The 90-Day Plan to Get Your House Ready to Sell

If you’re thinking about selling your house in the next three months, I have one piece of advice: don’t make your listing date the deadline. Make Photo Day the deadline.

Why? Because by the time the photographer shows up, your house needs to look its absolute best - which means the repairs are finished, the clutter is gone, the closets have room to breathe, the landscaping is fresh, and ideally, you’re about 90% packed. Yes, 90%. Stay with me. The beautiful thing about doing it this way is that once your house hits the market, you’re not simultaneously trying to keep it spotless for showings and figure out how on earth you’re going to pack your entire life. You basically already did.

About 90 days before photos, start with the least glamorous but most important step: deciding what is actually coming with you. Before you lovingly wrap and pack something you haven’t touched since 2017, ask yourself whether you even want it in the next house. Go room by room and sort things into four categories: Move, Donate, Sell, and Trash. I like starting with the easy stuff - garages, attics, storage closets, seasonal decorations, guest rooms - before we start making emotional decisions about Grandma’s china. This is also the perfect time to walk through the house with your Realtor and make one master list of repairs and improvements. I generally think of these as Must Do, Nice to Do, and Please Don’t Waste Your Money. By about Day 75, the goal is to have roughly 20–25% of the house packed.

From there, we start making the house feel bigger. Between Days 75 and 60, pack the things you technically could use over the next two months but probably won’t: extra dishes, serving pieces, books, collections, off-season clothing, small appliances, extra linens and most of the stuff hiding in the back of your closets. And speaking of closets: buyers open them! A closet stuffed to the ceiling quietly tells a buyer, “This house doesn’t have enough storage.” A closet that’s about half full says, “LOOK AT ALL THIS SPACE!” By the end of this phase, I’d love to see you around 40% packed - and preferably those boxes have somewhere to go besides becoming a cardboard mountain in the garage.

Around the 60-day mark, it’s time to deal with all those little house quirks you stopped noticing years ago. You know the cabinet handle that wiggles? The door that sticks? The caulk that has seen better days? Now is their moment. Patch holes, touch up paint, replace burned-out bulbs, repair dripping faucets, fix loose hardware and address the small maintenance items buyers tend to notice. Outside, start pruning, weeding, edging, mulching and pressure washing. Inside, begin looking at every room through the camera lens. Does the room really need all that furniture? Is something blocking a beautiful window? Are twelve things sitting on the kitchen counter? We’re creating visual breathing room. By around Day 45, aim for 50–55% packed.

The next two weeks are where we really start packing like you mean it. Extra cookware, office files, décor, toiletries, shoes, coats, toys, craft supplies and anything else you’re unlikely to need before the move can go. I also highly recommend creating a clearly labeled DO NOT PACK zone for medications, important documents, chargers, cleaning supplies, basic tools, pet supplies and everyday necessities. Otherwise, I promise someone will pack the screwdriver and you’ll open seven boxes looking for it. By Day 30, the goal is to be about 65 - 70% packed.

Now we shift from simply getting organized to merchandising the house. During Days 30 through 16, I want to walk through the property again with you and look at it as a product instead of your home. Every room should have an obvious purpose. Furniture may need to move - or disappear altogether. Bedding gets simplified. Bathroom counters get cleared. The refrigerator loses its collection of magnets. Closets get one more edit. The garage and laundry room get some love. We’re not trying to erase every trace that humans live there; we’re simply making it easier for buyers to imagine theirlives there. By Day 16, you should be around 80% packed, and an unexpected showing tomorrow should feel mildly annoying - not like a five-alarm emergency.

Then comes what I affectionately call The “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” Week. Between Days 15 and 8, we’re getting you to that magical 90% mark. Think two-week capsule wardrobes, minimal cookware, minimal toiletries, minimal toys, minimal everything. Pack most countertop appliances, remaining family photos and decorative items. Clear dresser tops and nightstands. Tackle the junk drawer, under the sinks, the medicine cabinet, freezer, coat closet and all those other sneaky places where stuff multiplies when no one is looking.

And then: YOU’RE 90% PACKED. YAY!

The final week is about cleaning and styling - not starting new projects. Have the house professionally deep cleaned. Clean the windows and carpets if needed. Refresh the landscaping. Put out fresh towels and bedding. Hide cords, plungers, toilet brushes, cleaning supplies, extra trash cans and pet clutter. Wipe down appliance fronts and baseboards. Make sure blinds work and lightbulbs match. And please, for the love of real estate, do not decide four days before photos that now would be a fun time to repaint the bathroom vanity. The projects are DONE.

The day or two before photos, do one final walkthrough as if you’re seeing the house online for the first time. Open the blinds. Fluff the pillows. Smooth the bedding. Put the toilet lids down. Clear the counters. Hide the cords. Move cars out of the driveway. Put away trash cans, hoses, pet bowls and bath mats. Sweep the porch. Straighten the patio furniture. Add a little fresh greenery if the room needs it - but no, we do not need seventeen bowls of fake lemons.

Then the photographer arrives.

And instead of standing there thinking, “Oh my gosh, now we have to pack this entire house,” you get to look around and think:

“We basically already did.”

That’s the whole point of starting 90 days before Photo Day. Selling a house already comes with enough moving parts. If we can spread the work over three months, make thoughtful decisions instead of panicked ones, and get most of the move out of the way before buyers ever walk through the door, the entire process becomes a whole lot easier.

And if you’re thinking about selling sometime in the next 90 days? You don’t have to have everything figured out yet. That’s what I’m here for. We’ll make the plan, tackle it one step at a time, and get you all the way to Photo Day - and whatever address comes next.