When you list a home on the market, you need to help your potential buyers envision themselves living in your space. To accomplish this, you ultimately need to clear out your clutter and depersonalize your home. You want buyers to notice the beautiful features of your home, not your random items and family keepsakes. Purging your home will assist in creating an environment potential buyers can envision themselves in.
As you take our advice and begin to clean up, you may wonder, “Where the heck am I supposed to put the stuff now?” While we recommend throwing away, donating, or up-cycling things that are no longer serving their purpose, there will be items you inevitably need to keep. This is where we recommend a FORGIVENESS AREA!
What, you might ask, is a Forgiveness Area? EED defines this as a room or unused space to store personal items which should not be showcased in the areas of your home people will see. More or less, this is a catch-all area for the items we, as home-stagers, would tell you to remove from the “market-ready” version of your home.
Grandma’s special hand-sewn quilt? Forgiveness area! Box of your children’s art projects and report cards? Forgiveness area! Family portraits or photos? Forgiveness area! Religious artifacts or the cross hanging in your kitchen? Forgiveness area! As you can see, this space should provide storage for the items you can’t bear to part with, but also don’t exactly belong in a home on the market!
Next, you may ask “Where do I put these items? What space specifically is good to designate as a Forgiveness Area?” We typically recommend an extra bedroom or basement closet. A storage room or shed works great as well. Another option is reaching out to neighbors or family members who have extra garage storage or a guest room you could utilize. If you live in a particularly small home (or just have a lot of stuff!), you could also do research to find a budget-friendly storage unit nearby your property, or near your next home.
Having a Forgiveness Area will also ease the process of your future move, as you will already have items packed away and organized. All you will have left to do is move your furniture and everyday necessity items. Another benefit to a Forgiveness Area is if organized effectively, you can demonstrate that your home has ample storage space – a bonus factor to potential buyers.
Catch you next time on Katie’s Corner! Checkout our other Luxury home staging blogs and let us know what you think in the comments! Have a topic you would like us to break down in a blog? Drop a comment or DM to one of our social media platforms and we will give you our expert take and advice. Thanks, and see you next time!