We’ve discussed decluttering and getting rid of all of our extra stuff on this blog before. Today we are going to talk about the reason why it’s so hard to get rid of that stuff. Most of the times it’s because of the memories attached to the items, especially if there has been significant loss in the home seller’s life. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we don’t ask our home sellers to do what we haven’t had to do ourselves before. We’ve had to sell our homes and either move or downsize. In fact, I’ve become a pro at it working through my most recent five year plan to downsize and become ‘smaller’.
Here are five ways to start eating the ‘home selling elephant’ to declutter, eliminate and reduce possessions.
1. Remove the real junk from your Bonita Springs home. Purge anything in your home that is disposable. Be mindful of when you open drawers, cabinets, closets, attics, garages of items that are disposables. Paper and plastic bags, plastic storage containers and jars, magazines and newspapers, old mail, tax returns that are more than 7 years old. You’d be surprised to find out how many Bonita Springs home sellers realize they’ve saved decades of tax returns and receipts. Trust us, as a Bonita Springs listing agent I have a front row seat to those who are overwhelmed when they discover the hoard.
2. Make a one or two year departure commitment to your Bonita Springs home organization. If you have the luxury of time on your side, even a few years out from a move or downsize, commit to eliminating one item in your home per day. This will force you to become a little introspective and ask yourself questions like, ‘when was the last time I used this’ and ‘do I really need 3 wine bottle openers’. Now your thinking about all of the duplicates you may have just in case.
3. Face facts, you’ve in Bonita Springs now and you may not need all of those winter clothes. Time to sift through them and keep a favorite sweater or boots for the one day the weather is cold enough. Also, since we’re amongst friends, let’s face facts about your current clothing size. Some of us our never going to see some of those numbers ever again and it’s time to embrace it and move on with our new bodies. 
4. Paper collected around the house is a silent enemy. Start setting up online accounts and try paperless billing. It is a time saver, a paper saver and it keeps you from making those little piles of mail and bills around your house. As a Bonita Springs listing agent, paper is one of the biggest clutter items that we have to hide for photos and for showings.
5. Photos, CD/DVD – purge or convert to digital files. This is a tough one to do but you can get black Friday deals on Legacy Box reduce the paper and hard copies to either discs or flash drives.
For some people it is necessary to call an organizer, a coach to help you learn how to ready your home for sale. There are also organizations like Caring Transitions that help home sellers in Bonita Springs transition to a smaller residence and select and weed through possessions that will or will not make the move.
It’s always to start sooner rather than later. A little home work up from will help you list your home to sell it quickly and for more profit, too. To learn more, read also: Increase The Profit From Your Bonita Springs Home Sale