Staging A House to Sell

Psssst… this post *might* contain affiliate links: see my disclosure here.

How to Stage Your House to Sell

how to stage your house so it will sell Welcome to the first post in the “Charlotte Moves” series! I considered calling it Charlotte Moving and Shaking but that sounded like it could quickly turn ugly, so… keeping it simple. For anyone just tuning in, you’re probably thinking HUH? Head on over to this post to get caught up. We’ve put two houses on the market, and followed the same process both times. Hoping this will be helpful for any of you if you ever have to sell.

First, the basic principles. These are overarching goals for home staging. I’ll get into specifics later on, but know that these are your guiding principles.

Principle 1: Function over Form

Keep your eye on the prize. It’s NOT about style or design, it’s about making your home look as big and roomy and polished as possible. Less clutter, less stuff, less noise. We removed the pair of small green chairs, the benches in front of the fireplace to make our living room feel more open. See before and after below.

Shop my favorites!

glass coffee table in living room
Before
living room for home staging
After

Principle 2: Purge-o-rama

Be prepared to get rid of a TON. The first time we listed, I was expecting *some* purging, but I didn’t realize how much. Throw pillows, tchotchkes, wall art, shelf accessories, smaller pieces of furniture, bigger pieces of furniture, side chairs… lots and lots and lots and lots.

new and improved family room
Before
family room for home staging
After

Principle 3: De-personalize

The goal is to DE-PERSONALIZE. No family photos. No kids artwork on the fridge. Not human anatomy sketches in the master bedroom. Nothing that will make it harder for a potential buyer to imagine THEMSELVES in your home.

master bedroom updates with color and pattern
Before
Master bedroom for home staging
After

Principle 4: Details Matter

Attention to details. Take a look around for things like chipped paint, broken window panes, and missing switch plates. Individually, none of these things *should* matter, but collectively they give potential buyers the impression that you’re not taking care of the home. If little things like this haven’t been addressed, then how should they trust that you’ve change the dryer vents or had the gutters cleaned out. If you saw my Instagram stories, that meant lots and lots of paint touch ups!

boys room for home staging

Ok. Now for the specifics. These are all the nickel and dime type things that we did to make sure our house was as appealing and spit shined as possible on photography and open house days.

Tip 1. Rugs

Remove small rugs. We rolled up the runner in the kitchen, and picked up all bath mats and inside doormats. It feels very bare, but looks much cleaner and larger. Especially in photographs.

put away smaller throw rugs and runners

Tip 2. Counters

Clear all counters. With the exception of a vase of flowers and a bowl of limes, our counters are c-l-e-a-r. Toaster oven goes in the oven. Drying rack goes under the sink. Cooking utensils are shoved in a cabinet. Ditto bathrooms. All vanities are clear of everything except for a small plant or a simple container.

counters cleared of everything

Tip 3. Lights

Lights ON. All of them. No matter what time of day, or what the weather is outside. They all go on. (I didn’t take pictures of this because lights are bad for photography… but they’re GREAT for showing houses.)

Tip 4. Toilets

Toilet seats down. No explanation necessary.

toilet seats down

Tip 5. Trash

Be aware of trash cans. I’ve tried to hide most of the smaller ones into a closet. Larger ones get tucked behind a door or out of the way so they’re not front and center when someone enters the room.

hide all trash cans

Tip 6. Laundry

Laundry. This is challenging. We get rid of most laundry baskets when we’re showing our house and have the kids put their laundry right into the washer each night. Baskets either come with us in the car or… they might go in a closet. Bottom line, you don’t want laundry (clean or dirty) out in the open.

hide all the laundry baskets

Tip 7. Flowers

Fresh flowers. They’re a nice touch. If I’m at a Trader Joe’s or grocery store, I try to grab a simple bouquet just to have on display. Note: the MINUTE the flowers start to wilt, dump them. Nothing turns home buyers off like dead plants or wilting flowers.

fresh flowers on front hall table

Tip 8. Exterior

Exterior. Pay attention to trash on your property, weeds in your flower beds, garbage overflowing your cans, etc. We’ve moved our trash cans to the other side of the garage so they’re not visible and we keep our patio umbrellas up when at all possible.

Tip 9. Tidy

Be tidy. This seems obvious, but it’s very very easy to become blind to your own little mess. Each time you leave the house check that there are no dishes in the sink, no dirty socks on the floor, no drawers half open, no throw pillows on the ground, no cabinets left open, no random papers on the counter…

keep things around the house tidy

Tip 10. Beds

Make the ol’ beds. Every day. Look for sheets hanging down from below. Put away stuffed animals and baby blankets. Pretend like you’re styling the beds for a photo shoot!

make the beds every morning

Tip 11. Spa

Make like a spa. People *shouldn’t* go digging through things, but they might. I tried to organize closets and areas like under the sink just so it didn’t look scary if someone took a peek. For more obvious places like the showers, I tried to streamline everything so it was like a spa. Simple simple simple.

Treat your bathrooms and closets like a spa

Tip 12. Smells

Smells. For us, this mostly means Arthur’s room if you get my drift, but… if you’re an adventurous cook and the whole house smells like chili fried catfish, then… try your best to air it out or light a candle for a couple of hours before someone comes through. No smell is the goal, because you never know whether that scent you adore will make someone else have a headache. (Just remember, your Uber driver left his house thinking his cologne smelled AMAZING; opinions can differ.)

Smells... be aware and air things out

I’m excited about this series and planning to chat in further detail about how we keep the house clean and get 7 humans and 2 animals out at a moment’s notice for showings. I’ll talk about what qualities we LOVE about our agent and questions you should ask when choosing one of your own. House hunting (hopefully!) and what I look for. Leave me a comment if you have any suggestions or topic ideas!

pin this image to pinterest

12 Tips for getting your house ready to photograph, show at open houses and SELL!

Don’t Miss Out

Become An Insider!

Signup for exclusive tips, and tricks from Charlotte’s House!

Let’s chat!

I love comments from you, so feel free to leave your thoughts and ideas below! And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for even more!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

6 Comments

  1. Thanks for the info. We are planning to sell our house in 2-3 years and I know we have a ton of prep work to do, as we’ve lived here 23 years. Can’t wait for the next post!

  2. Hi Charlotte, I must apologize for having missed this all important post when I responded to your video tour. I am so sorry to hear that you must take this step. I can say that I am there with you. We have sold what we thought to be our forever home and are now in process with moving to a small one in a much smaller town. Initially I thought my heart would break. But amazingly, i’ve come around to what this move will give us longer term. Plus, we were able to jump on this particular opportunity and are fully embracing this other house as our new home. It sure will be nice to be on the other side of being between two places. To be real, the stress overall has not been fun, but the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel is there. Feel free to reach out anytime if it helps. Otherwise, please know you are not alone. Cheers and hugs, Ardith

    1. Thank you Ardith for this sweet message! I so appreciate the time and care that you took to share this! We’re putting one foot in front of the other and reminding ourselves that we’re blessed in so many ways! xx