Believe it or not, kitchens are a big selling point when selling your house. For a lot of people it is the focal point of the home, especially families with children. It's where the entire family comes together and has breakfast before heading off to school and work, and then in the evening winds down and has dinner and talks about their day. So it only makes sense that it is one of the biggest selling points of your home. Your mission, should you choose to accept it ;) - is to clean, spruce up and organize your kitchen so that it is as inviting and "warm" as possible for potential buyers. In this article we are going to cover a few tips on organizing things in your kitchen to give it a more neat of an appearance for buyers.
Declutter Your Kitchen
In a previous post "Getting Your Kitchen Ready To Sell Your Home Quickly" we covered sprucing up your kitchen on a budget by replacing faucets, maybe cabinet door handles as well as painting. Now the last thing you want is someone to open up the cabinet under the sink and find all kinds of cleaning supplies haphazardly scattered throughout, or to open your junk drawer that has stuff in there that belongs in the garage.
The first thing you need to do is remove things that just don't belong in the kitchen. Start with that junk drawer. Then under the sink. When you start, don't panic, we know that it can seem a little overwhelming when you look at the entire picture. Organized Home has some good info on this:
Take It Step-By-Step
Once you get started, it's hard to avoid decluttering all sides at once. For example, you find a lone Christmas plate in the junk drawer, so you go to the high cabinet that holds the Christmas dishes, only to see a sack of whole oats that belongs in the cupboard where sits the bottle of window cleaner you forgot you stashed there while looking for the mop a few days ago ... stop!
Declutter a single shelf, drawer or cupboard at a time, no exceptions.
Use one of the boxes to hold items to be put away in another location in the kitchen, and assign a second box for rest-of-the-house put-aways.
Donations or items for storage go to their respective boxes. Stick with your shelf until you're done, then put away the items from the put-away boxes before moving on. You'll stay focused when you declutter one step at a time!
Decluttering step-by-step also provides a natural opportunity to break down a big job. If you're distracted by caring for small children, declutter one drawer or shelf per nap, deep-cleaning as you go.
Taking it step by step is great advice. It's kind of like "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time" (we don't condone eating elephants :) ). Another great tip is that if you don't need it right now and can do without an item for a while, go ahead and pack it up and move it to storage, then you are one step ahead when it comes time to move!
Organization
Once you have the kitchen decluttered, next you need to try and properly organize your kitchen, even under the sink. A smart buyer is always going to look under the sink to evaluate the plumbing and/or garbage disposal. Thankfully there are some inexpensive things you can do to help better organize under the sink and other areas of your kitchen. Houzz just put out a great article with some fantastic ideas:
Cabinet door organizers. Make the most of your below-sink area with the addition of slim cabinet door organizers. These mini-shelves are perfect for storing small, frequently accessed items like sponges, scrub brushes and rubber gloves.
Pullout shelves. Part of what makes the below-sink zone such a mess is its depth; no wonder things get all jumbled up when you can’t even see what’s in there! Install gliding shelves inside your cabinet, and when you need to reach something way at the back all you have to do is pull out the shelf.
Labeled bins. If your cleaning supplies are out of control even after decluttering, you may need a bit more structure. Clear, labeled bins sorted by task (floors, windows, etc.) can help you see at a glance which set of products you need. Pair these with pullout shelves for a supremely organized cleanup zone.
Read The Full Article "Post-KonMari: How to Organize Your Cleaning Supplies" Here
The first and third suggestions are relatively inexpensive and easy to do. Pullout shelves maybe a little harder for your average homeowner to accomplish and be a little more expensive. More than likely the pullout shelves will have to be custom built, and without the proper tools can be rather difficult to complete.
Summing It Up
When you first think about cleaning and organizing your kitchen, you may be a little overwhelmed at first. Maybe just set aside a weekend to get it done, depending on how much you have to do and how big your kitchen is. Remember, for most buyers, the kitchen is the biggest selling point of your home, so don't skip it or take short cuts. Follow the above tips and with a little elbow grease, you can have a clean and well organized kitchen for prospective buyers.
If you don't want to have all of the hassles of cleaning and tidying up your kitchen, or your entire house for that matter, don't forget, we buy houses as is and in any condition - Mandich Property Group. Just reach out to us and we will be more than happy to make you an offer on your property just the way it is :)
The Post Tidy Kitchens Help Sell Your House is republished from MandichPropertyGroup.com. Find more on: The Company's Blog
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