When selling a Maplewood home, you want to make sure that the stage is set for the best impression possible on potential buyers.  Everyone remembers to declutter, clean, make necessary repairs and rearrange furniture to help open up all the rooms in your home.  There is one area of the house that tends to be overlooked when it comes time to home staging, however.  Don’t forget the closet!

Most homebuyers are NOT timid when they look through a Maplewood home.  They open cabinets, drawers, oven doors, pantries and closets.  Think about when you were looking at your home before you bought it.  Next to the size of the master bedroom, the size and configuration of the closet can be considered an asset or liability in a home sale.  Walk-in closets especially could do with a good staging.

The first thing to do when staging your closet is to get rid of all the excess.  If you haven’t worn it in the last 12 months, you probably never will again.  There are three ways to get rid of extra apparel in your Maplewood home: give away, garage/yard sale and donation.  Give your extra shoes and clothes to friends and families who might be able to use it.  A yard sale could bring in a few bucks that can be put towards creating more storage area in your closet.  Whatever items that are in good condition that are left after the give away and yard sale can be donated to a local charity, such as the Goodwill or Salvation Army.  If it’s not good enough to donate, sell or give away, throw it away.

Next, organize your closet space.  Put smaller luggage inside larger pieces.  Buy a shoe rack to keep them in order.  Small bins can be used to hold accessories such as hair pins, earrings, bracelets, sunglasses, etc.  Arrange your clothing by type (casual shirts, dress shirts, pants, jeans, etc).  For each type of clothing, group like colors together (reds, yellows, greens, blues, whites, blacks, etc). 

Finally, consider installing shelves to increase the storage area.  There never seems to be enough storage in a home, no matter how large it is.  Shelving units make due of space above the clothing racks as well as on the sides of the closet.  If it is within your budget, you may want to install a custom closet organizational system.  Anything that will improve the use of space in the closet can make it more appealing to a Maplewood buyer.

These tips can also be used when staging your pantry.  Remember, buyers look at everything when it comes to considering a Maplewood home as their own.  When staging your home to sell, don’t forget the closet!

Francine Lichtman, Real Estate Beyond Four Walls, New Jersey Homes