Do the jobs in the right order
Getting a house ready for sale is mostly a question of sequence. Clean the carpets before the furniture has gone and you'll be cleaning them twice. Power wash the driveway before the clearance van has been in and out, and you may have to do it again. This is the order that works:
| Step | Job | Why here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Decide what's going, what's staying and what the buyer may take | Everything else depends on it |
| 2 | Clear the house, attic, garage, shed and garden | Empty rooms show what needs fixing |
| 3 | Repairs and painting | Easier in empty rooms |
| 4 | Clean the kitchen and bathrooms | After the dust and paint |
| 5 | Carpet cleaning | Once furniture, painters and ladders are out |
| 6 | Power washing outside | Close to the photos, so it looks its best |
| 7 | Estate agent photos and viewings | Everything finished |
Leave a few days between steps if you can. A rushed week before the photographer arrives is when things get missed.
Clear first: what to take out before the photos
Rooms look bigger, brighter and easier to imagine living in when they aren't full. Most estate agents will want a house empty, or close to it, before photographs and viewings. That means clearing:
- furniture you're not taking, especially anything dated, damaged or too big for the room
- clutter on every surface: ornaments, paperwork, piles of post, fridge magnets
- the contents of wardrobes and presses, because buyers open doors
- the hall, where coats, shoes and bikes build up
- the garden: broken pots, old furniture, a rusty barbecue (garden clearance)
If you're downsizing or moving, we can clear whatever's left after the removal van has gone. For a whole property, property clearance covers sales, lettings and probate homes, and our house clearance page explains how a full clear-out works. Selling in Dublin? Our page on clearing a Dublin property before the sale covers timing around the valuation, the photos and the closing date.
spotless.ieDon't forget the attic, garage and shed
The spaces buyers don't see in the photos still matter.
- The attic. A BER assessor needs to see the attic insulation, and a buyer's surveyor will want to look at the roof timbers, the felt and the water tank. If the attic is packed, they may not be able to get in properly, which can hold things up or leave the BER relying on default values. See attic clearance.
- The garage. A garage full to the door reads as a storage problem. Cleared, it reads as space, a workshop or a future conversion. See garage clear-outs.
- The shed. A tidy shed is a plus; a collapsing one goes on the buyer's list of jobs. We can empty it or take it down altogether (shed clearance).
A BER is needed when a home is offered for sale in Ireland, and the rating has to appear in the advert. If you haven't booked the assessor yet, clear the attic first.
Empty or staged?
An empty house photographs well and lets buyers picture their own furniture. But completely bare rooms can look smaller and colder than they are, and some, like a box room, are hard to read without a bed in them.
Talk to your estate agent before the clearance. A common approach is to clear almost everything and leave a few good pieces in the main rooms: a sofa, a table and chairs, a made bed. That's easy to arrange. Tell us what's staying and we'll clear around it. Your agent knows what's selling locally, so take their lead on the rest.
Still living there while you sell?
Not every house goes on the market empty. If you're still living in it, the aim is a lived-in house with less in it:
- Clear the attic, garage and shed first. They're the easiest spaces to empty early, and otherwise you'd be paying to move things you don't want.
- Thin out every room. Take out a piece or two of furniture, clear the worktops, and empty half of each wardrobe so the storage looks generous.
- Box up what you're keeping but won't need before the move, and store it out of sight.
- Book one collection for the lot. A single junk removal visit for everything you've decided against is simpler than lots of trips in the car.
Doing this before the photos also means the removal van only moves what you're actually taking to the new house.
Selling and need the house cleared? Send photos of each room, the attic, the garage and the outside, plus your photo date. We'll quote the clearance, and the carpets and power washing if you need them, usually the same day.
The outside: first impressions start at the gate
The first photo in most listings is the front of the house, and the first thing buyers walk on at a viewing is the driveway. A green, slippery drive or a patio black with algae makes a house look neglected, however good the inside is. Power washing makes a visible difference:
- Driveways: block paving, cobble-lock, concrete and tarmac, with moss and grime lifted out. See driveway cleaning.
- Patios: sandstone, granite and concrete slabs. See patio cleaning.
- Paths, steps and walls: the route to the front door is part of the first impression.
- Roofs and gutters: moss on the roof and weeds growing out of the gutters get noticed by buyers and surveyors alike. See roof cleaning.
Book it close to the photo date, once the clearance van, skips and builders' vans have finished using the driveway. Our power washing page covers every surface we clean.
Carpets: clean them once the rooms are empty
If the carpets are in decent condition and staying with the house, cleaning them after the clearance is usually worth it. Empty rooms show every traffic lane, furniture mark and stain, and that's exactly what the camera picks up.
Clean them last on the inside, after the clearance, the painters and any repairs, so nobody walks dust back in. Carpets are damp for a while after hot-water extraction, so leave time before the photographer arrives; our guide on how long carpets take to dry explains what to expect. Carpet cleaning in Dublin explains how we do it.
Selling an inherited house
Plenty of houses come to market after someone has died. If that's your situation, the executor should check with the solicitor before anything of value goes, and the clearance can be done in stages while the family chooses what to keep. Our guide to clearing a house after a death covers probate and the practical steps.
Pre-sale checklist
- Agree with the agent what should stay for the photos
- Clear the house, attic, garage, shed and garden
- Book the BER assessor once the attic is accessible
- Finish repairs and painting
- Clean the kitchen and bathrooms
- Clean the carpets and leave time for them to dry
- Power wash the driveway, patio, paths and steps
- Cut the grass and tidy the front garden the day before the photos
