STAGING YOUR HOME

You have decided to sell your house and want it to look it’s best for your Open House. So where do you start?

Having a clean home is very important but it’s only the beginning. You need to be able to step back and see your home through the eyes of a buyer. That’s not very easy to do if you’ve lived in your house a long time and have become attached. There are probably a lot of memories in your home. But you have to remember, they are your memories and not a potential buyers.

This is the perfect time to get the help of an “outsider” to help you with organizing, de-cluttering and staging your home for a sale. Someone that is not “attached” to the house can give you an honest opinion on what needs to happen to get your house ready for potential buyers.

Staging is not “interior decorating”…. it is the art of making your home look its best to show off the features that can really sell your home.

Before you start the actual “staging” you will want to simplify, de-clutter, clean and fix anything that is wrong with the home (painting, fixing loose tiles, replacing missing light switches, replacing missing light bulbs…..). You probably won’t want to start any major renovations at this point. It all depends on your budget or time frame, but fixing the little things that you’ve let go for the last ten years is a “must do”.

De-cluttering is a must. Remember, not everyone is a collector of dolls or salt-and-pepper shakers. You will need to box up your collections and put them in storage.

Basically, and I know this will “hurt”…but you need to remove anything that is “you”. It’s not an easy thing to do. You need to stop thinking of the house as “yours” and start thinking about it as “someone else’s house”. Remember, you are trying to sell your house. It’s not about “you” anymore.

Since you are moving anyway start boxing up as much of your personal items as you can including all of your family pictures. Just think about the time you will save by doing this now instead of waiting until you actually move.

Remove everything from the top of your dressers. Take down any personal items that are on the wall. Have your children take down all of their posters and any certificates or awards that they have hanging up.

Wallpaper is very “personal”. If you can take it down it’s recommended. If you can’t do it yourself and its cost prohibitive to have it done by a professional, see if you can paint over it. Check with a professional first, but there are ways to seal the paper so that you can paint over it and still have the walls look good.

Make sure that the wall colors are neutral. Black walls or dark or vibrant colors will turn off potential buyers that can’t see past the orange walls.

Freshen up as much of the house as you can with new paint. It’s an inexpensive way to make your home look inviting.

Clean your house from top to bottom. Yes, those dust bunnies must go! People do not want to see dust bunnies, dirt and bathtub rings when they are looking at your house. Make sure that there are no fingerprints on the cabinets or the mirrors. Empty the wastebaskets in the bathrooms. Get a cleaning service if you don’t want to do it yourself. This is not the time to scrimp on cleaning.

Also, before your Open House have your carpets professionally cleaned. I bet you didn’t know that your carpeting was actually blue and not brown!

When you have your Open House turn on all of your lights (and please make sure they all work) and show off each room in the best possible light.

Now to the actual “staging”. You need to be sure that each room does not have “too much” furniture in it to make it look crowded. You want to make each room appear as large as possible. That might mean putting some furniture into storage.

Be sure that any furniture that you have in the room is clean and in good condition. Slip covers might be an inexpensive option for a worn couch if you can find one that looks good and not like a slip cover! If not, remove it.

Rearrange your furniture so that the room functions for it’s intended purpose. If you’ve used your dining room as a toy room for the kids, now is the time to turn it back into the dining room.

If you’ve turned your living room into an office, playroom and game room….now is the time to turn it back into a living room.

If you have children….be sure that all of their toys are put away and out of sight. You might turn off potential buyers if all they can see is kiddie clutter.

If you have pets….clean out their litter box and put it away for the Open House. Never have any pets around for the Open House or you will turn off potential buyers who can’t get past the fact that the dogs probably peed on the carpet!

The exterior of your home. Not only is the inside of the house important but so is the outside. That will be a potential buyer’s first impression. Make sure that the grass is cut and the weeds are non-existent. Trim any overgrown shrubs and bushes.

Add some inexpensive plants for a splash of color so that the outside will lure potential homebuyers in.

Staging is a “process”. Remember, you want to sell your home, so don’t forget to add a professional organizer and a stager to the list of people that will make that a reality.


Organizational Consulting Services

www.organizationalconsultingservices.com