Between the paperwork, inspections, and prepping for a move; selling your home can be a daunting process. So overwhelming at times that you might just consider why you’re doing it in the first place—trust me, I was just there. 

With so much going on, it’s easy to see how things get swept under the rug (pun intended!) But, the more work you put into preparing your home for a sale, the more likely you are to get an offer. The two most overlooked to-dos? Staging + Cleaning.

It’s pretty well known that potential homebuyers tend to have a difficult time seeing past the paint color, let alone your own personal decor. So, in order to sell your home quickly (and close to the price you’re asking), it’s crucial to stage your home in a way that allows for others to easily picture themselves living there. But, that doesn’t have to mean going out and buying all new furniture! I follow these six simple steps when staging any home for the market.

It’s the deep cleaning that got me! After 9 years in my South Austin garden home, there was more than enough dust to make an army of bunnies. I seriously still have trouble figuring out where it all came from! But, as is to be expected with living in any home for several years, there is just a lot of build-up to clean, touch up... and clean again.

My saving grace through this whole process were the various checklists I made myself. And, boy, were there a TON of checklists! I even had to-do lists scribbled on cocktail napkins at one point, because with everything going on you simply can’t rely on remembering to write it down when you get home.

In hindsight, I wished I would have had one place to keep track of all of these tasks. A notepad would have sufficed, but it’s not very motivating to look at… So, I wanted to create a fun guided checklist that would help keep track of all the “honey-dos” that come up along the way—from cleaning and staging, to the next scheduled showing.

I’ve included this (free) printable checklist below, and hope it helps provide you a little bit of sanity as you hustle to get your home SOLD! 

Find out more about my new home adventures here, and here, or by following along with my #renovateDING updates on Instagram!

Love, Ding