One of the biggest challenges I hear from clients who are moving is the work and effort it takes to keep children’s bedrooms clean. When you are trying to maintain all the spaces in your Locust Grove house, oftentimes, the bedroom becomes the place to do homework, play, relax, and sleep. With the increased activity in the room, it can be challenging to keep this space ready for showings. Here are some tips for staging a child’s bedroom that will hopefully help conquer this area.
Minimize and Rotate Toys
We all know that the fast food kid’s meal toy that has been shoved under the bed for months will become your child’s favorite “I could never give it away” toy when you start to declutter the bedroom. Instead of focusing on what toys your child doesn’t play with, try to focus on what they want to play with now.
Find a spot in the room-a bookcase, bins for under the bed, shelves in the closet, that can be designated as the place for toys. Then, have your child select a certain number of toys (you decide how many) that they want to leave out during the moving process. These toys all go to the designated area. Then, you can pack up the remaining toys into boxes.
Pro tip: Label the boxes and take a picture of what is inside each of the boxes. If you get a request to a particular toy it will be easier to find.
If you notice your child not playing with the toys they’ve got out, then you can rotate those toys for ones in a box. Perhaps, for younger children you might even make a box of those toys you know your child doesn’t play with and quietly donate it. Older children can participate in the discussion of selecting toys they have outgrown to share with others.
Why do this?
The goal in minimizing toys is to lessen the amount of time it takes to clean the room. If all of the toys have a dedicated spot in your Locust Grove house, then it is easier to put them away.
Invest in baskets
Baskets can help to organize the spaces in your child’s bedroom. Place them in different areas of your child’s room and talk about the purpose for each one. Some can be for toys, others for clothing, and others for school supplies. Having these baskets within reach helps to grow your child’s responsibility for their things. Need scissors? Check the basket. Searching for socks? Look in the basket. When moving from your Locust Grove house, baskets can make even unorganized spaces appear organized. You can quickly stash items before a showing inside a basket and have your child properly put away the items later.
Clean and Organize the Closet
Just because you use this room in your Locust Grove house for a child doesn’t mean that the next owner will. Storage space is important to buyers so now is the time to sort through your child’s clothing and decide what to donate, keep, or trash. Pack up all the out of season items (coats, swimwear, outdoor toys) to maximize the space in the closet.
If you have sentimental items that you don’t want buyers viewing your home to touch, place them on the top shelf of the closet.
Relocate Large Toys
A dollhouse or tent are fun toys, but they take up a lot of square footage in a room. If these large toys feel like they are over powering the space, then it is time to find them a new temporary home. If your child doesn’t want to move the item (moving and seeing change is tough), then consider other pieces of furniture that could be removed from the room. Perhaps a desk could go in the living room or maybe a toy box could be tucked into the closet now that it has been decluttered.
Art and Personalized Items
Everyone has their own rules for how much they want to share about their children online. Before your home hits the market, consider removing any identifiable information about your child from the bedroom or rest of your Locust Grove house. Awards with full names hanging on the wall, school logo items, names on walls could all be captured on photographs taken to market your home. These images are out there for anyone to see. You may also want to gather up all the special artwork displayed in your home and collect in one of these picture frames. You can still hold onto everything and change the item being displayed with the added benefit of the frame holding the artwork.
