It can be stressful for homeowners to prepare their property for an open house, especially when there are multiple times arranged. As hard as it may be, it is best to try and get your home as ‘show ready’ as you can prior to the first open home, and as best as you can, keep it that way until the final showing.

Now, nobody can live to a show-home standard of cleanliness and tidiness 24/7 of course, but there are many things that you can do to stay on top of things and handy tips and tricks for efficient organization and last-minute preparations.

Here is a guide packed with ideas for making your home shine during showings without you losing your mind in the process!

Make a checklist

As burdensome as it may seem, making a checklist or two can make the world of difference. Use this guide to make your own and stick to them for optimal efficiency and less stress. One for everyday use and another for pre-open home days is ideal.

Up your regular cleaning routine

While your home is up for sale, open homes and showings can be frequent, and it’s simply much less hassle, in the long run, to stay perhaps further ahead on housework than you might usually manage. Avoid last-minute monstrous cleaning efforts by determining a doable daily routine. This could include:

Daily

Making the beds
Staying on top of the laundry
Cleaning after yourself every time you use the kitchen
Wiping down countertops
Vacuuming carpets and sweeping floors
Cleaning off bathroom mirrors

Weekly

Clear the gutters
Mow the lawns
Clean the windows
Weed the gardens

This may all sound like a lot, but the key is to stay on top of it once you get it all in order. That way, the maintenance of it will take minutes instead of hours.

Declutter and depersonalization

The best way to ensure a decluttered show home is to keep it that way! Decluttering is important not only for tidiness, but to give potential buyers the chance to easily envision their own things in the space, so when it comes to decluttering, really go for it.

Pack away whatever you can into storage if possible – the less you have to keep tidy every day, the better. Pack away personal items, ornaments, family photos, etc. until you’ve moved, and consider adding staging items such as abstract art or other presentable pieces of furniture to accent certain areas.

It’s also important to keep your cupboards organized, as they are often inspected by potential buyers for storage capacity. Pack away as much as you can and invest in tubs, boxes, etc. for anything leftover.

Handy hint – Grab a couple of storage bins to easily throw everyday clutter into before an open home. Things you use every day but need to tidy away for a showing, such as hairbrushes, books, phone chargers, etc. can all be quickly and easily stored away in a few bins to keep everything looking minimal and tidy.

Staging

You can take staging a home for selling as far as you’d like – from adding a couple of touches yourself to hiring a company to do it all for you. Staging is a great way to optimize the feel of your house as a potential new home for prospective buyers. After decluttering and depersonalizing your space, consider adding touches such as flowers, abstract art, fresh white towels (for that spa-effect), etc. Plus, depending on your own furniture, it could really help to add some new, attractive pieces – even consider what you could borrow or rent out if a room is particularly lacking.

Don’t forget curb appeal

First impressions count, and when it comes to selling your house, its curb appeal will be the first chance you have to make a positive impression. So, make sure that the exterior of your home is attractive from the street, by not only making it neat and tidy, but consider adding some plants or flowers, and pressure washing the pathway or driveway if necessary.

On the day

Stash away the everyday clutter into the bins
Any general cleaning that isn’t up-to-date (but hopefully is!)
Make the beds
Make sure the mirrors are clean
Depending upon the weather, open the windows and let the breeze flow through
Open up the curtain, draw the blinds and turn on some of the lights, too
Take out the trash, and hide the bins if you can, or at the very least make sure they are clean

Final thoughts

When it comes to preparing your home for showing, there can be so much to do that it feels overwhelming, and this is where a little extra organization can really help. Declutter as much as you can to make keeping on top of the cleaning and tidying much easier and work diligently through a checklist to ensure that you don’t forget anything. The more presentable your home, the quicker it should sell and the greater price you can hopefully achieve!