Coping With Talking Wardrobes
Wardrobes talk. No. Really. They do. When prospective buyers open the door of your master bedroom wardrobe, it practically takes over the entire conversation and has been known to give away family secrets. Your wardrobe might blurt out – by revealing the very obvious absence of men’s clothing – that there could be a divorce in progress and the price could be negotiated downward. According to local Sydney property stylists, the master bedroom wardrobe is a veritable blabbermouth.
With a little thought and a small investment, you can make your wardrobe say wonderful things about your home and even take part in the conversations that sell the property at a higher price. We’ve collected a few thoughts so that you can consider the ways in which your wardrobe can help you sell your property.
• Organise like a retailer: When you reorganise your wardrobe follow the lead of successful clothing retailers. Put all the men’s pants together hung in the same way – clipped onto the hangar by the waistband or the hem, but never both. Put his shirts together, and then, sort by colour. Do the same for your clothing putting evening and cocktail dresses together by length and colour. Shirts and tops, slacks, jeans, and sportswear pieces like swimwear, cover-ups, and yoga pants will all look sophisticated in this configuration.
• Buy matching hangers for everything. Black or white plastic hangers will do if your home is not a luxury property with a matching price. If you want top dollar, invest in wooden or velvet hangers. Take out all the wire hangers and recycle them or take them back to the cleaner’s where you probably got them. They make your closet look bargain basement.
• Pick up your shoes: Don’t put anything on the floor of your wardrobe. Instead buy his and hers shoe racks – buyers love these things and put them in the plus column when they tally up the reasons to buy the house.
• Remember that you are styling for the new buyer, not yourself. According to styling authorities, it really doesn’t matter whether or not you have a significant other, it’s a good idea to stage your wardrobe for a man and a woman.
• Store the paperwork. If you’re storing old tax papers, receipts and other accounting minutiae, box them all up and send them to your self-storage space. In your wardrobe, the presence of financial information might be construed as money trouble – a great reason to make a lower offer.
• Space is a critical component: As with all storage areas in your home, your buyers will be looking at your master robe – and looking critically – at the availability of storage space. This is where your wardrobe will blab about how there is just not enough room for everything. Particularly if your wardrobe is filled to the brim with things you no longer wear, you’ll be doing yourself a favour by sorting and disposing of what is unnecessary. You’ll be packing again soon, after all, and if all you do is put your winter things in storage, you might clear enough space to make the buyers see bountiful wall room for their own things.
• If you’ve stored sweaters, shirts, and/or caps on shelves in your wardrobe, either relegate them to the storage space or go buy yourself a few baskets in which to give their places on the shelves a little class. Buyers like baskets too. Why? Probably because, like the rest of us, they have some chaos in their own wardrobes and this small demonstration of organisation gives them hope for their storage future.
• Ultimate organisation: If you want to really wow the buyers, consider buying and installing a wardrobe organiser system. This can be a relatively small investment when you understand the value it adds to your property. We’ll talk about how to plan such an addition in a future blog.
Meanwhile, understand that today’s buyers want their lives to be uncomplicated and breezy. One way to do this is to simplify the options you offer them. A wardrobe with lots of clear space, and a simple answer to the question, “Where do I put my shoes?” can help you sell your home faster and at a higher price. While Sydney property stylists, like those at Urban Chic Property Styling, can give you many ideas about how to keep your wardrobe quiet, there are really no good ways to shut it up totally. If your wardrobe is going to talk anyway, make sure it says only good things about your property.