Declutter Your Garage

For a faster, more profitable home sale

A cluttered garage tells buyers that there is no room in your house.

This cluttered garage shrieks, "No room in the house!"

Before you put your house on the real estate market, be sure to declutter your garage and stage it just like any other room in your home.

Many people preparing their homes for sale will stash excess clutter and moving boxes inside the garage. Doing so will alert buyers to the fact that isn't enough room inside the house.

I know it’s tempting to stack packing boxes in the garage until you move, but this is a missed opportunity!

Let buyers see how spacious your garage is by removing the overflow from the rest of the house.

Declutter your garage so buyers can see the potential in the clean and organized space that will inspire them to want to do their own projects there.

If you have a small garage, decluttering the space is especially important.

Arrange to store your belongings elsewhere. See declutter your home for storage options ideas.

A garage crammed with stuff won't show well and home buyers will think that the garage is full because there isn’t enough storage in the house.

Declutter your garage and clean it

Here's a funny fact about cleaning out your garage:

When people driving by see you pulling items out of your garage, they'll think you're having a garage sale. They may stop to buy stuff, so be prepared.

This is an opportune moment!

Work in manageable chunks of time; get help from friends who'll keep you on task and prevent you from hanging onto stuff that needs to go.

Declutter your garage by hauling everything outside. Use the driveway or yard for sorting items into groups. Place some items next to the curb with a “Free” sign; if you’re lucky someone will think they’ve struck treasure and take them.

Sort everything into separate boxes and bags labeled; donate, recycle, toss or pack for the new home.

Be ruthless in your purging and make instant decisions. Stuff that's been “in limbo” for years in the garage are things that you obviously don’t need.

Declutter your garage by holding a yard sale.

Don't stack up trash in the garage waiting for garbage day. Remove it daily-- keep it moving out of the house.

Declutter your garage by moving sports equipment, tools, and yard equipment to an offsite storage unit. Hang on to only what you need to keep the house and yard looking great for home buyers.

Arrange for a storage pod to be delivered to your home. Photo by pods.com

Arrange for delivery of a storage pod right to your doorstep, but check with city ordinances before doing so. Go to pods.com for more information.

Make sure that your automatic garage door is functioning properly, especially the safety stop feature.

If your garage isn't finished, consider completing this task. A finished garage never fails to impress home buyers.

If you have a water heater, washer, and dryer, or any other kind of utilitarian equipment in your garage, wipe them down thoroughly to improve their appearance. If they look grimy and dusty, home buyers will think they are old and need replacing and may try to negotiate the price of your home down.

For smelly oil spots on concrete floors, use a grease-cutting cleaner like “Goo Gone Grease Cutting All Purpose Cleaner” to clean them up. You can buy this product at any home improvement store. Or sprinkle kitty litter or sawdust on the grease spots-- let it set for 24 hours. Sweep up, then wash with a power washer and/or degreaser to remove any remaining residue.

To properly clean, prepare and paint your concrete garage floor, see the instructional video below by ppgprofessional.

Staging Your Garage

Laundry area in the garage

Designate a part of your garage as an organized laundry area.

Designate a part of your garage for the washer, dryer, and laundry storage. Pinterest photo.

If your washer and dryer are sharing a garage space, define that part of the garage as a laundry room.

When I was a real estate agent, I showed numerous homes with narrow paths, hedged in by towering boxes, leading the way to the washer and dryer. Not very impressive!

Stage the shared laundry area by adding vertical storage like shelving or closed cabinetry for storing laundry supplies.

Install a hanging accordion style drying rack next to the washer and dryer. Hang a few colorful blouses or shirts for staging--make the laundry area look cheerful and practical.

Garage storage ideas

Organize tools in the garage with pegboard.

When the garage is empty and all repairs have been done, consider painting the walls and ceiling white or another light neutral color. Light colors and good lighting always make a small space appear larger.

If your garage has bad lighting, install a few extra light fixtures to brighten it up or put in higher voltage lightbulbs. A well-lit garage will impress home buyers.

Here's a home staging tip often used inside the house, but can work in the garage as well; the more floor space you can see, the bigger a room will look.

Take advantage of high garage ceilings by installing overhead storage racks.

Overhead storage racks give you more floor space.

Overhead rack storage will reveal more garage floor space, making the garage feel larger.

If you want to really "wow" home buyers, paint the garage floor! There are many different products for painting garage floors, but a couple that really work well are epoxy floor paints from rustolem.com or armorcladepoxy.com. These flooring products come in a variety of colors and textures, but there is a downside. They aren't cheap. For more information on how to prepare and paint your garage floor, go to; familyhandyman.com.