As a homeowner, the decision to sell your condo resulted from logical and practical reasons. Admittedly, you have mixed feelings about your choice. Still, when your condo hit the market it still felt a bit unreal.

Clarity and reality hit with a thud when your condo selling agents called to schedule a viewing for a prospective buyer. Now, your mixed feelings are panic and fear as you look around your home. Frantically, you start shoving everything in closets until you realize future buyers like to open closet doors.

Here are a few ideas to help you prepare your home to showcase its best features.

1. Corral Clutter

Buyers do not like looking at all the items you collect, wear, eat or use on a daily basis. Experts suggest getting rid of at least half of everything currently taking up space in your condo. You cannot expect strangers to consider buying your home when it is impossible to see any details, including the floor, because of all of your stuff.

To do list:

• Sell excess furniture, kitchenware, exercise equipment or clothes. Advertise in your local paper, on Craigslist, phone apps for sellers or put up flyers.
• Give sentimental items to family members or friends.
• Donate the rest.
• Rent a storage unit if you cannot bring yourself to part with your treasures.

2. Clean, Deep Clean, Repeat

Once your condo is clutter-free, clean it from top to bottom. Prospective buyers find the only thing worse than a cluttered home is a dirty house.

To do list:

• Clean every surface in your home.
• Vacuum and steam-clean the carpets.
• Wash all windows – inside and out.
• Clean all appliances including the oven – inside and out.
• Vacuum and clean all vents and change air filters and appliance filters.
• If you cannot carry out the cleaning yourself, hire a cleaning agency.

3. Pack Your Pictures

Remove all personal items from the premises. Not only will that help you start to disassociate yourself from your condo, it also allows buyers to imagine their own pictures on the walls.

To do list:

• Take down artwork and sell it, donate it or store it.
• Literally, remove every picture and personal item currently residing in your condo. Buyers snoop. Do not let them find anything.
• Take that crocheted afghan from Grandma and place it in storage along with throw pillows, knick-knacks, trinkets and toys. Remove all books, including those big, coffee-table picture books, leaving only two or three generic books artfully displayed on an otherwise-empty bookshelf.

4. Paint the Place

No matter how long it took to find the perfect shade of deep purple for the bathroom walls, it is time to repaint every wall and do not forget the ceilings.

To do list:

• If you smoke, paint the walls with a primer made specifically to cover odors. Once it dries, do it again. Smokers are notoriously poor when it comes to detecting smells.
• You have two color choices: White or beige. Buyers need to see all that nice, clean space. They do not need to see or appreciate the orange wallpaper border in the bedroom.
• Buyers love the faint whiff of freshly painted walls. Do not forget the baseboards.

5. Light, Light and More Light

As you remove bulky furniture, replace it with lights. Real-Estate specialists suggest three light points in each room.

To do list:

• Open or remove curtains, allowing natural light to fill each room.
• Replace missing or burned-out lightbulbs in all fixtures and lamps.
• Repair or replace any fixtures not currently working.
• Avoid fluorescent lights whenever possible as they are known to encourage headaches and worsen depression.
• Indirect lighting tends to be flattering.

Many other things, such as good curb appeal, baking cookies and doing basic repairs will help sell your condo. However, if you do not follow the ideas indicated above, chances are good you will remain in your condo with no buyers knocking down your door.