7 Tips for Decluttering Your Home

Decluttering your home can feel overwhelming, but these seven steps will hopefully help you simplify the process before you sell your home.

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  Decluttering is so important in getting your home ready to sell as well as just cleaning up for spring. Whatever your motivation, thinning out your home is a great way to feel good. Today let’s go through the seven steps it takes to declutter your home. 1. Make sure the front of your home is welcoming and encourages buyers to come inside. First impressions are everything. Buyers are probably going to find your home online first, and then they might even drive around the neighborhood to check it out. You’ll want to clear out any dead leaves and put some fresh mulch down. Be sure that there are no mud daubers or bird’s nests in your eaves. Pretend you’re a buyer and walk up to your front porch. What would you think? 2. Take it one room at a time. Decluttering can be really overwhelming, so just start small. Thin out the things in your room and closet; think about what your room would look like in a photograph. What isn’t needed? Pictures will amplify those extra things on countertops and other areas. 3. Decide what furniture you really need in the home. To make your property look like a model home, get rid of extra furniture and end tables. 4. Clean off countertops. These are common places for us to pile things up, but kitchens are very important rooms to make a good impression with. Put your toaster, blender, and other similar appliances away in a cabinet, and clear away other extraneous papers and tidbits.  

Think about what your room would look like in a photograph. What isn’t needed?

5. Clean your shower. When we come to preview your home, we’re going to pull back the shower curtain. Be sure the grout is clean and that tiles or paint aren’t peeling. Your shower will tell buyers a lot about how you take care of your home. 6. Take away your collectibles. It’s great that you care about and collect things that are dear to your heart, but that can become a distraction to buyers. Go ahead and box it up and put it away. 7. Declutter the garage and storage sheds. If there are things in there that you need to keep on hand, put them in boxes or storage bins that are neat and organized. All these things sound crazy, however, they make a lot of difference. A decluttered home will help you get the most money for your home in the shortest amount of time. If you need any help with decluttering your home or have other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you however I can.

We Are Looking for Homes to Sell

Our market is short on listings. Do you have a home to sell for between $150,000 and $250,000?

Looking to sell your Tulsa area home? Get a free home value report
Looking to buy a Tulsa area home? Click here to browse Tulsa homes for sale 

  Spring has sprung for us here in the Tulsa market. We’re very busy this time of year, so I wanted to take a short minute to talk about our listing shortage. We need good, ready-to-move-in homes in the $150,000 to $250,000 price range. If you have a home that would match this criteria, please let us know so that we can help all of our buyers. We have more buyers than we have homes for sale that match their criteria.  

We need good, ready-to-move-in homes in the $150,000 to $250,000 price range.

Another tool that we use is called “My Buyer Listings,” a website just for buyer listings. That means we’ve met with our buyers, we’ve qualified them, and they’re ready to go buy a home. They’re just not finding homes that match what they’re looking for. Be sure to check out our listings that we already have with buyers and let us know if this is the perfect time to put your home on the market in this price range. That way, you get to take advantage of the market by moving up—and that’s always a win. If you have a home in this price range that you’d consider selling or if you have any other questions, please reach out to us and let us know how we can help you.

Teaching Kids About Science and Teamwork Through Global Gardens

Maryann Donahue from Global Gardens is here today to share how this wonderful organization helps empower children in high-poverty areas of Tulsa.

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  Something that’s really important to us as a real estate team is giving back to our community, which is why we like to spotlight our local nonprofits that are doing great things in the Tulsa area. Today, I’m talking to Maryann Donahue from Global Gardens. Global Gardens was created by a teacher from Tulsa named Heather Oakley in 2007. Heather had a background in urban science education and peace education. She also had a bachelors degree in botany. She combined all of those things to create Global Gardens. The purpose of Global Gardens is to help fight the cycle of poverty and empower kids from high-poverty communities to be agents of change in their own lives and in their communities. When Heather came back to Tulsa in 2007, she started the first program at Eugene Field. She offered during and after-school programs. At that time, there was an empty lot next to Eugene Field that was bare, empty, and forgotten. She and that first group of students turned it into a beautiful, bountiful garden, and that’s what Global Gardens has done ever since. Since then, Global Gardens has added three more sites in addition to Eugene Field, including the one Maryann and I are filming from today. This field services Union Middle School and Union High School. There are two other elementary schools in the program as well: Rosa Parks Elementary and McAuliffe Elementary in East Tulsa.  

The purpose of Global Gardens is to help fight the cycle of poverty and empower kids.

“We serve over 1,800 kids every week in this program,” says Maryann. “We’re helping about 2,500 people a year.” Global Gardens uses gardening as a vehicle for empowerment. They also use gardening to teach science and how to be peaceful. “In the during-school program, they have a class garden. They get to decide what to plant, and they have a harvest party at the end of the year,” says Maryann. “They do all of that together. It’s very intentional.” These programs teach science that addresses state science standards while also teaching teamwork. The students don’t have many opportunities outside of Global Gardens to do hands-on, real-world things and have to do them as a team. We really believe that Global Gardens is doing a great thing. How can you help? Go to Global-Gardens.org to make an online donation. All of their funding is raised from community donations; they don’t have state contracts or charge fees. Maryann says that Global Gardens hopes to add a fifth site at Jackson Elementary School in North Tulsa by 2019. This has been in the works for a while, so please consider helping them reach their goal. I would like to thank Maryann for taking the time to talk to me today. You can learn more details about Global Gardens at Global-Gardens.org. If you have any real estate questions or know another local nonprofit you think we should spotlight, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!