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Home Organizing Ideas: Staging a Closet Maximizes Space When Selling a Property

by | Jan 25, 2018 | Decorating, Home, Home Selling, Home Staging, Staging

It’s no secret if you’re selling a property home buyers will open up cabinets and closet doors, it’s not because they’re nosy persay, these buyers want to know how much storage and closet space is available for “their stuff” on the property. Closets are one of the most important features in a listing, so it’s imperative that home sellers schedule time to salvage unorganized and overpacked closets.

Unable to find what your looking for, items continually falling to the floor, or worse yet, not being able to shut the door are all reasons why you might want to consider organizing your home closets. I recently took the weekend and went through every closet in my house, no I’m not selling, but if I feel this great purging the old to make way for what the new year has in store, imagine how buyers can envision your newly found closet space.
 
So if you’re looking to wow-buyers, especially first-time home buyers; it may all come down to your closet space since it’s square footage that’s topping buyers “must-have” lists when purchasing a home.
Can you blame buyers for wanting more space? As a society we naturally have more possessions than past generations, closets packed to the brim with shoes, clothes, linens and outdoor equipment. Most moves involve gaining more square footage, take first-time buyers for example, many are moving from cramped apartments with little to no storage on the premises and want the luxury of storing all their belongings in their new home.
Ideally as a seller, since you will be packing things away anyway, take a closet at a time and determine which items you want to keep, sell/donate, pack or trash. Follow these four tips when staging a closet:

Closet Zones

First off assess your space what is this closet’s purpose? Linen closet? Coat Closet? Bedroom Closet? This will help you determine what belongs in the space. If you have items currently in the closet that doesn’t support the purpose find the items another place to be stored in the home or pack it away. Many times I find inside a master bedroom closet that the wife’s clothes overrule the closet and the husband’s left to store items in a small hall closet. To buyers this clearly shows there is not enough space in the master closet, so you must do some maneuvering before going on the market to have both his and her clothing in the master bedroom closet. This way you can then use the hall closet for its intended purpose.

Remove Unnecessary Stuff

Pack away anything you have not used/worn in four months. Usually 50-percent of items (like extra towels, linens, bulky coats) and 80-percent of our wardrobe, think ahead in terms of weather and special events that may require special clothes. If closets are overstuffed it reminds buyers that this space will be too small to fit their belongings. The items inside the closet should reflect the purpose of the room, if you store extra stuff in your entryway closet, like sporting equipment or bath towels buyers will believe they have to store items like this too because there isn’t another place to store it.

Vertical Height

Pick up items on the floor of your closet. Shoes on the floor is one thing, but you should invest in a shoe rack to organize them neatly and refrain from them getting flung around the closet. Under no circumstance should there be clothes lying on the closet floor. Even storage boxes filled with Christmas decor or baby pictures should be removed from closets and stored in the attic, basement or garage. If you don’t have those rooms to store items consider investing in a storage unit until the property is sold.

Closet Organizing Essentials

 

Matchy-Matchy

The way a space like a closet can look more organized even though it’s storing a bunch of mismatched items is to group like items together. By doing this, you create specific zones for each item within the closet. Hang all shirts together. Hang all jackets together. Hang all pants together. All these items in the same closet, but in designated area categorized by its own group. Within each item category, arrange by color. Arranging items by color reminds many of magical rainbows. That sublime spectrum of color is brought into the home for eye appeal.

Storage Solutions

Other item that you want to match inside your closet are storage bins and hangers. Use the same hangers throughout your closet preferably wood or velvet hangers all hung in the same direction to create one seamless look. Think of your favorite luxury retail store like Bloomingdale’s, Banana Republic or Nordstrom they all have a variety of clothing however use the same hangers to display the items. Contain loose items in baskets, bins and boxes that can add some personality to the space.
Turn your closets into a positive selling feature rather than a place to stash secret items because we all know most people move because they’re looking for more storage to put “their stuff,”  so do them a favor and wow them by doing these organizational tasks before your next open house. Tell us below how you plan on organizing your closets and don’t forget to show us your closet transformation on our Facebook Fan Page.
Happy Selling,
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