You will find that most advice about preparing your Indiana house for sale features a couple of indispensable terms: de-clutter, clean, and de-clutter. That’s not a typo: you can’t say ‘de-clutter’ often enough. It has to be emphasized that “clutter” doesn’t necessarily refer to shabby or threadbare items—it means literally everything that doesn’t advance the look and feel of a spacious, ready-to-move-into dwelling.
That’s why this specialized definition of “clutter” might include a good-looking leather ottoman that perfectly matches its recliner (but which leaves too little space for walking from the den into the kitchen) … or the wide-shaded authentic Tiffany standing lamp with the stunning dragonfly motif that doesn’t match anything else in the house…or the chest in the hall that holds all the winter stuff. Even if Indiana’s winter hadn’t ended last Sunday, that chest and the winter gear ought to find a temporary home in a less obtrusive housing.
In other words, when you have a house for sale in Indiana, clearing away non-essentials to emphasize spaciousness is a high priority—even if it might mean sacrificing some degree of livability. Yes, you DO have to continue to live in your house, so the de-cluttering has to be within reason. Likewise, the cleaning.
Now; about the cleaning.
There is cleaning—the kind we do all the time—but then there is also “deep cleaning.” Like “de-cluttering,” “deep cleaning” is a real estate watchword invoked by everyone writing about preparing a house for sale. The phrase would seem to be clear, but it needs to be pointed out that professionals usually do a better job of it than we civilians can. They simply see dirt that normal householders don’t (and also somehow manage to get rid of it a lot quicker than we can).
The finer points of deep cleaning include being in possession of an assortment cleaning tools and substances that aren’t found in every closet. But in addition to those, it takes a dirt detective’s eye to recognize the many areas that are easily overlooked: