I wanted to share some of my tips on how to get your home ready to sell fast when you are a vintage collecting maximalist, but before I get started, let me update you on what’s going on with us.

 This past week has been a CRAZY roller coaster for our family! In the last 7 days we fell in love with a new home, made an offer that home, negotiated the offer, had the offer accepted, AND sold our current house. It’s all happened so much faster than I was expecting, but I am grateful.

 As you can probably imagine our home is PACKED with items, both personal and from the shop. I won’t go into our hoarding issues right now, but like a lot of people, we have way too much stuff. I had about 3 hours notice to get our home ready for listing photos. Our real estate agent (who is amazing btw) wanted to get our house on the market ASAP in order to be more competitive in our offer on the new home. He came over on last minutes notice to snap a bunch of photos with his iPhone. We were still planning on having the professional photos taken but the house sold before we could even get them done!

 In the few hours before our realtor came over I was rushing around trying to clear clutter, packing away all extra home décor accessories, and organizing the stuff we had out. Basically trying to become a minimalist in the blink of an eye! Here are my recommendations if you find yourself in a similar situation.

 Step 1: Stay Calm

Take deep breathes. It’s normal to freak out a little when you are getting your house ready to sell in a hurry, but try to stay calm. You will get more done!

 Step 2: Clear The Clutter

Clear clutter away anywhere you can…closets, cupboards, under the bed, etc. You can clear these areas later and they normally aren’t included in listing photos. Once people start looking you will need these areas to be a little more organized and emptied out. But still, no one is going to look under your bed. 

 Step 3: Use Garage As Storage

The garage is another area that is not typically photographed for a home listing. You can move large toys, extra furniture, and clutter into the garage for photos and deal with it later. That said once people start touring your home this area will need to be somewhat organized.

 Step 4: Temporary Storage Unit

Consider renting a temporary storage unit. We have nearby storage unit and that really helped. I was able to bring over some of the kid’s toys, extra bedding, and a bunch of other things that we don’t need everyday but were taking up way to much space.

 Step: 5 Don’t Take Down Everything

You need to decrease clutter but don’t remove ALL of your décor. I actually contemplated taking down our gallery wall in the entryway. I wasn’t sure it would be everyone’s style but decided to leave it anyway. I also left our bookshelves decorated, items on the coffee table and all the throw pillows on the sofa. (And if you know me, you know that’s a lot!) I even left a few family photos out. We actually got compliments from buyers on our home décor and I think it helped people visualize the possibilities.

 Step 6: Touch Up Paint

If you can touch up the walls with fresh paint it’s helpful. I did and it makes everything feels fresh and new. Keep in mind you don’t have to spend a ton of time on this or re-paint an entire wall. I’m just talking about the scuffmarks under the breakfast bar and the fingerprints going up the staircase. 

 Step 7: Let In Natural Light

Let in all the natural light you can. Open all shades, shutters, curtains and blinds. Natural light is best for photos AND one of the top checklist items for homebuyers.

 Step 8: Clean The House

This might seem pretty obvious but have a clean house for showings. No one wants to look into a dirty shower or bathtub. Enough said.

 Step 9: Turn On Lights

Turn on ALL your lights before a showing. If you can switch them on before you leave the house to the realtor. Believe it or not, you can’t always trust that the real estate agent showing the house will actually do this every time. Your home will show better with the lights on.

 Step 10: Get Out Of The House

This is not necessarily an easy one but if possible, stay somewhere else for a couple days. We had the benefit of going away for the first week the house was listed. This allowed agents to show our home anytime at their client’s convenience. On top of that we didn’t have to worry about making the place a mess again or straightening up after ourselves each day for showings.

In the end we listed our home for sale on a Thursday afternoon and accepted an offer the following Tuesday! Not only that, we had multiple over ask offers to choose from. This process has been moving very quickly for us but I’m so grateful that it has also been very smooth so far. We are now in escrow on both the home we are selling and our soon to be new home.

I can’t wait to show you the new house once we close and everything is official! I will say…it’s not at all like the house we have now and I will be challenged in terms of the décor direction I go in. Stay tuned!