Ask any real estate agent how to make their life easier and better prepare your house for sale – and the answer will be focused around de-cluttering and organizing. The last thing any potential buyer wants to see is a cluttered house. Clutter will take away focus from your house, make it look smaller, and is just unappealing – and we all know that the first impression is the most important. Besides, if you’re serious about moving, you’ll have to do it anyway once the house sells.

So, how can you prepare your house to show better?

Declare a war on unorganized closets! Closets are important to potential buyers. They want to see potential – and closets filled with unwanted junk and debris is the worst advertising for your house. By reducing closet space, you’re devaluing your house – and that is counterproductive.

(Photo: Flickr user - polkadotcreations)

Clean up your kitchen - We all want a big kitchen to store appliances, to prepare meals and lunches, and to store food in pantries. Show its true potential to prospective buyers by making it feel huge by getting rid of all that extra stuff.

Don’t forget about bedrooms - Bedrooms are for relaxing. Less clutter – more relaxing. Make them feel peaceful and simple – no items on top of furniture, no clutter on night tables. Simple and tasteful do the trick.

Living room - Anything that attracts dust has to go. Doll collections? Pack it up. Stacks of paper on your table? Throw it away or shred it if it’s confidential. Newspapers for the last 17 years for later use? Let’s be honest, that’s old news.

Store smart - If you do decided to pack some items for later use, pack it smart. You don’t want to show a giant pile of debris in your garage – get some Rubbermaid containers and pack it away. They stack easily and your garage will look immaculate.

Purge! - It’s always a good idea to go through your items and assess them. Are you downsizing? Well, maybe it’s time to let go of some items. If you’re moving, no need to bring the items you haven’t used in years to your new place. Set up areas for everything you’d want to donate, anything that has to go, and anything you still have hope for. Maybe you can have a yard sale with all the items you don’t need! Maybe some items you just want to give away to your neighbours. Make the move easier on you by getting rid of some items in advance.

Give us a call if you need some extra help. We specialize in making houses look bigger.

Just because it’s headed for a landfill, doesn’t mean it won’t get recycled!

Photo: Castanet Staff

People are often surprised when we tell them we’re going to a landfill with their items. Their usual reaction is a puzzled “Well, I thought these guys recycle...” look. Yes, we’re going straight to Glenmore Landfill – but it doesn’t mean all of your items will be dumped and buried. Far from it.

Glenmore Landfill is operated by the City of Kelowna and provides its services to surrounding areas – whether you bring items from your home or office. It just so happens that Glenmore Landfill is leading the way in recycling efforts – and you will find multiple recycling options when you come there. What can be recycled at Glenmore Landfill? The list is long!

• Cardboard and paper products
• Plastic and containers
• Propane containers
• Lead acid batteries
• Christmas lights
• Glass (bottles, jars, etc.)
• Clean and unpainted lumber
• Yard waste, stumps, yard clippings, etc.
• Asphalt and concrete
• Scrap metal and refrigeration appliances
• Tires (with or without rims)
• Drywall

There are multiple designated areas where you can deposit these items, the staff is friendly and helpful and will be happy to answer your questions. While some of the items are shipped elsewhere for recycling, some items are used internally for landfill needs – for example asphalt and concrete is crushed and used for internal road construction. In addition, there’s a dedicated area for Big Brothers and Big Sisters donations – you are welcome to drop off gently used household items, clothing, and similar knick-knacks.

So, while it might take some time to sort and recycle all of your  items, you can be sure that they’ll get recycled properly and benefit everybody – even if you drop them off at the dump. Personally, I think it’s time to rename it to “Glenmore Recycling and Disposal Facility”.

If we all agree that our homes need at least one ruthless and focused de-cluttering clean-up each year, then I propose the fall for this event. Nesting instincts notwithstanding, the fall offers us the best timing for your annual elbow-greasing housework.

Photo: Contributed

Consider these 5 reasons to get organized right now:

1.  Fall’s harvest is bountiful but is soon followed by the withering end of life for our growing season. Our homes are filled with unwanted items leftover from summer events, camping, renovation work and yard work. With the year’s most productive, busy schedules on the go right now, taking care of the disorganization leaves us free to focus on our work and holiday planning.

2.  Holiday season is just around the corner and the in-laws will be visiting! Now is the time to clear the debris and boxes labelled: "Sally-Ann" from off of the spare room bed and start clearing space for visiting holiday guests.

3.  Out with the old makes room for the new. With the holidays our living spaces tend to become cluttered with new items and gifts. Clearing today’s junk away ahead of time will make the congestion of the holidays much easier. According to the EPA, Americans produce the most waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

4.  Ringing in the New Year will be less stressful. What’s the first thing we think of after the celebrations of New Years have passed? Oh, Joy! Now I have to take care of Resolution #1:  Get Organized. Well, guess what? You don’t. You’re done. You’ve organized your home, made room for easy, breezy entertaining over the holidays and now you enjoy Resolution #2:  Join a Gym!

5.  Enjoy Spring. Spring is a time for renewal and fresh starts. Having done your big de-clutter and clean in the fall, you can now turn your attention to outdoor activities, even your garden.

If these motivators aren’t enough to light a fire under your relaxing-by-the-fire-as-the-leaves-turn-brown self, well, why not consider breaking up the chores? Get rid of all the junk you no longer need, either on your own or by calling 1-800-GOT-JUNK?  and take care of de-cluttering and organization in the fall, and focus on the big clean (windows, curtains, doors, chair-rails, etc…) in the spring.

After all of my years as a professional junk remover, I can say with a 99% certainty that your garage contains junk. There’s no way it doesn’t have any. For some mysterious reason, junk always ends up there – we are excellent at keeping our bedrooms clean, our living rooms are often in showroom condition, our home offices can be absolutely spotless – yet you walk into your garage and start seeing items that haven’t been used or moved for years and years.

Why is that?

Well, I figured there are few reasons:

• Out of sight, out of mind. On a normal day, you only spend few minutes inside your garage – in the morning when you rush to work, and at the end of the day when you come home. You grimace at all the useless junk thinking that one day you should do something about it – but the door closes, you’re back in your house, and junk in your garage won’t bother you until next morning. If it was your bedroom or living room and you had to stare at this junk more often – you’d do something about it a long time ago.
• It’s your dirty secret. Nobody sees your junk. Nobody knows of it. It’s strictly between you and your garage. No neighbor will see it, your friends and guests won’t chuckle about it, so you have even less motivation to clean it up.
• Last resort. Where else would you store all the camping gear from years ago? Old power tools? Kids skateboards? That TV which is way too heavy and too awkward – after you’ve installed your new LCD TV? All of it ends up in your garage simply because you don’t want to let it go. While in your mind you understand perfectly clearly that it’s time for these items to go, you’re leaving them in your garage because you don’t have it in you to close the book on them and get rid of them completely.

How about some motivation? Just imagine your garage free of junk. Just imagine your garage as clean and organized as any other room in your house. Imagine your garage looking like this:

Photo: Contributed

Photo: Contributed

Hopefully, this motivates you to clean up your garage one day. Give us a call, and we’ll help you with removing junk out of your garage. Sorry, can’t help you with the Ferrari part!