Paying $10 a Photo to Declutter? 6 Options Compared

The listing goes live tomorrow. The photographer has already been, and every shot of the kitchen shows a toaster, a fruit bowl, kids’ drawings on the fridge and a stack of mail by the window. You could reshoot, or you could pay someone to erase it.

I’m Daniel Htut, CEO of BasedFrame. We make an AI tool that removes furniture and clutter, so I have a bias. To keep this honest, every price below links to the vendor’s own page, and I’ll say plainly where a free tool or a human editor beats us.

This post compares six real options for decluttering listing photos, what they cost, what they are good at, and the disclosure rules that now apply when you remove things from a photo.

Why clutter is worth fixing at all

Decluttering is the single most common thing agents ask sellers to do. In NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Staging, 91% of sellers’ agents recommended decluttering the home, ahead of a full cleaning (88%) and improving curb appeal (77%). More than half (51%) of sellers’ agents didn’t stage homes at all but told sellers to declutter or fix faults instead.

The same report found that 88% of sellers’ agents said photos were more or much more important to their clients. Clutter that slips into those photos is the cheapest problem to fix and one of the most visible to leave in.

The ideal is still to clear the room before the photographer arrives. Digital clutter removal is for everything that didn’t happen: the tenant who wouldn’t move their stuff, the vacant house with one abandoned couch, the shoot that had to happen on a messy Tuesday.

The six options at a glance

Now the detail on each.

1. Google Photos Magic Eraser: free and already on your phone

Since May 2024, Google has made Magic Eraser available to all Google Photos users on Android and iOS with no subscription. You circle or brush over the object, tap Erase, and it fills the gap. Google’s help page lists current iPhone requirements of at least 3 GB of RAM and iOS 18 or later.

Good at: a trash can by the garage, a power cord, a magnet-covered fridge door. Weak at: large objects. Erasing a sofa means inventing a whole section of floor, skirting and wall, and that’s where seams and smudges show up.

2. Apple Photos Clean Up: free, but only on newer devices

Apple’s Clean Up tool works the same way inside the Photos app, but it’s part of Apple Intelligence, so it only runs on supported hardware such as the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 16 family (TechWiser has a walkthrough and a side-by-side test against Magic Eraser). If your phone qualifies, it’s a fast way to tidy a shot before you upload it. It has the same limits as Magic Eraser when it comes to whole pieces of furniture.

If you’re shooting listings on a phone anyway, our guide to taking professional listing photos on your phone covers the shoot itself, which saves you most of this cleanup.

3. Adobe Photoshop: the most control, the most time

Photoshop’s Remove tool and Generative Fill can handle almost anything if you have the skill and the patience. The Photoshop single-app plan is US$22.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, or US$34.49 month to month, and Adobe says it includes 25 monthly generative credits. Creative Cloud Pro, which Adobe lists at US$69.99 a month after an introductory price, includes unlimited standard features such as Generative Fill.

Good at: pixel-level control, tricky reflections, mixed edits on one photo. Weak at: speed. You’re doing the work yourself, photo by photo. For an agent with 25 listing photos, that’s an afternoon.

4. BoxBrownie item removal: a human does it for you

BoxBrownie’s pricing page lists “Item Removal & Virtual Cleaning” at US$10 per image, or US$5 for one or two small items. You upload, describe what should go, and a human editor sends it back.

Good at: being hands-off, and handling awkward photos that AI tools fumble. Weak at: cost at volume and turnaround. Ten cluttered photos is $100, and you wait for a person rather than seconds for a render. We compared BoxBrownie with other editing services in more depth in 5 real estate photo editing options.

5. AI staging apps: removal comes bundled with staging

Most AI virtual staging apps now include a declutter or furniture removal mode, because you often need to empty a room before restaging it.

• Virtual Staging AI’s pricing page says furniture removal is included on every plan, with plans starting at $16 a month for 6 photos when billed yearly ($192 a year) and a 10-second turnaround.
• REimagineHome prices plans from $14 to $99 a month, gives new users 5 free designs, and counts one generation as one credit.

