“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
Dottie says
Wonderful article!
Other than making a “to do list”, any suggestions what to do on days when you don’t feel well, but still would like to accomplish something?
Beth says
Not feeling well and trying to accomplish goals that are very physical does often take a bit more creativity.
I have multiple health conditions that make coming home from work and focusing on day to day tasks difficult. Add in my goals to declutter my home and it can be overwhelming. What I have learned, particularly after my last year of working to declutter my home is that you have to be understanding when you can’t do something and take advantage of the days you can. The worse things you can do is get upset with yourself or tell yourself negative things when you have a bad day. The more you get down on yourself the worse you feel emotionally and physically.
As far as still getting things done when you’re not well you need to adjust your expectations. Use that goal list you mentioned and review it with fresh eyes. Seperate out anything you can do easily when you aren’t feeling well. Then acknowledged that on a day that is bad you will try to maybe do one thing from that list. Pick something on the list that fits how you’re feeling and adjust how you perform it to fit any limitations you may have.
The bigger projects on your remaining list should be reviewed for what can be broken down into smaller tasks and bigger tasked saved for the days you feel a bit better. On top of everything give yourself extra time to complete each task and if you have a day or week you can’t do anything accept it as the way things are and move on with a positive attitude that next week will be better. Attitude helps a lot in this area.
If all this is still not feasible based on different factors there are other options. You can hire a professional to come help you. If you want it cheaper search for someone who is trying to get into the business of decluttering and organizing people’s home. If that is still to costly. Talk to your church or community center about finding a volunteer or two to help you. Offer to give them everything you decide to donate during the process. Some organizations will have volunteers willing to help to get more items for a church garage sale or community center homeless or underprivileged program.
Keep in mind your victories. So you didn’t get the whole closet cleaned out today, oh well. Hey, you did get rid of those shoes you hated or that shirt that doesn’t fit. One less thing in your home is a step in the right direction. When you’re not feeling well little victories to others ARE big victories.
Good luck!
Kristina says
Thankyou
Diane Spencer says
Thanks, I always find your articles inspirational! I recently cleaned out our kitchen drawers and found FIVE can openers! All sorted now, it really does make your daily life calmer and easier.
Ellen S O says
So true!! The more you get out of your house. The lighter you feel, and you can start sorting things that really matter. Like pictures and artwork etc…I just put all my glass figurines in my kitchen cupboard while trying to sell them. The beautiful clutter had just been sitting in a dark box in my storageroom. Now I see them everyday through the glasswindow of the cupboard door. People that loved me bought me these expensive «toys» when I was little. Hopefully someone that collects would want them. Untill then they are no longer hidden, because I now have space for them in my flat.
Patti says
I couldn’t have wandered into this well written blog post at a more perfect time. Thank you so much for being such a great resource to my journey toward minimalism.
ren says
AGREE!!!!! I’ve lately become obsessed with improving home on a five year plan to move, after a retirement and child graduates, and downsizing and moving to a small lakeside home. I am in process of rewriting to-do list to have house ready for sale in Four years. Lots of purging to go yet. But figure I might as well enjoy the improvements while living there.
Book lover says
Wonderful advice.
Lori says
WTF?
Marie says
Lol
Jeannie says
I plan on putting my house on the market in 2 years. The carpets were shot and needed replaced so I decided to replace with hardwood now so I could enjoy them in the meantime. Thanks for justifying my decision! Lol!
Pamela says
Why do we often wait until we are trying to sell our house to someone else before making it look great?!? And why does “living in a house” so often equal “we can be as messy as we want to”? An uncluttered house keeps me calm, a messy one stresses me out. I want my house to be a sanctuary; I want to come home to calm and leave the chaos behind.
Kristyn says
Thanks so much for the tips. I’ve spent the better part of the last year decluttering, so I think it might be time for me to move onto some of the other things you mentioned. Cabinets and drawers might be next!