Glorious springtime is almost here, with days warming and growing longer, birds singing, flowers pushing up, and . . . yes, cleaning, especially if you want to sell your home. Spring is traditionally the best time to list your home because people are getting out and going house hunting. But after having your home shut up all winter and traipsing in and out with mud and snow on your feet, you will need to do some cleaning to get it ready for listing. So here’s what you can do with respect to spring cleaning to sell your Atlanta home.
Clean Vents and Ducts
Now that you can turn the heat down or off without freezing, it’s a good time to clean all those vents and ducts that have been in use all winter and collecting dust. Not only will this seemingly unnecessary step to impress buyers, but it will also contribute to your respiratory health while you’re still in the home. You can wipe down the registers and vacuum into the ducts as far as the hose will allow, or you can call a cleaning service that specializes in this kind of work.
Tend to Switch Plates
Easy and inexpensive and very noticeable to buyers, cleaning and/or replacing switch plates is an important part of spring cleaning to sell your Atlanta home. You know how smudged and dirty those switches plates and the walls around them get with winter’s hard and heavy use. So cleaning the switch plates and the wall smudges and replacing those plates in the worst shape will do quite a bit to brighten your home. Besides, it doesn’t cost much and takes only a few minutes.
Shine the Kitchen
Your kitchen gets a lot of use during the winter because appetites are bigger and you spend a lot more time inside the house. The kitchen is also one of the most important areas for buyers, so shining up the kitchen should definitely be part of your spring cleaning to sell. You’ll want to clean and polish every square inch you can but begin with the larger surfaces like countertops, refrigerators and stoves, and floors. You should probably also replace cabinet handles and drawer pulls with new ones, and you might consider refinishing cabinet doors. Whatever you can do to make the kitchen shine will appeal to buyers.
Clean and De-Bug Light Fixtures
This is often neglected, but it is important nevertheless as an aspect of spring cleaning to sell because there’s almost nothing as stomach turning as looking up at a light fixture to see it filled with dead bugs. So now that you have more and longer daylight, take the time to clean and de-bug the light fixtures. If dusting doesn’t do the trick for cleaning, use some glass cleaner to make your fixtures sparkle.
Remove/Replace Weather Stripping
When spring and warmer weather arrive, you don’t have to keep the house sealed up tight 24 hours a day, and you can open some windows and doors. This is a good time, then, to see the weather stripping. Remove any old, decaying, or dangling weather stripping and replace it with new. Or, if you want an easier and quicker job, just remove it and let the new owner take care of replacement.
Let in Light
One of the primary goals in preparing your home for showings is to make it look bright and cheery. And letting in more light always helps you achieve that goal. So be sure to clean windows and take down all those heavy drapes and blinds you put up to keep out winter’s chill. Instead of drapes, try using some sheers on those freshly cleaned windows.
Traditionally, spring is the best season for listing a house. So it makes perfect sense to take care of the necessary spring cleaning to sell your Atlanta home. Cleaning is the first step, and we can help with what comes next.