One of the hardest things to do when you are preparing to sell your home, is to get rid of the clutter. After years of making memories, what appears as clutter to a potential buyer may not be evident to the homeowner. Invite a friend over to help point out the clutter areas of your home. If you find that these are things you can’t bear to part with, pack them away. Start a garage sale box and a donation box, mark both of them clearly and start placing things that you are willing to give up in each designated box. This will keep things looking organized for when I potential buyer is looking at your home. Think of this process as getting a jump start on the packing that you are going to have to do anyway.

Giving the kitchen and bathrooms a “face-lift” is one of the most important selling points of your home. Let’s start in the kitchen. Clean all of your appliances, including the oven place the smaller countertop appliances under the counters for those times when you will be inviting buyers to look at your home. Take a good critical look at your stove hood and filter and do what it takes to make it look nice. Remove anything that is stored on top of your refrigerator and take down and pack up all the kids artwork and refrigerator magnets. Clean out from under the sink, potential buyers tend to look under these places for any leaks in the plumbing. Look at the cabinet knobs and the curtains see if they can be cleaned up or if they need to be replaced. Repair any leaks or caulking problems that you find. Prepare a bowl of fruit or a vase full of flowers to place somewhere in your kitchen.

Now, let’s move into the bathroom. Scrub the sinks, tubs and toilets, remove any rust stains that you may find. Repair and leaky faucets, shower heads or trickling toilets. Vacuum your fan grill. Pay close attention to the light switches, knobs on your cabinets and the grout in the tile. Make sure that your medicine cabinet is clean and working properly. Again, remove any clutter that you have. Have special towels that you only take out when people are coming to look at your home.

For the general interior of the house, most problems with interior walls can be repaired with spackling compound and paint. Make sure all windows and doors open and shut properly and are clean. If they look like they need some paint, add some white paint to the doors. Keep furniture to a minimum so that rooms do not appear smaller than they are. Clean out all your closets, potential buyers want to see lots of space.

Now your ready for Showtime!