Oh, the dreaded closet...it might be a place you don't want to go. However if you are selling your home, you would be wise to stage your closets as well as the rest of the home.
Closets are where we tend to hide things, and all too often it is where we loose things! staging a closet might seem like a daunting and perhaps useless task, but let me assure you it is not.
First let me go through the steps of staging your closet (organizing would be another word to describe this task). Then I will explain whey staging your closets is not such a bad idea especially when you are selling your home.
In the pictures below you see a typical gentleman's closet. It's really not too bad, and certainly not the worst I have seen, however there is quite a bit of room for improvement. This causal guy wears basically two types of shirts, one for work and the other for leisure. He tends to stick with three basic colors, those being blue, green, and red. As you can see in the photo, his closet is over-crowded with too many shirts crammed together. After all, how many shirts can a guy wear in one week, or even a month?
You have probably heard it said we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. This is true for most of us. Most of us can clear 40-60% of our closets and not miss a thing. So why leave it there, when an overstuffed closet gives the impression of stagnation, clutter and neglect? (Not to mention "not enough space".)
The point is, we should not leave it there when staging a home, because BUYERS WILL LOOK IN THE CLOSETS! What do they want to see? Space! Why not show it to them? A little clearing out and a little organization can make a would of difference.
Here are the steps you need to take. First remove every piece of clothing you have not worn in the past year. You might consider giving those to charity. Next remove any out of season clothes. Make a good space for those in another closet, or pack them and remove them from your property. (If you have read some of my other posts, you will know I recommend you start packing before your home goes on the market.) Renting a POD is an excellent way to clear out a lot of unnecessary items before you show your home. This company will bring the unit to your home. You pack it and they pick it up and store it in a climate controlled environment until you are ready for it.
When all unnecessary items have been removed from your closet, start arranging shirts with shirts, skirts with skirts, pants with pants, etc. At the same time, place like colors with like colors. I recommend using hangers that are all alike. I like to use black plastic. I buy large boxes of them from The Container Store. By doing this, I know I will always be able to add to my collection of hangers and they will always be consistent. I like black because it tends to show less like clutter because it sort of disappears from the eye. White hangers or other colors will work, but I prefer black. The main thing is that they are the same color and same design so everything hangs the same way. Now that you have removed the excess, your clothes have room to breathe, and it is such a pleasure choosing the day's garments from a closet organized in this way. Believe it or not, clutter feeds stress. We have enough stress in our lives without adding to it by the way we allow clutter to intrude in our lives.
Now, you may think you would not want to live with a guy who insist his clothes be organized by color, but I bet you would like to buy a house from that guy. Why? Because it gives the impression of things well taken care of, and this is the lifestyle we are selling, when sell a home. This really is what people are shopping for, a lifestyle, one that works smoothly because there is a place for everything and everything is in it's place. Who doesn't like the zen like feeling you get when we see a space like this that is working the way it was intended to work? What a pleasure to the eye!
You will notice I didn't change much in the top of the closet. The stacks of caps did have to go, but everything else is pretty much the same except for a nice storage box in place of the caps. You may also notice the hanging storage bag on the inside of the closet door is gone also. Something like this screams "There is not enough storage here!" It was not really a matter of too little storage, as it was a matter of too much stuff! If you are like this couple, when you start clearing out, you will find duplicates of many items along with items no longer in use at all. It is just a matter of going through it all. You are going to have to do that anyway on moving day, so why not do it now and have that task done! So there you go, the hows and whys of staging your closet. Now open that door and dig in!
I can help you stage no matter where you live. Check out my online staging via photos you send me though email! Read all about it on my site stagedbydreamweavers.com.
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