Day in the Life

Store Before You Sell

I first got the idea of utilizing storage units for my seller clients back in 2012 when I had a dear elderly client with a home chock full of stuff. Not quite hoarder level but close. I was facilitating getting her house ready to sell. It was an adorable craftsman style home once you looked past the clutter. We were barely past those turbulent years in the real estate market that had preceded 2012 and only then was the market beginning to stabilize. Homes for sale took months to go under contract. Not like the over-the-top purchase price feeding frenzy of the 2019-2023 years. Homes needed solid marketing and good staging to get sold. Thus, my cluttered little craftsman home needed all the care and attention in order to compete. 

It can be overwhelming for anyone selling a home. Imagine being in your home for 50 plus years and now having to make disposition decisions about a lifetime of cherished possessions. What if you were downsizing from a 2000 sq ft home to 750 sq ft apartment? Do you toss? Do you keep? Does a family member have a want or need? Do you donate? Phew! I always advise my clients to assess the move room by room because it’s easier to manage in smaller steps. 

We began in the living room where I counted 8 end tables situated around the room where only 2 would suffice. When asked why 8 tables, with a sad smile, her reply was that her dearly departed husband had lovingly handcrafted each one. How could she part with any? Next was the dining room with built in china cabinet with shelves and 3 large drawers, all overflowing with bric-a-brac, dishes, trip souvenirs, mementos, and crayon colored artwork in childish scrawls. There were mismatched dining room chairs positioned around the table and in every corner. The table itself was piled high with paperwork serving more as a desk than for dinners. 

I had left instructions that I would return in a week to see how well she had cleared/cleaned out the room. That was the plan. I received a call on Friday that the room was ready for inspection. There had been excitement in her voice, and she was eager to show off her week’s hard work. I arrived and headed straight to the dining room but was momentarily confused. Nothing had changed. As if answering my bewildered look, she opened up the top drawer and with the flare of a tv game show hostess, she proudly waved her hand across the open drawer. It was indeed empty. It had taken her one week… all week… to empty out only one full drawer. With a sigh, I resolved to make a new plan. I knew at this rate it would take months to have the home ready for sale and we would miss the spring market. So an idea was born… Pre-packing to a storage unit. 

The beauty of Pre-Packing (yes, I coined the term) and more importantly moving stuff off site, is that precious time is not squandered. No decisions about the disposition of the selected items needed to be made on the spot. I arranged for a storage unit for my client and helped with packing up those extra items not needed for the soon to be staged home. We were not getting rid of anything, but simply Pre-Packing. Afterall, if you are moving you will ultimately need to pack up everything anyway from your home. By Pre-Packing, the client was just getting a head start on the move. As it turned out, I found that when sentimental items were removed from the house into the storage unit, they lost some of their sentimental value. Having everything moved off-site also made it easier for family members to sort through the boxes in a more leisurely fashion at the storage facility,  at their own pace and time schedule, and didn’t interfere with the marketing of the home. 

The take away from this story is that if you are considering placing your home for sale, you might want to consider pre-packing and removing items to a storage facility located near you before listing. What you will gain in the sale price is well worth the storage fees. Buyers will welcome viewing a clutter-free home without your extra furniture and items creating a distraction from the home’s best features, and therefore they will be more able to envision themselves in their new home. 

If you are interested in getting a storage unit to pre-pack your stuff away for selling your home, I currently have an offer for up to 2 months of free storage rental. Please check out my offer for more details.