“All journeys eventually end in the same place, home.” —Chris Geiger
I am 38 years old. And I have lived in 16 different homes.
Now, most of these moves took place when I was young. But since getting married to my wife 15 years ago, we have lived in 5 different homes. Needless to say, moving is something I have become accustomed to. And as a result, I have become familiar with the process of buying and selling houses.
Each time we have sold a home, we have been advised by our realtor to “stage our home for selling.”
So then, in the weeks prior to our house hitting the market, we spent numerous hours “staging our home” for the sale. We did the research describing what makes a home attractive to a potential buyer and put most of their recommendations into place. By the end, our house looked better than it ever had since moving in—and then we sold it to some lucky family.
Each time, I can’t help but be struck by the irony of the situation. We spend countless hours getting our home into its best possible condition, only to leave it? Most of the time while staging our home for sale, I wondered why we had never put in the effort to stage our home for living. You know, so we could have actually enjoyed it more while we called it home.
To not make the same mistake we did, consider setting aside a weekend to stage your house for living. The process will take some time, energy, and money. It will take some intentional effort. But in the end, your home just may look better than the day you bought it. And maybe, just maybe, it could be a little bit of fun too.
A Step-by-Step Process to Stage Your Home for Living.
Remove 1/3 of your possessions. Those who stage a home for sale will tell you to remove roughly 33% of your personal possessions from the property. Less stuff means your rooms/closets have room to breathe and feel more spacious. A decluttered home is calm and inviting.
This may be easier if you were actually moving (natural purging almost always takes place during transition), but if you wouldn’t take it with you when you moved, why let it take up space in your life today?
Grab some cardboard boxes and walk through your home room-by-room, closet-by-closet, and drawer-by-drawer. Collect all the stuff you no longer need or love. Donate it, sell it, or give it away.
If you need some added inspiration in this area, try our e-book, Simplify.
Find a home for everything. Walking again through your home, make note of the items that are stored in your field of vision (think countertops, toys, entertainment units). Why are those items stored out in the open? Are they in the wrong room? Are they too big to be stored out of sight? Is their proper home too crowded? Intentionally identify the visible clutter. Ask questions to identify the problem. And brainstorm a new solution.
Find new places to store these items out of sight. Visible clutter pulls at our attention and distracts us on an ongiong basis. On the other hand, clean, undistracted rooms promote relaxation and intentionality.
Declutter counter tops, cupboards, and drawers. Buyers always open cupboards, drawers, and closets. Unfortunately, storage spaces packed too tightly look small, unsightly, and counter-productive. Remove unneeded items from everyday storage spaces. This won’t be difficult. You have likely collected a number of items over the years that are no longer necessary. At this point, they are only taking up space in your storage areas. Discard them. As an added benefit, you just may realize you have had enough storage space all along.
Personalize your decorations. Realtors and professional home stagers will ask you to remove most of your personal decorations as it subtly communicates “I live here, not you,” to your potential buyer. And that is not a good aura to give the future residents of your home.
However, when staging your home for living, leave the personal decorations. Even better, capitalize on them! Rather than devaluing them, highlight them by removing some of the non-personal decorations in your home. As a result, the ones that make you unique will play a more pronounced role in your home.
Give your bathroom the attention it deserves. Put away personal hygiene products. Scrub bathtubs, toilets, and shower walls. Make clean and bright your goal. It’s not glamorous, but it sure makes getting ready every morning more enjoyable.
Consider curb appeal. Realtors will tell you that you can never spend too much attention on curb appeal. Your potential buyer will likely make their decision on your home within the first few minutes of entering. Therefore, first impressions are the most important. And the very first impression they receive is when they pull into your driveway.
If you have children, clean up their toys. If you have shrubs, prune them. Lay fresh mulch. Put some grass seed on the bare spots in your yard. Paint your foundation. Plant some flowers. After all, you pull into your driveway almost everyday of your life. Don’t you want to pull into something you’d like to purchase all over again?
Clean thoroughly. Clean the surface. Then, clean deeper. Give extra attention to corners and windows and hard-to-reach areas. Just like in the bathroom, make clean and bright your goal. If you’ve successfully removed a good portion of personal possessions, you’ll find this task far easier to complete.
Complete minor repairs. Take a notepad and create a to-do list of minor home repairs such as wall nicks, paint touch-ups, squeaky doors, running toilets, loose pieces, and burnt out light bulbs. Most of the minor repairs can be handled in less than 20 minutes for less than $15 and can be found with a simple Google search.
Eventually, the repairs need to happen. And if they have to be taken care of before you sell your house anyway, why not repair them when you can actually enjoy them too? The investment sure beats walking back into your bathroom to wiggle the handle on a running toilet 3 times a day.
Tackle a major repair. Roof about to go? Replace it. Leaky basement? Research your solutions. Kitchen appliances barely working? Go for it. These major repairs can be costly. And I’d never advise you to go into debt to stage your home for living. But if the time ever comes when your house does indeed need to be sold, an inspector/realtor will ask you to solve the problems. And if it gets to that, you’ll be paying for someone else to enjoy them rather than yourself.
Likely the hardest part of staging your home for living is finding the motivation to get started. I get it. Life gets busy. And without the potential for a future sale on the horizon, it can be difficult to get started. So you just may need to artificially create the momentum to get started in the process. That is, unless the simple fact that you live everyday in this home is motivation enough.
