Thinking of selling your home now that the real estate market is picking up? If so, you'll want to stage your home in a way that makes
it most appealing to your target buyers. According to a study in 2008 by the Real Estate Staging Association, 95 percent of professionally staged homes sold on average in
37 days, compared to more than 212 days for non-staged
homes.
Why Stage? Because the vast majority of
buyers cannot visualize a home's potential. They only see what is in front of them--so if
it's cluttered, dusty or outdated that's all they will
see.
You don't have to sell your existing home to have a new look for your surroundings. If you've been in your house for years and the clutter has finally taken over--I've got some tips for you. Either way, this issue will help you get organized for living or selling. |
DIY Home Staging Tips
|
Bedroom Before Staging  |
- Make it clean and uncluttered! Give it a top to bottom cleaning. Put away most of your personal items and all family photos. Knickknacks, artifacts, pictures, and collectibles on display are a distraction to potential buyers. If you still have visual clutter, see the companion article below on Less is More: Organizing Tips.
- Taking down your family pictures and collectibles seems counter-intuitive because you expect personal items make your home seem warm and inviting. In fact, it makes prospective buyers feel like they are invading someone's home, and distracts them from
envisioning it as their own.
- Rent a
portable storage unit if you have a lot of stuff to store. One company,
PODS, will deliver the unit to your driveway, transport it to a secure
facility and charge you a monthly storage fee. Rule of thumb, don't put anything in storage that you don't want to pay someone to move.
- Be sure to spend time sprucing up the outside of your home too. Curb appeal is like a first impression when you meet someone; it takes seconds to form an impression and you want your home to convey a welcoming exterior that's well maintained.
- Brighten and enlarge living spaces by ensuring proper lighting and neutral paint colors in every room. Try to appeal to the visitor's senses:
rooms that are open, clean, uncluttered, dust-free with pleasing smells and ample lighting. Eliminate pet smells, but don't use a lot
of obvious air freshener to do so.
- The easiest way to stage a home for dramatic
transformation is with furniture. Arrange furniture to remove obstructions to vision and movement. Find or rent brighter, newer, more size-appropriate furniture if need be.
- Flooring is one of the interior's most noticeable features, so do what you can to reveal hidden hardwood or replace
worn carpet. Have the carpets cleaned, if they are
still in good shape. Otherwise, replace worn or stained carpeting. Consider sanding and refinishing worn or scratched wood floors.
Bedroom After Staging  |
|
Less is More: Organizing Tips for Living or Selling
| Family Room Before |
Follow these basic steps for any organizing project:
- Purge things you don't need, haven't used for at least a year or that are unnecessary duplicates. Create piles for things that can be donated vs. items that should be thrown away.
- Group like items together. This will differ depending on the area you are organizing. For example, in the family room, sort the DVDs, CDs, magazines, photos, games etc. into like groups.
- For the things that are staying in the room, plan for appropriate access to the most vs. least frequently used.
- Contain like items using existing storage or buying new if needed.
- Periodically take time to evaluate if you've corralled all of the like items you are working on and if the contained solution is one you and your family will use. Adjust
if necessary.
Here are some creative ideas for common problem areas:
- Use a back of door shoe bag to create extra storage space for office supplies.
- Create a memory box for each child and have a
folder per year
that contains the best of their drawings, poems, school reports, etc.
- For clothes, donate anything not worn in last 12 months or that's
too small now. There is no sense in having it languish in your closet when there are families in need. Be sure to keep a record of what you've donated for use at tax time.
- Decide on dedicated
space in the kitchen and purge your cookbook collection to
fit. Keep at least one all purpose cookbook and the remaining according to your
tastes.
- If you clip recipes, sort them into two piles: To Try and Tried and True. Toss out anything tried and not loved,
lost interest in, dated over a year (e.g., yellowed newspaper). Put
today's date
on all To Try recipes and throw away if untried after one year. Put
recipes into sheet projectors--fit in as many as you can
see. Put into two binders one for
Tried and To Try. If you have enough, sort them into
sections with tabbed dividers:
appetizers, beef, pork, chicken, seafood, pasta, desserts, side
dishes.
- If you are an avid user of coupons, they should go into a 4x6 file box with
labeled dividers: food,
household, paper goods, personal hygiene, supplies (office/school). To use successfully, you must commit to a process for
adding/using/purging.
Family Room After  | |
|
Hope
you enjoyed this newsletter. We're just a phone call away if you need help with an organizing, decorating or staging project in your home.
Susan
To a T Interiors
301-467-3563
www.toatinteriors.com
|
|
|
Mother's Day Inspiration
|  | How about a To a T Interiors gift
certificate? They make wonderful, unique gifts and are available in any amount for any service.
|
|
|
