By Rudy Dicks

Many homeowners will reach a point in their lives when they feel that the upkeep on a house is too taxing, and the idea of moving into an apartment sounds irresistible.  As they explore apartments, they need to prepare their house for sale. Homeowners deserve to get the most they can from the sale of their house, and that requires putting the best face possible on the home.

"Cleaning up, without a doubt, is the most important way to start," says Pamela Bayer, an interior designer and the creator of Hudson-based Pamela Bayer Interiors, which specializes in consumer, corporate and industrial interior design. "It's very important. When they're buying a house, people open medicine cabinets, vanities, closets. They want to see what they're getting." Some tips from Ms. Bayer on how to maximize the value of your house:

• Remove "every little tchotchke you have, every little knickknack, every doily" from your living space. "I know it's something near and dear to your house [but] a person wants to see a blank canvas. If every single nook and cranny is filled with something, the rooms look smaller and cluttered."

• Pare down the closets. "The smaller the amount of clothing you have hanging in the closet, the larger the closet looks. If it's overflowing with coats and bags and everything, people will look at it and say, 'Oh, this closet is so small.'  Store clothes in a plastic box that can slide under the bed. "They'll never see it; they'll never know."

• When painting the interior, choose a neutral color. "You want it to be a soft off-white; you want the trim to be a nice bright white; and you want your ceiling to be bright white because that makes the ceiling look very high [and] it details the trim work. Whatever their palette color is, they can see it in that space."

• If you're moving into an apartment, in all likelihood the space will not match that of a house, so downsizing goes hand-in-hand with cleaning. "This is the perfect opportunity to get rid of all the old stuff you've wanted to throw away. You don't want to move with all your old stuff you haven't seen for 10 years."

Next: Preparing the exterior of the house.