Image: 55Laney69
Karen @ Journey towards simplicity says
I really appreciate this perspective on living and all the suggestions. Clutter and dysfunctional placement are often reasons why were are discontented with our abode and have develop and urge to move. There’s a good chance you will enjoy where you are currently living MORE after having put this advice into practice :)
Sandra Pawula says
We had exactly the same feeling when we prepared our house for sale! We’ve done our best to simplify when we moved into our new, smaller place. But we’re not finished, and I now see that “staging” one’s house for living needs to be a periodic affair. This is a great resource guide for that purpose.
Tara says
My partner is a packrat and won’t let me get rid of household stuff – he complains that «we paid good money for that» and «we might need that some day»… I have to wait for him to go out of town to try and sneak stuff out of the house. But I can definitely get rid of my personal things (clothes, shoes, purses) and plan to do that over the next year.
Kathy says
We move a lot, thanks to my husband’s business. My greatest dream is to one of those times be able to sell most everything, only move our most prized possessions, and then start over at our new place. Unfortunately, that will never happen but it’s a great dream. Every time we move, I declutter SO much and we’ve gotten to the point we don’t buy much to replace things, but it always seems like there’s still so much, and we have less than a lot of families of five. We are preparing for yet another possible move & the areas I want most to tackle are excess kitchen stuff, my youngest daughter’s toys, & excess furniture, although that will be the toughest battle because my husband is absolutely against getting rid of any furniture unless it’s completely worn out. We have some large pieces we don’t need or use & it would be so nice to have the space & money they take up!
Cathy says
Love this post … we had a similar experience. About 18 months ago my husband and I decided we would have to sell our 2 bed apartment as it was far too small for us and 2 young kids and we were drowning in our stuff. We busily set to work over about 1 month decluttering, cleaning and storing excess belongings with a kind neighbour. After we had almost finished we saw how lovely our home was and given that we loved living in the area decided to stay … and we have no plans to move anytime soon. Oh and I donated and tossed most of what we stored with our neighbour.
Kathy @ SMART Living 365.com says
Hi Joshua….we must have been on similar wave-lengths because I recently wrote a post on my blog explaining how important location can be to a minimal lifestyle….That and staging are both important steps that are often overlooked when either thinking of moving, buying or even just trying to be happier right where you are. And it is so, so true that “a decluttered home is calm and inviting.” ~Kathy
laura m. says
I try to de clutter and clean out the house at least twice a year. I purge stuff as needed when items aren’t used in a long time. Many strip their houses out/move everything out before listing with an agent if they’re moving out of the area. This is a good idea for some, even on a local move as it’s easier to clean an empty house.
Caelidh says
Currently in the process (LONG PROCESS) of getting my home ready for market.. I moved a lot of stuff a year ago to my other house (which is now clutter city because I moved in with my boyfriend.
I planned on culling the rest, but got behind due to Illness… so I am scrambling to make up for lost time.
I still feel so overwhelmed..
All my realtors still want me to get everything out of the house.. I don’t have that much left in the house, really.
It didn’t help that my mother died 3 years ago and left me with a bunch of stuff I don’t know what to do with…..
I am an only child as well.
Joy Perkins says
Whatever part of the country you live in, a Professional Organizer could help you – look on the NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) website, there’s a FIND AN ORGANIZER feature.
All the emotional connection is hard to let go of without help – but well worth it to be starting a new life with your boy friend so keep your eyes on the goal.
Best of luck to you.
Bethany @ Journey to Ithaca says
I might add, that you can love and remember your mother without keeping all of the possessions. Find something very special to keep, and consider whether you should let the rest go. We used to feel obligated to keep all of mother-in-law’s wardrobe, jewelry, bath gels (!), etc. But we didn’t need those to remember her. Now, I just have her charm bracelet (because the charms all represent things that were important to her, and my daughter can inherit it) and her iPod (no better way to capture someone’s personality than through their playlist!).
Take your time, but don’t feel obligated to keep it all.
carole steinberg says
You can also use a site called “find my organizer” and there is a site of Christian Organizers called Faithful Organizers.
Fiona Cee says
if you don’t know what to do with it, or want to keep any of it [the stuff from your mother’s house] donate it. it’s as simple as that. and if there’s no one else, it’s up to you.
Lorraine says
This is all great advice. I staged a home for sale back in April and it sold in one day. The day before we moved out, the movers came and took everything out of the house. We cleaned every nook and cranny, slept on the floor and left the next morning. I never realized how huge my house was until it was totally empty. I had this crazy notion that if people could rent a storage pod, put it in their driveway, move everything out of their house, re-evaluate their possessions and move back in like it was a new home, they’d probably realize that they wouldn’t want to clutter it up with unnecessary stuff again. It was definitely an eye opening experience.
The Chatty Housewife says
There is a TV show in Canada that did that very thing. You can watch episodes on YouTube. It is called “Consumed.”
Miss Growing Green says
Interesting… definitely going to check that out!
Jill Foley says
I like this post!
Like you, I’ve moved a lot in the past 17 years and whenever we staged our house, I loved how it felt. After this past move, I vowed to keep my house staged as much as possible on a regular basis. Granted, with homeschooling and just general living, it doesn’t always look staged, but it’s a whole lot better than it used to be!
Virginia Knowles says
Jill, what a coincidence! Right about the time you were posting your comment, I was linking your latest post, and this very one we”re reading, in my own post here: http://www.thismomgrowsup.blogspot.com/2014/10/autumn-grace-6-beauty-and-order-every.html