When you are looking to sell your house, there are some steps that you need to take to prepare the place so that others will be interested in it. You need to remove personal items from the house before the house is photographed or anyone walks through it, so that it will feel less like your home and more like a place that someone else can make their own.

1. Remove Items that Might Embarrass You

Before you start to work on the other steps required to prepare your home to be sold, go through the place and remove any items that you don’t want to have sitting out when people look at the home. Embarrassing items in bathroom drawers, on kitchen shelves, and in your bedroom closet may be exposed if you do not clear them out of your home.

2. Declutter Closets

You want others to imagine using your closets, and you should declutter those spaces to show off all that they offer and so that others can imagine making them their own. Remove some of the items that overstuff your closets when listing your home.

3. Straighten Up the Pantry

A pantry can be filled too full for anyone to really get a good look at it. You should straighten up your pantry before trying to sell your home.

4. Take Down Family Pictures

You do not want those who walk through your home to be met with dozens of pictures of your family. You want those people to imagine their own family’s pictures in the home, instead. Take down all of your family pictures and carefully store them away until they can be put up in your new home.

5. Remove Your Children’s Artwork from the Refrigerator

If you have hung your children’s drawings with magnets on your refrigerator or in other places throughout your home, it is time to take those down. Store them away somewhere where you will be able to either put them up again in the future or just know that you have them as your children grow older.

6. Take Down Special Paintings

If there are special paintings in your home that are unique or valuable, you want to take those down and store them away somewhere. Save the paintings for your next home and put up something a little more generic when your home is being shown.

7. Store Children’s Toys Away Somewhere

You do not want anyone tripping on your children’s toys as they make their way through your home, and you do not want the toys turning them off from the home. Let your child take some of the toys with them as you take them out of the house for a showing, and stash the rest of the toys out of the way somewhere.

8. Remove Anything with Your Name on It

If you have decorations up that feature your family name, think about taking those down. You want to sell your home, and you want those who walk through it to think of it as a generic place that is ready to be personalized.

You should take steps to remove all personal elements from your home before you take pictures of the place, bring someone in to list it, or let potential buyers tour it.