This is a guest post by Kristin Louis from Mighty Moms.

Selling a home comes with exciting possibilities. Yet when you have to prepare for showings while balancing the responsibilities that come with parenting, it can be daunting. Thankfully, there's plenty you can do to make your home immaculate for any showing.

Stage Your Showing

How you present your home on the day of the showing can leave a lasting impression. You’ve done a lot of work preparing your home, but there may still be more you can do to increase your home's appeal. Make sure your bedding is fresh and laid out nicely. Use lighting to give ambiance to each room and, if necessary, add extra lamps. Ensure your home smells nice by keeping windows open and adding natural scents. 

Amp up your home's atmosphere by introducing freshly cut flowers or even baked cookies. While you can certainly do this yourself, bringing in professionals could be beneficial if it’s within your budget. Stagers will have ample experience in prepping homes for showings, and that can be just what you need to secure a sale. And if you haven’t done so already, now’s the time to give your home a good, thorough cleaning. However, if you don’t have time to give your interior a top-to-bottom scrubbing, or you’re afraid you’ll end up missing something buyers might notice, bring in the pros to handle this process as well. You can expect to pay $25 - $50 an hour per cleaner for a maid service.  

Streamline Your Rooms

A home filled with clutter and mess is not one that is likely to have buyer appeal. Toys strewn on tables, various appliances obscuring surfaces through your kitchen, and overflowing bookshelves all contrive to make your home appear less spacious. Go through every room and make it a goal to take out as much as you can. You could make this a family project, where you all look around for visible cables, oversized plants, and cutlery that could be removed or otherwise organized. If you have large furniture, consider removing pieces to open up your rooms and add space to your home. 

Streamline your storage areas to give you extra capacity. Buyers will examine your garage, sheds, and closets, so the less there is, the more appealing your home will be. You might give away things that do not make the cut, organize a garage sale, or at least put them in storage.

Make Your Home Neutral

If your home reflects your personality, it may be wise to make changes. Are your walls vivid colors? Do you have animal print throws on your furniture? Or do you have unusual décor that you have collected over the years? While this is still your home, it's crucial that it feels like a blank canvas to those viewing it. Paint your walls in neutral, universal tones and remove anything that could be an acquired taste. If you need to hire a professional painter, this will run you around $400 per room. This de-personalization process should apply to everything. It's only natural for your home to be filled with deeply personal effects. Magnets and drawings on fridges, family photographs, and souvenirs from past vacations all add up to make your home special, but that may interfere with how a viewer sees your property. This may not be an easy thing to do, but it could contribute to a successful sale.

Spruce Up

We all have some issues with our homes. It is something that cannot be avoided. After all, homes are to be lived in, and, sometimes, life gets in the way of home maintenance. Write up an itinerary of issues. Do you have faucets that no longer run responsively? Or, light switches which have long ceased to function? Whatever problems you have, or find as you survey your house while decluttering, it's prudent to have them dealt with before your first showing. Update lighting, and if you have scuffed flooring or worn carpets, replace them. These projects may seem like a big expense, but viewers will notice them, and that could prove to be a deal-breaker.

This does not have to be a stressful process. Decluttering a home can seem intimidating, but if you take to the challenge as a family, it can be manageable. Remember, the key to a successful sale is appearance, so ensure your home is neutral and well-staged to maximize its appeal.

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