Welcome to Staging Spaces

Many of you have heard of the two most popular terms that are associated with preparing your home for sale, 'de-personalize' and 'de-clutter'. You may have heard these terms from watching television programs, or reading articles in your favourite magazine. The more houses I go into, the more I see that these two things are being done to the extreme.

When homeowners tell me with excitement that they have already 'de-cluttered' and 'de-personalized', I usually stand there, looking at a house that looks burglarized rather than de-personalized. The home is devoid of any sort of warmth and personality at all and actually feels cold and unwelcoming, this is not what we want potential buyers to feel when walking into your home. This is why I decided to define these two terms a little more in detail for you 'do it yourselfers' out there who want to get a start on things prior to the actual staging.

De-personalize: This doesn't mean you get rid of every personal item you own. In general we are talking about packing away any personal collections and memorabilia. This can be anything from your Royal Dalton figurines, to your husbands beloved Nascar and mounted fish collections. Any items of a religious nature, or your collection of travel artifacts. These items are very precious and personal to you, but they may actually offend potential purchasers, or they may actually like them so much that they spend more time looking at your collection than they do your house......that's not where we want their focus to be.

De-clutter: The areas of the home I find that are the most cluttered are closets, kitchen cupboards and areas of the home that are rarely used. Potential buyers want to see a lot of space in closets, and if they are jam packed with every piece of clothing you own, or just stuff in general, they probably don't look very spacious. Same with kitchen cupboards, it seems that the more cupboards a house has, the more the owner feels they need to fill them. Pack away the non-essentials, off-season clothing and footwear, extra bedding and linens, the crock-pot and juicer that you haven't used in a year. Every little bit helps when showing spaciousness in these areas. If you have a spare bedroom or basement that you seem to throw everything in, clear it out and pack it up. Have a garage sale or donate the items you never use to a charity organization, they would be more than happy to turn your trash into someone else?s treasure.

Remember, not every thing you own needs to be packed away and sent off to storage. This is why I believe that every house should have at least a consultation prior to anything being done. You will have the benefit and peace of mind that you are doing the right thing, and it will save you from revisiting your storage bin to dig through your boxes to recollect some of your accessories.