Decluttering your home

Most of the helpful information you’ll get from TV, magazine articles and Estate Agents about preparing your property for selling, will be about decluttering (keyword) and painting tired rooms.

For many of us, the house that becomes our home, that we may have spent years of our lives in, also forges emotional ties. We remember good times and bad spent there. Selling this home and having people passing judgement on it, therefore, can be galling. The answer to this problem isn’t all about detaching your emotions, although you might just have to a little bit! It’s about communication.

Communicating with the other people who share your home is key. Discussing with them the reasons for selling and preparing them for the move is essential. Is everybody on board with the sale? Have you a reluctant family member who’d rather stay in their ‘old home’? Are you selling because of partner discord or maybe a family member is moving on? Maybe you need to sell for financial reasons? Whatever it is, you have to leave your emotions elsewhere. Discuss their fears, listen to their reasons and get together and…communicate.

Then you can formulate your plan of action. Do your Kids, Partner, Au Pair, dogs, work shifts or lie in ‘til late? Are they sabotaging your plans with messy rooms? Is anybody hiding in the bathroom desperately smoking cigarettes? It’s not possible to keep your house tidy 24/7 but with everybody’s cooperation, it can be in good order most of the time, but especially before a viewing.

If you have a particularly recalcitrant member of your clan who just will not see reason, then plead, bribe or demand good behaviour at least during viewings. If this does not work then ship them out and this includes the dogs too! A long dog walk will do everybody a favour!

Always be positive about your property. Don’t point out snags or unfinished DIY projects and remember, your family room is not small, but cosy and your body language will say that you have spent happy times there!