De-cluttering and Staging

Clutter may suggest your home doesn’t measure up.

Even the best of us will admit to some level of clutter: stacks of mail, car keys and loose change next to the telephone, your pets collection of throw pillows, and bathrooms with enough toiletries to groom an army. Clutter is a distraction. More importantly, your clutter may be sending a message that there is a lack of cabinet space to properly store everyday items. My own kitchen counter is home to a toaster, a toaster oven, a coffee pot, a butcher block of knives, a canister of utensils and a bowl of random fruit. It’s functional, but If I’m hoping that this buyer will consider my home, I need to clean up my act.

Don’t shoot the stager.

The primary goal of staging is not to transform your home into the eighth wonder of the world. Rather, the best stagers will work with what you have, rearranging and reallocating all of your belongings, in order to present the property in its best light. Sometimes this means relocating some of those belongings to the garage.

But don’t take the process personally. Staging is not a do-it-yourself activity; only a third party specialist can bring the neutrality and objectivity needed to accomplish the goal. That’s his/her job.

De-clutter:

Staging:

Make no mistake—professional staging is an inconvenience. Your daily routine will be turned, at least temporarily, on its head. And it can be unsettling as you watch your life rearranged to suit the tastes of others. But if selling your home in the shortest amount of time and for the most money is your goal, it is precisely those “others” who should be your focus.