5 things you should put in storage while selling your home

Selling your home requires a lot of preparation. You'll need to take care of necessary repairs, update your curb appeal, and prepare for staging. When you start to pack and declutter, a storage unit can be your best friend. Storing some of your items off-site will make it easier to give your home the neat and organized look and feel that appeals to potential buyers. 
Here five things that you'll want to put into storage while you're selling your home.
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1. Personal Items and Knick-Knacks
   When a potential buyer enters your home, it's important that they can envision themselves living there. To make sure this happens, you'll want to remove personal items like family photos and unique artwork.
   
   This also includes knick-knacks and small decor items like figurines, vases, and books. Packing these things away will remove your personal touch from your home. It will also make it look clean and clutter-free, which is critical when selling your home.
2. Exercise Equipment
   It's common for a guest bedroom to double as an exercise space, but this won't do you any favors when you're selling your home. Take that treadmill or elliptical machine out of the house and pack it away in your storage unit! If the room wasn't already set up as a bedroom, consider staging it with a bed and a dresser to finish the look.
3. Children's Toys
   When selling your home, it helps to get the whole family on board. Have your children pick out a few toys that they want to keep and put the rest in storage. While it's fine to have some toys placed neatly in a child's bedroom, you don't want them all over the living room, dining room, and scattered throughout the house. 
4. Large Furniture
   A few furniture items are great for staging. However, many professional stagers recommend scaling back a home's furniture by at least one-third. Before you list your home, take a look at each room with a sharp eye and store away any items that don't fit into the room's decor or wouldn't be useful to a buyer.
   
   When you're selling your home, you want each room to appear large, clean, and open. Removing extra furniture can make a major statement!
   
   Often, it's a good idea to have your real estate agent or professional stager evaluate your space as soon as you start thinking about selling your home. They're experts at preparing houses for sale and can help you decide what to leave and what to pack away.
5. Small Appliances
   The kitchen is another room that should be as clean and decluttered as possible. You can store small appliances that you use often -- like a coffee pot or toaster -- in a cabinet when you're not using them. However, you certainly don't want a ton of items all over the counter when you're selling your home.
   
   Pack away those extra blenders, mixers, and toaster ovens. This will give you an organized and minimalist look which appeals to many buyers. 

These are five of the most important things to remove when you're selling your home, but it's not an exhaustive list. As a general rule of thumb, unless you need it on a daily basis, it's a great idea to get it out of the house. This will also make clean-up easier when you have an open house scheduled or a buyer wants to come by on short notice to take a look.

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