5 DIY Tips for Organizing and Selling Your Home in 2022

Homeowners, are you looking for a profitable way to start the new year? In recent months, you may have noticed the undeniably favorable market conditions for sellers in the real estate industry. There's no denying that home prices are incredibly high, and — according to HomeLight's End of Year 2021 Report — most real estate agents only expect these prices to continue to rise. What better New Year's resolution than selling your home for a significant profit in 2022?  

Selling quickly and profitably in the current housing market will be easy, so long as you have a trusted real estate agent on your side. However, as any good realtor will tell you, there's always work to be done before staking a For Sale sign up on your front lawn. Even those without the budget for major renovations will find there are plenty of easy projects that will increase your home's marketability and profit. Here are five tips to get you started!

The 12-12-12 decluttering method 

If you've been living in your home for a long time, decluttering may seem like a daunting task. Over time, outdated papers, personal mementos, and miscellaneous keepsakes all start piling up to the point that ridding your home of all the clutter feels overwhelming and hopeless. 

As a rule of thumb, the best way to start decluttering is to find a process that works for you. The 12-12-12 method is a great place to start.

First, label your boxes to know what to keep, donate, and throw out. Every day, find 12 items to keep, 12 items to donate, and 12 items to throw away. Go room to room until each living area feels spacious and decluttered. If you're struggling to throw items away, set a rule that anything you haven't used in some way in the last year — unless it has sentimental value — should go. 

Set a cleaning schedule

The worst way to turn off buyers? Show them a dirty home. 

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic first touched our shores, it's doubly important to keep your home clean.  

Be sure to use disinfectants, and don't forget to dust the tops of shelves and window sills. Even if you don't mind the dust, buyers are easily swayed with a tidy household. If you hate cleaning, try motivating yourself with a cleaning schedule. This could mean setting certain chores for yourself once a week, or setting a timer for 10 minutes every day, and cleaning as much as you can during that time. 

This is an excellent way to keep your home tidy for your buyers, but it's also a great habit to begin in the new year whether you're going to sell your property or call it home for another few years. 

Depersonalize your property

Any top-notch real estate agent will attest to the importance of depersonalizing a home before sale. While you may love the bowling trophies hung on the wall and your kid's artwork taped to the fridge, prospective buyers want to picture themselves living at the property. Too many personal mementos, sentimental keepsakes, and family photos will ultimately make it impossible for the buyer to picture anyone living in the home besides the current occupants. 

This doesn't mean you should remove all your personal photos and remove the decor walls altogether. Some personal touches will help the property seem more like a home and allow new buyers to imagine what they could do with the space. 

Enhance your curb appeal 

First impressions are always important — especially in the real estate industry.  

The first time a prospective buyer views your home may not be when you're ready for them. Buyers will often drive by the house they're interested in before attending a viewing or showing. If you want to sell for the best possible price, top-notch curb appeal is the way to do it. 

Mainly focus on the front of your property. As this is your buyer's first look at your home, it'll also be the most important. Don't worry about adding anything fancy or expensive, as simple maintenance may set your home high above the competition. 

Get out your clippers and start trimming down your overgrown shrubs, mow your overgrown lawn, plant some flowers in the garden, and give the front door a new coat of paint. You can even go a step further by purchasing an inviting welcome mat, pronounced house numbers, and a modern mailbox. These tiny investments will go a long way in impressing your buyers. 

Create a home office

Like many companies around the nation switch to permanent remote work environments, homeowners now desire a separate area for both work and relaxation. 

In a post-pandemic society, real estate agents report that a top list item for buyers is a home office. If you have an extra bedroom, you can easily convert it into a great office space with minimal effort. Remember that decluttering this area is key if you already have office space. 

If you don't have an extra bedroom, you can still create a home office by clearing the living room, furnished basement, or small alcove. The office doesn't have to be large. So long as it has space for a desk, you can get creative by adding built-in storage and simplistic decor to liven up the space. 

Stage your home

Staging your home is perhaps the last important step before allowing potential buyers to view inside your home. To pull this off, you'll need to maximize your space without simply adding clutter.

Make sure your interior walls are painted a neutral color. As noted, personal mementos, family photos, and sentimental keepsakes, while extremely important to you, will hurt your selling prospects. Buyers want to picture themselves in your property, so try limiting the personal tokens within your decorating in favor of neutral items like plants and landscape photos. 

Walkthrough the home once you're done. If you're having trouble navigating from room to room, that's an easy way to know there's still too much clutter. Coffee tables and ottomans are great, so long as they're not overcrowding the room.