Universal Press Syndicate - January 2007
"Nobody wants to buy your chaos when they buy a house," says Martha Webb, co-author of "Dress Your House for Success." A fourth edition of the DVD by the same name is due for release early this year.
A house crowded with possessions looks smaller than its true dimensions, according to Webb. "I don't care if you've got a house with 8,000 square feet. It's still going to feel small," she says. Here are several ideas for home sellers on meeting the clutter-busting challenge in a timely way.
Consider staging a party in support of your clutter-busting project. Stephanie Calahan, who heads a 5-year-old professional organizing company says decluttering can be more tolerable if the agony of it is infused with occasional amusement.
Calahan tells of one client, an insurance company manager, whose many boxes of unsorted personal papers included countless old paid bills, medical statements and nearly every greeting card she'd ever received. After several weeks of tedious sorting, she announced a celebratory party to reward herself.
"Eight of my client's friends came over for what we call a 'shredding party.' She asked each friend to bring along a paper shredder. She served wine and brunch, and then everyone helped shred her excess papers. It was so much fun that later all her friends had their own shredding parties," Calahan recalls.
Accelerate your campaign with creative ideas. Professional organizers routinely advise declutterers to take a break every few hours. Calahan recommends preparing a comprehensive written plan that spells out a step-by-step approach. Or you could start with a single part of one room, using a flashlight to define how large an area you'll tackle at a given time. "In the midst of a big decluttering project, the flashlight allows you to focus mentally on a single area," she says.
Once your units of work have been defined, Calahan suggests you allocate a fixed amount of time to declutter each area and then, with the help of a stopwatch, see if you can "beat the clock."
Integrate music into your work. The use of music during an organizational project can help enliven your spirit and increase the intensity of your work.
Compare this with the impact music has during, say, an aerobic dance class. Though popular music is most often played in a fitness center or gym, classical music may be the most appropriate for decluttering, Calahan says.
Think about doing a clutter-busting blitz if time is short. If the home you're planning to sell has bursting closets and disorder throughout, there's no way a single person or couple can deal properly with the problem without devoting many days or even several weeks to the task, says Vicki Norris, a professional organizer who lectures nationally on the subject.
One solution is to add extra hands to the task and then to conduct an all-out blitz. Many organizing firms can mobilize a team on short notice; you can find one in your area through the National Association of Professional Organizers.
Alternatively, you may be able to recruit a team of friends or relatives to help create order from chaos in your property. Whether you hire organizers or seek out volunteers, Norris says you should bring in no more than four to five people and designate a leader.
Obviously, if you're energetic and have lots of time, you can handle the whole project yourself.
"The only difference with a blitz is that you blast through the house faster. This is basically decluttering on steroids," she says.
