Tips For Using A Storage Unit To Declutter When Staging Your Home
Staging, the act of clearing your house of needless clutter and personal items, can help potential buyers better imagine their belongings in your home. This can help you command a higher home price and to sell the home more quickly. When you stage your home, a storage unit provides the best place for keeping everything until your final move. If you use your storage unit right, you may even be able to further declutter before moving into your new home.
Tip #1: Divide the Unit In Half
When staging your home, you often end up placing big furniture pieces, such as extra couches and bookcases, into the storage unit. Yet, when it's time to move everything into your new place, the furniture is the first thing you want to get moved. The trick is not to bury the furniture in the back of your storage unit.
Visually divide the unit in half from the entry to the back wall. Place the furniture along one wall and the boxes of belongings along the other wall. Leave a small aisle clear between them. This way, you can easily access the furniture without moving the boxes, which helps simplify move out day.
Tip #2: Thin Before You Pack
Treat packing for storage just as you would for your final move. Thin out the clutter and unwanted items, either donating, selling, or trashing them, before you put them in a box and move them into storage. You don't want to pay to store garbage or take the time to move and pack boxes full of unwanted clutter twice.
The goal is to leave the bare essentials for daily life in your home while moving only the things you need or love into the storage unit.
Tip #3: Pack Wisely
Staging your home is a great time to see which of your belongings you truly want to keep. To make this simpler, pack like items together in the same box and label the box clearly with all contents. If you are packing up glassware or other fragile items, make sure that these boxes are clearly labeled as fragile.
When moving the items into storage, place old wooden pallets on the ground to keep everything elevated. This helps prevent moisture damage. Stack the heavier boxes on the bottom and try to keep the boxes for each room together in the same area of the storage unit. Also, make sure the box labels are easily visible. If you must retrieve something from storage before you move, this ensures you can find it quickly.
Tip #4: Moving In
It's moving day, but where do you begin? Start by moving over all the furniture from your old home and the furniture from your storage unit. Once the furniture is in place, you can bring over the boxes from your old home. Start by unpacking these first – these are your most essential items and all you have been living with for the last few weeks or months.
After the first wave of unpacking is done, you can bring over your boxes that have been in storage. You may find that you no longer want or need many of these items now that you have been living without them. If this is the case, there's no need to unpack them.
Take this opportunity to pare down clutter even more by hosting a garage sale or donating. In this way, staging your home and using storage provide two benefits – a quicker sale of your old house and less clutter in your new home! For more tips, speak to experts like http://midwaymoving.com.