3 House Cleaning Tips when Your Home is for Sale

You might not have the luxury of being able to move out of your home while it is on the market, but you can do much to lessen personal clutter. This will not only make your home look more attractive, but easier to keep clean as well while it is up for sale.

1. Go room by room and determine what items you can throw out, donate, or at least put in storage until you are ready to move into your new home. If you don't absolutely need it over the next 3 months, for instance, consider getting rid of it or at least getting it out of sight.
2. Pack up any non-essential decorative items, books, magazines and collectibles which not only gather dust, but can distract a potential buyer from focusing on the house itself. (That includes personal photos: buyers don't care about pictures of your kids everywhere; they want to imagine their own family in your place!)
3. Store out of season clothing so that closets look more roomy and spacious. Clutter and chaos can make a person feel anxious, and make rooms appear small and unwelcoming.
4. Consider calling 1-800-GOT-JUNK? or another bulk-removal service to finally get rid of that clutter in your basement, old broken furniture, and other items you couldn't sell off at that last yard sale you held. A less cluttered house looks more spacious, and gives buyers more opportunity to envision themselves in the home.

This process can also make your move-out simpler once you've sold your home, as you've already done much of the packing (and trashing) work already!

Pet, smoke and even strong incense or candle odors can be a major turnoff to potential home buyers from the moment they walk in your front door. Don't let the smell be the first thing buyers focus on.

If there's an old sofa, pillow or blanket that your cat or dog has had a few accidents on, get rid of it now. Wash bed linens, slip covers and pillow cases thoroughly after first soaking in a baking soda/water solution to neutralize odors - or consider buying fresh linens to put on the beds before showings and open houses.

If you can't afford to rip up carpets that have settled-in pet or smoke odors, do your best to neutralize them. First get the rugs treated by a professional carpet cleaning service, or rent/buy a carpet cleaning machine to do it yourself. This will do much to freshen up the house overall, and also reveal where you might have stubborn trouble areas, such as odors caused by cat urine.

To deal with cat urine and other severe odor problems, there are natural, inexpensive methods which actually work better than many commercial products. As per the instructions in this free recipe, a simple combination of vinegar, water, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap can often get rid of persistent cat urine smells for good. For less severe odors, baking soda alone may do the trick, especially when sprinkled over carpets for 15-30 minutes before every vacuuming.

Before a scheduled showing or open house, do your best to freshen up the house as well. Open the windows for a while to get in some outdoor air (provided the weather is agreeable, of course!). Burn a nicely-scented candle, or use an air freshener like Febreze Air Effects.

Don't overdo it on the scents, however - that can hint to a buyer that you are trying to cover up something, or be irritating to someone who has a sensitivity to smells and perfumes. If you are going to use an air freshener, spray rooms an hour before the showing so the most intense scents have time to dissipate.

And of course, if there are litter boxes in the house, make sure the boxes are cleaned and scooped daily, and preferably right before a showing as well! I have seen people immediately respond to just the sight of a litter box as a sign that the house will/does smell of cats. So out of sight, out of mind...?