How to Highlight Storage Space When Staging Your Home

Sally Norton

Guest Blogger

We all know that kitchens and bathrooms sell houses. But one should never underestimate the power of storage space. Many people find it extremely important that their new home has enough room to arrange all their stuff neatly. In some cases, this home feature can be a deal breaker. If you are trying to sell, here are some tips on how to highlight storage space when staging your home. The investments you make to achieve this will not be significant, but the results will make a difference.

Do a thorough cleaning first

Before any more elaborate work, you need to do the basics first – the cleaning. All of the good features your home offers will be hard to notice if there is dirt and garbage everywhere. So if you want to get an excellent asking price and sell fast, put on some cleaning gloves and get to work. Gather cleaning supplies and protective clothing first, and start with the obvious garbage. Having people viewing the house is slightly different from having your friends over. The potential buyers might want to open drawers and cupboards and look under the bed and behind the sofa. Be very thorough with removing dirt. You want to make an impression that you are a tidy person. Everyone prefers to buy stuff from neat people as opposed to messy ones. The removal of garbage will immediately make the space look bigger, making the buyers think there is lots of storage space. And that is precisely what you are aiming at.
In the course of cleaning, make sure you repair all the broken stuff you cannot replace. People buying a new home do not like to do too much work after the purchase. It would be ideal if they could move in and continue with peaceful lives. Parts of the property that need fixing are likely to repel some buyers, so it is good to solve this issue in advance.

In order to highlight storage space when staging your home, the first order of business is to do a thorough cleaning

Declutter and organize your belongings

After the cleaning comes one of the essential activities you must do to highlight storage space when staging your home: decluttering. It is important to remember that any room, no matter how big it is, can be overfilled with stuff. Therefore, you will need to remove some of your personal belongings before staging. You want to create the impression that things in your home can settle nicely in an unconfined space until they are needed and easily found. We suggest picking a storage facility that will hold your stuff that is surplus for the staging. When choosing a storage facility, you should first get all the information about the rentable units and select the one best suited for you to relocate your items until the sale is over. You will probably appreciate having storage when you are also moving to your new home.
When you are doing the decluttering, pay attention to the following:

• Too many of the same item. Are you sure you need all those empty plastic containers in the pantry? You will not live there anymore, so remove all the "practical" copies, spare parts, and backup phone chargers you gathered over the years. Keep only the most essential items around to create the feeling that one can immediately live in this house, yet not overflow the space.
  
• Furniture pieces that aren't needed. Too much furniture is making the rooms look smaller. This is a no-no. Stick to the principle "less is more" and open up floor space where that is possible.
  
• Cut the number of clothes in half. Always keep in mind that you are doing the staging. You are not presenting the actual reality of your home. Even the largest possible wardrobe will make people think your house lacks storage space for clothes if cramped.
  
• Don't forget the garage and basement. These are, by definition, areas in a house meant for storage. Declutter them thoroughly.
  

Make sure your wardrobe is nicely organized without being overfilled with clothes

Store your items in neatly stacked containers

Now that you removed all surplus items ensure you neatly organize what you will be showcasing. Getting containers of all shapes and sizes to put your things in them is a good idea. Everything from jewelry to cleaning supplies can be sorted and neatly packed into transparent or opaque boxes with practical lids. A human's mind sorts information similarly by arranging it in imaginary boxes holding similar stuff. There is a certain calm and pleasure that people feel when they are observing methodically organized items. Do not pass up on taking advantage of this little psychological trick which doesn't require much investment. It would be best if you explored all simple and affordable staging tricks. Your buyers will decide based mainly on the feelings they experienced in the property. Have that in mind all the time.

To highlight storage space when staging your home you should add more light

It is pretty simple, really – when we do not see something well, we do not appreciate it fully. Dark corners of the pantry will go unnoticed. Your wardrobe's potential will be lost on buyers if they can barely see the shelves and racks. Introducing more light to your house is beneficial in general, but when you are staging your home, consider installing light sources that will illuminate the areas that are meant for storage. You don't have to go all out with the quality of these light fixtures. It only matters that the space is bright enough to be appreciated. For example, you can put some cheap LED light strips anywhere. You can install them inside the wardrobe, kitchen cabinets, and even the shelves holding liquor bottles. Small lamps will do the trick too, but they might be harder to incorporate stylishly. Illuminate the storage space to highlight it.

Adding LED light strips inside the wardrobe will make it look stylish as well as point out the available storage space for clothes

Rearrange attic space

The attic can be a surprisingly useful area of the house when one puts some effort into organizing it well. The experts from nycministorage.com say some of their clients chose to buy their house the moment they discovered it has a spacious attic space. Some people like their stuff too much and refuse to let it go. Having additional space to store belongings in the attic is very comforting and essential to many. To properly showcase the storage potential of your home's attic, you could add some extra shelves and racks. Our advice is to have at least part of them empty. The potential buyer will intuitively think of what they can put there. That is a perfect thought process to initiate in a buyer's mind. 

Final thoughts

Hopefully, all mentioned here has inspired you to take some actions to highlight storage space when staging your home. The effort you put in will pay off significantly.