How to Declutter to Sell a House: 10 Key Rooms and Spaces (2024)

Find Agent

Room-by-room decluttering checklist to sell a house

If you’re overwhelmed and unsure where to start, take it room by room and try the “timer trick.” This method, favored by productivity and organization bloggers, gives you a structured chunk of time to focus solely on cleaning. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and devote the time to one step of the cleaning process. After all, anyone can do anything for 15 minutes, right? Repeat until your house is clutter-free.

Follow this 10-space checklist, and your home will be ready to sell in no time.

1. Entryway: Remove coats, shoes, hats, pet items

First impressions matter, so start at the front door. Remove and pack away out-of-season coats still hanging on the coat rack, multiple pairs of shoes, hats and gloves, and your dog’s leash. Get rid of the pile of mail and old cards sitting by the front door.

Professional organizer Andrew Mellen says, “Greeting cards with nothing more than a scribble in them have done their job — someone was thinking of you at a particular time and let you know it. If they haven’t written anything significant, the moment has passed, and you can let go.”

Sorting through some messes can take a considerable amount of time, and you might still need the dog’s leash within easy reach, so if you’re stuck here, place items in attractive storage boxes or baskets and hide them away.

2. Kitchen: Clear surfaces, drawers, cupboards, magnets

If you’re pressed for time, Russo picked the kitchen and bath as the two most important rooms to declutter. “Remove all items from countertops, from on top of fridges, magnets on the front — make it look like nobody lives there,” he advises.

Toss out old, expired food, starting with the fridge and freezer and moving onto the cabinets and pantry. Throw away anything gross or mysterious. Budget 15 minutes per shelf, including time wiping down cabinet fronts and cleaning old spills.

While you’re throwing out expired foodstuffs, take a hard look at your pots and pans collection. Consider tossing any infrequently-used cooking tool, pot, pan, dish, or glass into a donation box. Tuck appliances into newly freed-up space in your cabinets, and consider bringing the toaster out for the five minutes a day that you use it.

3. Living room: Take away excess furniture, family photos

Old magazines in the rack beside the couch, books you haven’t read in years piled haphazardly on shelves, and that old armchair with the stuffing bursting from the arms — take a hard look at your living room when it’s time to get a house ready to sell. All of these will distract from the room’s appeal.

How important is the living room? When designed for flexibility, living spaces can attract a wide range of potential buyers. No more cookie-cutter layouts – they should be able to see their personalities reflected in the space when they buy the home.

Start by clearing out everything that belongs in the trash or recycling bin — including old magazines or a broken lamp. If items from around the house have landed in the living room, sort them into bins color-coded by family members. Then, move them to their respective rooms.

And pack away personal photos and mementos — buyers have a hard time envisioning themselves living in a home if it’s your kid’s pictures hanging on the walls. You really need only one sofa and an accent table to indicate how to use the space.

“A lot of times, we see that people just have too much furniture in the room for the size that it is,” Jeremy Kahler, a top real estate agent serving Rapid City, South Dakota, says. “Emptying that out helps it feel like a bigger area.”

4. Bedrooms: Open space in closets, drawers, under beds

In your bedroom, you want buyers to see that their bed, nightstands, and dressers will fit in the space. Making your own furniture visible can help. Clear off the bed so you’ll have somewhere to set laundry baskets, etc., while you clean. Tidy up books, tissues, and old glasses from the nightstand. Move under-bed storage out to the garage.

Sort through your clothes and donate items you haven’t worn in years. Create space in your closet, and make sure closet doors can open and shut easily. Buyers will be poking their noses behind closed doors!

Be picky about sentimental items — like your prom dress or a concert t-shirt. Mellen recommends paying close attention to these moments — namely, “the story you tell yourself” when you’re assessing whether or not to keep an item. “The story you may be telling yourself about how exciting the hunt to find it was, or how much fun you had when you were drinking co*cktails with your friends, are all good stories,” he says. “They just might not need to be stories you’re still telling yourself.”

In other words, if you’re holding onto an item for fear of losing a memory, let it go and trust yourself to remember the good.

5. Bathrooms: Organize towels, storage, bath and sink areas

According to Russo, “Kitchens and baths sell houses.”

If you’re short on time, prioritize these rooms. In the bathroom, “remove all personal effects from showers, bathtubs, and vanity tops,” he says. Throw out half-empty bottles of shampoo, and fold and hang up towels.