Staging you house for sale can lead to a faster sale for more money.
There also can be unintended consequences to getting your house ready to sell.
Often times when homeowners fix up their homes for sale, the homes look better than they have for many years.
Staging can lead to a rekindling of that funny feeling, the one where you just knew this was the house for you.
It is also a great way to put a fresh breeze at your back by exercising control of your surroundings.
Let us start by taking a walk outside.
Not a serious, note taking walk, but a stroll down memory lane.
Walk a short distance from your house.
Now turn around and try to picture it as you did the first time.
Think about what attracted you to it; the garden, the look of it, or perhaps picturing yourself being happy in it.
Now move inside into the kitchen, the heart of your home.
I suggest you start with the counter top.
It is something that immediately catches the eye when you walk into the kitchen and once it is shining and organized, it is something that will brighten you up each time you see it and remind you that all things are possible.
If you are like most of us, small appliances, a canister or three, and a dish drainer or kitchen sponge have taken up permanent residence on your counter top.
It is time to send them packing, at least for now.
Step 1.
Clear everything off of the counter.
Everything.
No matter how often you use it, take it off of the counter.
This includes the salt and pepper.
Step 2.
Clean the counter.
Not just clean, but pristine.
Scrub it as if you are just moving in and you want to make sure there is no trace of the family who used to live here.
Do not take the finish off of the counter material, but feel free to use a soft old toothbrush to get into all those nooks and crevices that have accumulated bits and pieces of many meals.
If your counter top is tiled, get a grout cleaner and refresh the grout.
Make sure you use a product especially made for your counter top material.
Granite, marble or stone requires special care, cleaners and sealers.
On laminates or other man-made surfaces, a non-abrasive cleaner should work fine.
Now buff it up with a soft cloth and a bit of polish if that is right for your counter top.
Caveat: Do not consult the toaster, can opener, canisters or whatever you took off of the counter top.
Change is difficult, even for coffeemakers.
It is only natural they will want to stay put.
Now is the time to be strong.
Step 3.
You Are Almost Finished, (except for one small detail.
) What are you going to do with all of the things you took off of the counter? If you are like me, you like the new look, but miss some of your old friends.
It is okay to put some things back, but be careful.
Even something as innocuous as a napkin holder has a way of reproducing and morphing into coffee pots, salt shakers and telephones.
You probably have more than a few things with no place to call home.
This is part of the process.
As you look to find places to put things, do not by shy.
If you think the drainer is best kept under the sink, but there is no room, start fresh.
Empty everything out from under the sink.
That's right, just like it was on move-in day.
At some point you will be moving things out the door and into the trash or staging them for a garage sale.
Remember how the kitchen looked when you first saw it? The very first time, when you knew you could be happy there? That is the ideal.
The closer you get to that, the closer you will be to falling in love with it all over again.
That is it for today.
Only one item left on the agenda: Look at your shiny, clean, organized counter top and beam.
This is the first in an ongoing series about using staging secrets to not only stage your house for sale, but to stage your home when you want to stay.
© 2007 Complete Books Publishing, Inc.