Good at: speed, and going straight from an emptied room to a staged one. Weak at: pricing that’s built around staging volume. If you only need a few rooms emptied, a monthly plan can cost more than paying per photo. We compared these apps head to head in Stop Overpaying for Virtual Staging.

6. BasedFrame: empty the room, then decide what goes back

In BasedFrame, Empty the Room removes furniture, decor, rugs and clutter and rebuilds the floor, walls and skirting that were hidden, while keeping fixed things like windows, doors, radiators and built-ins. It costs 1 credit per photo and usually renders in under a minute.

For smaller jobs, Point and Edit lets you click on the exact object, say the stack of mail, and remove just that, also for 1 credit. Magic Edit does the same from a typed instruction. When the room is empty, Virtual Staging furnishes it again for 2 credits.

New accounts get 30 free credits, enough to empty 30 rooms. After that, our pricing page has plans from $49 a month for 180 credits.

Good at: whole rooms, and keeping clearing, staging and touch-ups in one project. Weak at: I’ll be straight: for one fridge magnet on one photo, Magic Eraser on your phone is free and faster than opening any app.

How to pick

• One or two small distractions: use Google Photos or Apple Clean Up. Don’t pay for this.
• You already live in Photoshop: keep using it, especially for photos with mirrors, glass or complicated light.
• You want it done for you and the listing is a one-off: BoxBrownie at $5 to $10 a photo is easy to justify.
• You stage often: an AI staging app or BasedFrame, where removal and staging share one workflow.
• You need to empty whole rooms quickly: a dedicated empty-room tool, because general erasers struggle with large furniture.

The rules: remove clutter, not defects, and disclose it

This is the part people skip. California’s Business and Professions Code section 10140.8, added by AB 723 and in force since January 1, 2026, says any listing image altered with photo software or AI to “add, remove, or change elements,” including furniture, needs a reasonably conspicuous disclosure and a link to the original, unaltered image. Ordinary adjustments like lighting, exposure, color correction and cropping are exempt.

The CRMLS guidance is even more specific: virtually clearing a room of furniture that won’t convey at closing counts as digitally altered, so the edited photo must be labeled (for example “digitally altered” or “virtually staged”) and the original must appear right before or after it. Its Rule 11.5.2 FAQ also says you cannot add, remove or modify real parts of the property, such as wall color, flooring or cabinets.

In practice:

1. Remove movable things only: clutter, personal items, furniture.
2. Never erase a water stain, a crack, a power line or a neighbor’s house.
3. Keep every original file, label the edited photo, and upload the original next to it where your MLS requires it.

Rules differ outside California, so check your state and MLS. Our post on virtual staging vs virtual renovation goes deeper on where the line sits.

The bottom line

You shouldn’t pay $10 to erase a toaster. Free phone tools handle small items well. Pay a human editor when a photo is genuinely hard or you want it off your plate, and use an AI empty-room tool when you need whole rooms cleared, fast, especially if you plan to restage them.

If you want to try it on your own listing photos, start free with BasedFrame and run Empty the Room on your most cluttered shot.

Sources

• National Association of Realtors, NAR Report Reveals Home Staging Boosts Sale Prices and Reduces Time on Market and the full 2025 Profile of Home Staging (decluttering 91%, photos 88%, 51% recommend decluttering instead of staging).
• BoxBrownie, Pricing (item removal and virtual cleaning, US$10 standard, US$5 for 1-2 small items).
• Google, Google Photos expands AI editing features to all users and Edit your photos, iPhone and iPad (Magic Eraser availability and requirements).
• TechWiser, How to Use iPhone’s Clean Up Feature on Any iPhone (Apple Intelligence device support).
• Adobe, Photoshop (single-app and Creative Cloud Pro pricing, generative credits).
• Virtual Staging AI, Pricing (plans, furniture removal included, turnaround).
• REimagineHome, Pricing (plan range, free designs, credit rules).
• California Legislature, Business and Professions Code 10140.8 (AB 723 digitally altered image disclosure).
• CRMLS, Digitally Altered Image Guidance and FAQs and Rule 11.5.2 FAQs.