Prepping for a home sale can be hard on the environment. Whether it’s a renovation project, painting, decluttering, staging or cleaning, each of these essential parts of the selling experience can generate a lot of waste. However, there are ways to be mindful about the process. In this post, we’ll explore greener ways to prep your home for a successful sale.
Renovating:
Are you rehabing an old house before selling? Items such as lighting fixtures, cabinets, sinks and mirrors can be donated to salvage yards instead of sent to the landfill. Salvage yards may also take building supplies such as lumber, brick, tile or iron work. Neighborhood sharing platforms like Nextdoor might also be useful for getting rid of unwanted materials and supplies.
You can also consider salvage yards for your own renovation needs. They are great resources for ornate doors and door knobs, drawer pulls, vintage furniture or clawfoot tubs.
For a list of Bay Area salvage yards click here.
Painting:
Painting a home is a low cost way to make a tired space feel bright and new. A simple swath of paint can make even the oldest room feel new again. However, according to the EPA, indoor air can be three times more polluted than outdoor. This is often caused by volatile organic compounds (or VOCs) which used to be essential to paint and finishes. Luckily today’s paints and finishes now come without all the toxins. When considering painting your home, look for low or zero- VOC options. These are less harmful to both the environment and to your health. Here are a few of the non toxic paint choices.
Decluttering:
A spacious, clutter free house can make your home more attractive to buyers. But decluttering your things can be a big endeavor and very wasteful if you don’t dispose of them correctly. If you’re interested in tips for how to declutter without the waste, check out our recent blog post with all the details for how to get the process started.
Staging:
Although staging may not seem wasteful at first glance, stagers often use new furniture or furniture that’s been transported using large amounts of plastic to help get a home ready to sell. If you’re engaging a stager, consider using an eco-friendly company. These companies source local or vintage furniture when staging a home, try to repurpose or upcycle materials and transport using green means such as hybrid vehicles and eco-friendly packing supplies.
Cleaning:
A clean house is essential for selling your home for top dollar. Unfortunately most cleaning products are laden with toxins and chemicals. Before you start your deep clean, consider making your own green DIY cleaning supplies, recipes can be found here, or enlist the services of a green house cleaning services. Here are a few resources for the Bay Area: squeaky green house clean, eco-friendly cleaning, green planet cleaning.
Just remember, prepping your home for sale doesn’t have to be wasteful. We hope these tips will give you some ideas for how to prep your home for selling more mindfully. For more tips from your local green realtor, check back next month, and as always, if you’re interested in selling, buying or have questions about a greener home buying experience, contact us. We love being your local green resource.
What Is a Green Realtor?
All Zip Code East Bay agents have advanced training in environmental sustainability and hold the National Association of REALTORS®’ Green Designation. We are skilled at helping sellers improve their home’s market value with green alternatives and advising new homeowners on how to keep their home’s environmental footprint light.
We employ the latest tools to ensure that the home selling and buying process is environmentally friendly for our clients. And we donate 5% of our profits back into the East Bay community by giving back to charities we believe in.
In 2018, Zip Code East Bay became the first real estate brokerage in California to be certified as a B Corp. We're part of a growing movement to use business as a force for good. That means, we believe in putting people and the planet first, and we hold ourselves to rigorous standards for social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
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