The DIY Storage Upgrade That's Hurting Your Home Value

Modern home design has sparked a new wave of creativity when it comes to storage, inspiring homeowners to try out new DIY ideas that can help them make the most of their space. That's great for you ... but not so great if you're trying to sell your home.

Sure, there are plenty of genius hidden storage solutions out there for anywhere in your home, and the right approach can make daily routines feel more functional than ever before. That said, not every upgrade is a one-size-fits-all method, and highly customized solutions may not be a selling point for buyers when it comes time to put your home on the market.  If you've been preparing your home to sell, it might be time to take a second look at your organization and reconsider if it will be an advantage for every kind of homeowner, not just you: That's why real estate professionals believe that custom storage solutions that benefit a specific, personal purpose — for example, a shelf designed specifically for wine storage, or shelving that fits all of your skiing equipment just perfectly — may actually be hurting your home's value rather than helping it.

It might be hard to take your own perspective out of the equation, but your needs and tastes aren't necessarily relevant to your prospective home buyers. The DIY storage design you crafted to perfectly fit your lifestyle is sometimes better left removed or even replaced by more adaptable solutions, especially if you want your home's value to reach its highest potential.

When you think about how to stage your home like a real estate agent, a key step is to eliminate the personal items and clutter that will make it harder for buyers to picture the space belonging to themselves. The same idea can apply to personalized storage in the home — the buyers should be able to envision the home adapting to their life, instead of trying to figure out how they'll adapt their life to what the previous owners set up. Even though you may think of custom storage as a valuable addition to your property, real estate experts say that most buyers aren't willing to pay extra for it, and might even see it as a costly disadvantage they'll need to eventually renovate.

To determine whether or not your DIY storage is going to hurt your home's value, consider whether it has flexibility. Designs like a built-in wine display wall, vinyl record console, or indoor gardening center only benefit niche buyers and don't offer many other uses aside from their original purpose. The space should be open to interpretation, not constrained by specific goals. Take custom closets, for example — real estate pros say that large, custom closets can be a benefit, but some buyers will respond negatively if they feel the layout wouldn't work for them personally. Thus, a custom closet that's built to store the wardrobe basics everyone owns is wonderful, but a narrow storage case for displaying handbags might read as useless to a bachelor who only needs one hook for his messenger bag.

Many people find that adding more storage to their home can sometimes be a mistake that ends up adding more clutter in the long run. When selling your home, it's best to avoid cramping your space with overly specific organizational systems and aim to make it feel more open instead. Look at some of your DIY setups and try to picture them fully empty, and then consider the different ways the everyday buyer could use them. If your custom entertainment center can only fit your specific television and speaker size, it's better to remove this storage in favor of an adaptable design. An empty space will even be more attractive than a constricting one, but you can always revamp your storage to be more complementary.

If you want to fill the space of your previous purpose-built storage, the best solution is to implement a design that will complement the room's basic purpose, rather than determine it. For instance, if your kitchen has a storage wall that is customized to display something specific, like wine bottles or a collection of fine china, swapping it out for open shelving will open the space to organize a variety of kitchen storage. The most attractive storage will abide by a less-is-more mentality, removing narrow and overly specific details so buyers can have more freedom to move their own lifestyle and storage needs into the space.