3 Unexpected Tips for Staging your House

3 Unexpected Tips for Staging your House

So, I have a bit of news – we are moving.  Moving!  From the East Coast all the way to California, and in just a few weeks.  It’s a huge life transition and I’m so sad to leave friends behind, but we are also very happy and so ready for this adventure.

When it came time to sell our house, boy did I get schooled in the art of “staging”.  I went ahead and did all the things they say you’re supposed to do – I planted new flowers in the front and cleaned the house from top to bottom.

But along the way there were 3 tips I learned that I DIDN’T find on the internet, and I wanted to share them with you because I found them to be really effective!

1) Clear the FLOOR of your closet.

It will come as no surprise to you when I say the name of the game is to make your closets appear BIG.

One quick tip my real estate broker suggested was to clear the FLOOR of all the closets.  I was doubtful but the effect was amazing.  Even with a full closet, just emptying the floor of any contents made the whole closet appear roomier.  It really made a difference!

 

2) De-clutter by hiding your things in PLAIN SIGHT

You probably already know that decluttering is the number one thing you should do when you’re getting ready to sell your house. No one likes to look at piles of STUFF!  But one method of decluttering that was a total revelation to me was hiding my stuff in plain sight.

What do I mean by “in plain sight”?  Okay, here’s an example:  I have a million purses, clutches and bags.  So, I simply took the smaller ones and stored them inside the bigger ones.

Here’s the BEFORE:

 

And the AFTER.  See?  All my purses and clutches are still there, hidden in plain sight inside the bigger ones.

 

I got this idea from Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.   She suggests hiding your smaller stuff inside your bigger stuff.

I can also see doubling up coats on a hanger, folding a smaller sweater inside a bigger sweater… but this can apply to home goods too.  You could store decorative accessories inside vases and bowls and boxes that are otherwise sitting empty.  The idea is to reduce the appearance of STUFF and to create more breathing space.

 

3) De-Personalize Your Space

You want to de-personalize your house as much as possible!

Prospective buyers need to be able to visualize themselves in your house – they need to SEE themselves living there.  The last thing you want to do is make them feel like they are paying a visit to your house by perusing personal pictures of your honeymoon or nosing into your personal business when they open a cabinet and see your medication.

One easy trick I learned was to buy a bunch of these shallow boxes, and anything I termed too “embarrassing” or “personal”, I simply dumped under the bed!

See?  Toiletries in there, as well as personal photos.  My cabinets and shelves were ready for prime time.

 

I took it one step further and replaced a personal family photo on my bedroom wall:

 

With a DIY water color:

 

 

I used the kids’ watercolor kit – took me two seconds to make a swirl on the paper.  Of course, as soon as they saw what I was up to, everyone wanted in on the action:

 

You may feel like I went too far – replacing your personal wall photos with art?!  But I’m telling you, my bedroom felt a lot less like “Lorri’s Room” and a lot MORE like “welcome to your new luxury master suite, whoever you are!”.

Actually, it’s funny – I liked the watercolor swirl so much I just left it there after our open house:

 

So, we sold our house and now we’re getting ready to embark on this big cross-country adventure.  I have to say, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a new house and start sharing new and exciting decorating tips with you!