Clutter Challenge: Pretend You're a Potential Home Buyer

We’re in the process of selling our house before our big move to Kodiak, Alaska, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been more grateful that our home is [mostly] clutter-free. (Do not, I repeat do not, look at my husband’s collection of baking accessories in the garage, okay??)

If you’ve ever sold a house, you know the drill. 

The moment you decide to list, the panic sets in. Suddenly, you’re shoving boxes into closets, renting a storage unit to hide the overflow, and trying to create the illusion of a tidy, welcoming space for buyers. The irony? Once everything is put away, you walk through your own home and think, Wow, I wish it always looked like this.

That’s exactly why we’ve prioritized keeping our home clutter-free long before we even considered moving. Now, when we get the call for a showing, we don’t scramble. With a quick 10-minute reset each morning, I know I can be out of the house in five minutes, and it looks beautiful for potential buyers. No frantic last-minute tidying, no panicked shoving of things into drawers.

And here’s the thing—we deserve a home that looks and feels this good, too. Not just for a sale. Not just for buyers. But for us.

So many people only get their homes looking their best when they’re preparing to leave. But what if we lived that way all the time? What if we treated our space with the same care, not because someone else might want to buy it, but because we deserve to live in a peaceful, beautiful home every day?

For us, the work was already done. Selling a house is stressful enough— thank goodness we don’t have the chaos of clutter on top of everything. 

This is a fun exercise even if moving is not on the horizon for you: What would you get rid of to make your home look welcoming and peaceful for potential buyers? Let that be a guiding question as you declutter…not for the next homeowner. For you.