Items to Store When Staging Your Home (2024)

Here are the Best Ways to Store Items While Selling a House

1. Reduce clutter to emphasize your property’s size, appeal, and decor

The easiest and quickest way to highlight available space and the potential use of any room or area in your home is by eliminating all unnecessary clutter. The most common items that contribute to the perception of clutter include these:

• Toiletries – removing these will promote the impression of cleanliness and greater space.
• Cleaning supplies – although necessary, many cleaning supplies take up space. Keep the essentials, store the rest.
• Out of season clothing, extra shoes, extra beddings and linens – buyers often judge a home’s appeal by the size and availability of closet space, including your linen closet. Whether yours are large or compact, removing unneeded clothing will create additional space. Stick to the essentials; you can always take items out of storage if necessary.
• Extra furniture – reduce furniture to the minimum. Even the most appealing sofa-loveseat-recliner trios take up space. In this case, the best way to store these items when selling a house is to consider removing the loveseat and recliner, as the sofa alone can carry the room’s appeal while also highlighting the space.
• Toys – keep only a minimum around.Too many will give the perception of a messy home.
• Old electronics, knick-knacks, and kitchen accessories – moving or storing these items out of sight will significantly improve the perception of space and cleanliness—particularly kitchen and living areas that form the main living areas.
• Gardening tools – keeping only the essentials on-site results in a cleaner space in your garage, shed, or workshop area. A more sparsely equipped space will appear better cared for.

Depending on the number of items in question, moving them out of sight can often suffice, provided on-site storage space is available. If you don’t have on-site storage like a shed, the best way to store items while selling a house is to get a small, off-site self-storage unit nearby.

2. Remove or replace worn out, aged items

The most common ones that should be removed, or replaced in some instances, are the following:

• Old furniture – if it looks good, great! However, furniture wears and old furniture should be replaced or, if possible, just removed.
• Old, worn, torn items like rugs, towels, screens – replacingthese with new products willadd a cleaner look and more modern appeal to your home.
• Broken light fixtures – often overlooked, replacing broken and old light fixtures leavea better impression on viewers than most sellers appreciate.

Although there is nothing wrong with old furniture – who doesn’t love their college sofa or an old reading chair with a few tears in the fabric, let alone an antique floor light? The best way to store these items while selling house is by placing these in short-term storage allows your home to look larger and more modern.

3. Store personal and valuable items safely and securely off-site.

This not only creates added space andhas something of a decluttering effect, but it invites potential buyers to imagine the spaces as their own. The most common personal itemsshould be stored safely and securely off-site, as much for your peace of mind while strangers go through your home, as for the sale effort itself:

• Bikes, toys, pet supplies – keeping only the necessary items around the home during viewings and open houses not only creates space but leaves your home cleaner and tidier.
• Boats, other large and bulky recreational vehicles – although these items might not impact the interior of your home, they will affect its curb appeal. Store them securely off-site at a storage facility so that potential buyers aren’t turned away before they enteryour home.
• Artwork, personal albums, and valuables – although artis a subjective decoration, it’s also as valuable as your albums and other valuables. Keep these items safe and secure in a storage unit.