Cover story: Owners clean up their act when selling

With the last day of summer just around the corner, it’s a good time for homeowners to organize and declutter their homes as they prepare to spend more time indoors. For homeowners considering putting their homes up for sale, organizing efforts can pay off big.

With so many homes on the market, Realtors say a messy house will not sell quickly if potential buyers think it will require too much effort to clean. Buyers simply are not interested in buying homes that appear chaotic or have too many personal items that are not arranged in any logical order.

“It’s a much different market,” says Jane Quill, past president of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and an associate broker with RE/MAX in Fairfax. “There are so many other issues on people’s minds - they don’t know if they will have jobs, and they worry about their debt - that a house must be in totally marketable [move-in-ready] condition.”

Ms. Quill says part of her responsibility is to give her sellers a different perspective so they can distance themselves from their home and view it through a prospective buyer’s eyes. If a home is not organized and neat, buyers may lose confidence in a house and wonder about the maintenance.

The mantra when preparing to put a house on the market is “light, bright, neutral and clutter-free,” says Ron Sitrin, a Realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate in the District.

“It’s always important, but especially in a market like this, that you do everything you can to tilt things in your favor,” he says.

Mr. Sitrin often provides guidance about what sellers should throw out and what they should keep. However, if they need major assistance, he recommends hiring a professional organizer.

Many people aren’t sure what to do with out-of-season items such as goggles, bathing suits, sand-and-beach toys, outdoor furniture and other summer items. Professional organizers provide motivation, focus and basic steps to follow when sorting through belongings.

The first step is “zoning,” or grouping together all similar items. Caitlin Shear, a professional organizer with A Sorted Affair LLC in Fairfax, says this is the only way her clients can make informed decisions about what to keep. (Some people don’t realize they have multiples of one item.) If clients have a tough time deciding what to toss, she suggests they put “expiration dates” on boxes. If the items are not used within the allotted time, the items in the box should be donated.

Another strategy is to calculate the cost to store a box, based on the square footage and the effort it will require.

“You must determine what deserves prime real estate in the house for storage,” Mrs. Shear says.

Many summer toys and outdoor equipment (such as water slides, rafts and floats) are meant to last only one season, as they will crack and deteriorate if not placed in a climate-controlled area.

She asks, “If you have $2 water wings, are you really going to take the time to deflate them and buy a plastic bin for them?”

When it comes to summer clothing, Mrs. Shear’s tip is to move every hanger in the closet backward and change the hanger to the forward position each time you wear it. By the end of the exercise, you have a visual of what you wear and what pieces can be donated.

After zoning and purging, homeowners should choose the proper way to store the items they keep. Rather than running out and buying a big toy box and storage trunk, Mrs. Shear says to stick with smaller, clear bins that are more manageable and enable you to find what you need. Containers don’t have to be expensive; homeowners can use giant Ziploc bags, for example, to store porch cushions and snorkeling equipment. Ziploc Big Bags come in three sizes, up to 2 feet by 2.7 feet.

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