Give me your best packing tips

[NikiM20]

We are putting our house on the market in less than 2 weeks, now i need to start packing and get the house decluttered. I am feeling VERY overwhelmed right now. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tricia1972]

I am not a real estate agent, but have moved many times.

Here are a few of my tips. For most of my tips, get some boxes from the grocery store and as many newspapers you can. Set aside a full day, pick out some of your favorite tunes and wear your most comfortable clothes.

Start in one room in the morning with your boxes and your paper:

Take down everything that is personal. Family photos especially. You want the potential buyers to be able to see themselves in your home. Not you in your home.

If you do not need it on a day to day basis - pack it. The less that is in your house the better. Knick knacks - just leave a few things for each room to give a homey feel, but better to err on the side of pack it.

Wrap the things and put them in the box as you take them down. Label each box as you fill it, tape it and stack it in your garage. When you are done with the first room, move onto the second room.

Extra things also include pots, pans, dishes, cooking utensils. Anything that you don't need - pack. If you think you may need it sometime between now and then, but it is something that clutters your house - pack it in a rubbermaid container. That will be eaiser to access between now and when you actually move.

Don't forget to declutter your closets when you are in your bedrooms. You want your closets to seem nice and roomy to any potential buyers.

It's a lot of work, but if you do it one room at a time, you will see immediate results as you leave each room.

Good luck!!

 

[CEDmom]

Before we put our house on the market we had to declutter and put stuff in storage.

I started in the kitchen. I kept place settings for 4, 1 large pot, 1 small pot, 1 skillet, a few Corning Ware casserole dishes, 1 pan, 1 cookie sheet, 1 each of various assorted gadgets. Everything else went into a climate controlled storage unit. That alone cleared out tons of space. I was able to then get everything off the counters.

I then tackled book cases. We actually were able pack all the books in one and take it apart and put in storage.

I went through DD's toys and put a lot in storage. Mostly stuff she didn't play with but couldn't part with.

I went through the linen closet and kept 2 sets of towels for each person and 2 sets of sheets for each bed. Everything else got packed up. That gave us a lot of space to put stuff in there we needed but was cluttering up other rooms.

We went through the other closets and packed up stuff like summer clothes and rarely worn things. Again that gave us space for stuff that was cluttering the bedrooms.

Good luck. Think of it as a great opportunity to part with stuff you really don't need.