People are always looking for ways to increase their home value, but often times they don’t have much money to spend. Home organization and decluttering can totally change the feel of your home, as well as making your home more presentable. I am going to give you three home organization tips to increase your home value, without spending money or even leaving your house!
How is home organization going to increase your home value?
Picture walking into a home that has papers all over the tables, stuff falling out of the closets, there are dead plants all over the front entrance, and you can’t even walk into the garage.
Now, think about walking into a house, where the tables have nothing on them but flowers in a vase, you can open closets and cabinets that are well organized, it has a welcoming clean walkway, and it has a spacious garage.
You haven’t seen photos of either house, but which sounds nicer?
Go through all of your documents and scan them onto online storage.
Think about your house right now. How many areas in your home have papers scattered or stacked waiting for you to go through them? Do you even remember what those papers are about?
Scanning papers and photos will free up a lot of space throughout your home. This will enable you to see more of the beautiful things in your house as well as making your house look much better!
Plus, scanning documents onto an online cloud storage helps you get much more organized. Labeling the documents, putting them into the appropriate online folders, etc., will help you be able to find them when you need in the future, by simply searching by file name.
It’s great when homeowners do work to their homes, but how often, do they document it correctly? How many times have you gotten work done and put the receipts in a pile? Think about if you ever want to sell your home, and you had a folder of all the scanned improvements and work you have done to your property. You could easily use those document to prove why your house is worth more.
Clean out your closets and garages.
Most of us only wear half the clothes in our closets. So what are you holding on to all that for? Many of us don’t wear certain clothes because we not only forgot we had them, but we can’t find them, because they are buried behind clothes we don’t really like.
We all have STUFF. But how much of that stuff do you even know you have? I show houses constantly that just have garages filled with stuff. They are so filled, that they can’t even park cars in there. If you look at a property appraisal, you will see that there is an adjustment and value for a garage. So a garage is important to a property’s value.
But not all garages are created equal. I have seen garages that are too short and can’t fit a full length car. I have seen garages that are not that tall and can’t fit a truck or even an SUV. In Florida, we have hurricanes, and when one is coming, you are going to want to put your car in that garage.
Notice that there are different kinds of real estate shows on tv. One is showing beautiful homes that people want to buy or sell. Another type of show is a program about hoarders. Which of these shows do you think have nicer properties to look at?
Cleaning out your closets and garages will give you more space, help you find things better in the future, and allow you to donate the unnecessary items to charity.
Clean up your landscaping.
Not everyone has thousands of dollars to put into landscaping. But it is free to clean up your landscaping. Remove the weeds in your driveways and walkways. Remove any vegetation growing onto or into your home. Vines that grow onto your home may look pretty, but they will destroy your home in time.
Get rid of dead plants and leaves. Simply sweeping dirt off walkways will brighten them up.
Take a look at the plants you do have around your house. Are they in good shape? If not, take some extra time to water and take care of them. Remove the dead ones so the focus will turn to the better ones!
If you are able to spend a little bit of money and want some easy front yard landscaping suggestions, check out this House Logic article: Landscaping Ideas for Your Front Yard.
These three tips should really improve the interior and exterior presentation of your house, which will increase your home value. And, if you are thinking of selling your home in the future, these tips will help you get a higher purchase price. Plus, decluttering and home organization will help you to enjoy living in your home and appreciating it even more while you do live there!
