spaces. Organize your space to simplify your life. Let's get started.

Speaker 2:

First impressions matter and when you're selling your home, a little preparation can make a big impact. Here's how to get your house market ready and appealing to buyers. Welcome back. I'm Millie M, co-host producer, back in the studio with owner of Gale Force Organizers, Tammy Gale. How's it going? Great, Thanks for having me. Absolutely so. We want to know how can we prepare our homes to sell quickly and look its best.

Speaker 3:

We really kind of talk about this in a very simplified way, and that is declutter, depersonalize and deep clean, and those three elements really do get you there. When a buyer comes into your home, they want to envision living there, and that means that they don't necessarily want to see your stuff. They want to imagine what their stuff would look like in your space, and so what we have found is, when you declutter, your home is easier to photograph. It allows you to highlight the focal points in your house versus some of the flaws, and it can actually lead to a lighter, brighter space. Really, what you want to do is depersonalize, taking things out of the home that might really just create distraction rather than attraction.

Speaker 3:

What we find is, when your home is decluttered, it is cleaner, the space is easier to see and people can take a moment and not see your stuff but instead see their lives in your home, and that really is key. You want to take a moment and think about yourself. What made you fall in love with your home and you walked in? And it was because you could envision your new life there, and that's exactly what any potential homebuyer wants, do you?

Speaker 2:

suggest that that's where people start to the declutter process and the places that they enjoy the most, or when do you suggest?

Speaker 3:

Well, I really think. Unfortunately, every aspect of the house has to be decluttered, and so you want to think about this in a methodical way. But every room gets addressed. And when we say that, it means in your kitchen, every drawer, every cupboard, all of the counter spaces, all of your closets, and kind of a good rule of thumb. When your realtor walks in and says I want you to declutter and depersonalize kind of a good rule of thumb. When your realtor walks in and says I want you to declutter and depersonalize, what they're really saying is take 50% of this out of the house. That is a scary proposition, but when you think about it, you declutter, and as you declutter you think, oh, I don't need this anymore and you can start to donate and discard the things that don't matter. That's going to make your next move to your new home even easier, because you will have already decluttered.

Speaker 3:

We encourage people to pack as you go. This is a great opportunity to think about not only preparing your house for sale, but to prepare yourself to move. And so why waste the effort? If you take what you want in your new home versus take everything your new home, unpack is going to go so much more smoothly. You're not going to wake up six months later and think, man, those six boxes are still sitting in the corner. I wonder what's in them. You know, we really encourage you to think about this as a methodical process.

Speaker 3:

You want to absolutely take a look at every single aspect of your home and don't leave anything to chance. Remember when you were a buyer, you opened the cupboards, you opened the closets, you looked in the garage, you looked under things. And so once you've decluttered, then you just do a deep clean because your house will show so much better with less in it and it actually will show clean and bright and it shows that you took care that your home was well-maintained, the properties ready and there aren't any questionable things lurking in the corners. And with clutter, people think, oh, a cluttered house, I wonder what deferred maintenance occurred. If you can avoid that mental conversation with that potential buyer, you're going to save yourself and you're going to get a better asking price. There's actually a 2024 report that says if you declutter and deep clean your home, you can earn up to $11,000 more on the home sale. They estimate between 3% and 5% your value can go up simply because you have a well-maintained, decluttered, simplified home to show $11,000.

Speaker 2:

Just think about that money as you're throwing things away. We talked about the emotional aspect of just decluttering on the last show and I feel like it's a great way for you to go into your new place fresh and emotionally lifted.

Speaker 3:

When you have a tidy, well-organized home. The act of decluttering actually helps you start to distance yourself from your home. It helps you see your home as a commodity versus something that you cherish. It helps you start to take the emotion out of things and instead look at it practically with a fresh set of eyes, and it helps you also focus on the new life you're going to create somewhere else. It makes that emotional transition so much easier and you feel better about it, because you're looking to get top dollar for your home and you're looking to invest that in a new chapter somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

What are some low cost updates that can have the biggest impact on a home's appearance?

Speaker 3:

People really say that curb appeal matters, and they're right. So much of what we do now can be done online with real estate listings, but people still make the drive-by. They want to see you and they want to see the neighbors, and the best way to do that is simply a refresh. Make sure that your lawn is mowed, make sure that your front porch isowed, make sure that your front porch is swept, make sure that the light works, make sure that you've got something on the door and maybe a pretty color or a plant, maybe you power wash the front. You really want to make a first impression and you do that by showing pride and ownership, and that starts at the curb.

Speaker 3:

The other thing we often say is take away some of your furniture items that are in your house so that your house looks more open and inviting. Just because we live in a place that requires us to have three end tables, a coffee table, a TV stand and extra plants in the corner, maybe what we really need is a couch, a chair and a lamp plants in the corner. Maybe what we really need is a couch, a chair and a lamp, because less is more. When you actually have less, you're not distracting people but you're showing, yes, we can get a regular size couch or we can get a queen size bed in the bedroom, but we don't have the extra things around to distract buyer. They can walk in and say, yeah, my bed will fit there. Oh, yeah, I could put my dresser over here. They can't if they're thinking, man, this room is small and I can't get anything in the corner. So really it's just you know, edit, edit, edit is really what you and your real estate agent want.

Speaker 2:

That's a perfect middle ground between having all of your things in there and having it empty. It's like you're showing them that these things can fit, but you're also showing them how open and how big the space is.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, really what you want is, when people come in, they aren't looking to buy your home, they're looking to buy your house, to make it their home, and it's really important for them to imagine themselves there. And they can do that when they kind of have a blank slate.

Speaker 2:

That's perfect. So what are the benefits of working with a professional organizer when prepping a home for sale?

Speaker 3:

Well, oftentimes your real estate agent will have given you that to-do list that says declutter, depersonalize and deep clean and then they've left you and you still have a full-time job and you're raising family. The easiest thing to do is call in somebody who can help you. It's a lot easier to manage the task and in about 24 hours 24 to 30 hours of really concentrated effort you can actually get your house decluttered and ready. We do it in four hour sessions so that you don't feel exhausted, so that you don't feel like you're living in this constant state of chaos and that you actually see progress, but that you continue to live your daily life. We are pretty convinced that it is hard to have your house show ready as it is to stay show ready. So the more that you can keep organized and decluttered during that home purchasing process, the better it's going to save you time and money, and decluttered during that home purchasing process, the better it's gonna save you time and money Every single day. Your real estate agent wants your house to be a ready to show.

Speaker 3:

And that means that when you leave for work in the morning, the dog bed has to be put away, there can't be dishes in the sink, you've got to have wiped all the countertops and everything sparkles and shines. It's a lot easier if there's less stuff on the counter to start with.

Speaker 2:

That's true. So you guys heard it right here. If you have your house on the market or thinking about selling, make sure you call Tammy Gale of Gale Force Organizers to take that load off your plate. Appreciate all the information. Thank you so much for stopping in. We'll catch you on the next episode.

Speaker 3:

All, all the information. Thank you so much for stopping in.

Speaker 1:

We'll catch you on the next episode. All right, thanks again. That's it for today's episode of Gale Force Organizers podcast. Ready to bring calm to your chaos? Call 719-653-5610 or visit galeforceorganizerscom. Organize your space to simplify your life. Until next time, stay tidy and let it go if it's gotta go.