Hi there!

As I mentioned last week, our family is preparing to put our home on the market, which you can read about here.

Before selling our home, we want to carefully take the time to prepare it so it shows itself in its best light. I’ve helped hundreds of people do this as part of my profession, and even before owning our first home, I never had problems subletting my apartments with just a few tricks.

Today I thought I’d share the complete guide to staging that is currently on my fridge:

Living Room

1. Go through your house and remove any unnecessary furniture to help open up each room.

2. Pull furniture away from the wall in certain rooms such as the living room to help create more space.

3. Consider replacing old dark curtains with newer, lighter colours to bring more light into the room.

4. When hanging pictures, group smaller, like-kind art together.

5. If you have cords and wires showing from TVs, receivers, lamps or any other electronics, consider tucking cords away so they are not visible.

6. When staging a home, you likely hear the word de-personalize. One way to do this is to pack away any family portraits you have around the house.

7. A lot of households have magazine racks that are packed with old editions that never get looked at. Pack them away!

8. If you have a walkway that seems bare, consider adding a long, narrow rug to fill in the empty space.

9. When hanging art throughout the house, hang the largest artwork on the largest wall.

10. After removing your old magazines, add a nice coffee table book in its place.

Dining Room

11. Remove any extra table leaves and store them away to help make the dining room feel larger.

(In our case, we are removing the banquette to make this space feel like a dining room instead of an eat-in kitchen.)

12. Properly set the dinner table as if you are having guests over for a special occasion.

13. To give the perception of taller ceilings, consider hanging light-coloured curtains from the ceiling down to the floor instead just fitting the window.

14. Clean and open blinds to let in more natural light.

15. For the time being, replace low wattage light bulbs with 100-watt light bulbs to brighten up darker rooms.

16. Add more life and colour by bringing in different kinds of plants into the house.

17. Add an extra lamp or two to bring in more light in dark areas that are hard to light.

18. Add mirrors for more light and to help give the perception of an open area.

19. Don’t hang art and pictures on every wall. Consider leaving one wall bare.

20. When home staging, wall art should be hung at eye level.

Kitchen

21. Clean and pack away most of the items that are usually stored on your counters.

22. One old staging tip is to add a bowl of fruit to bring in more colour.

23. Staining or painting dated cabinets can be a time-consuming task, but the transformation can be well worth the effort.

(in our case we’ll be using Wrapmykitchen adhesive wrap to give our kitchen a transformation.)

24. After updating your dated cabinets, also consider replacing the old knobs and hardware.

25. There are many quick and easy ways now, so any homeowner can add a new backsplash to their kitchen for more personality.

26. Consider replacing that old, dated faucet with a brand-new faucet.

27. Loud and bold colours can be a quick turnoff for home buyers. Consider repainting any rooms a more neutral colour (that green is going!).

28. One easy way to add more natural light is by simply cleaning all of your windows inside and out.

29. No leaky faucets! Contact a local, licensed plumber to fix any deferred plumbing issues.

Bedroom

30. Organize your closet by hanging clothes in groups and have them facing the same direction.

31. One way to make a room feel more relaxing is to remove TVs or any other entertainment items.

32. Replace old bed sheets with new, white textured linens.

33. Make a bedroom feel more inviting by properly making the bed and adding new pillows and throw pillows.

34. In smaller bedrooms, it’s hard not to have the bed pushed into the corner. Consider pulling the bed away from the wall to help balance the room.

35. Bookshelves tend to collect more than just dust over the years. Clear out all bookshelves and built-ins.

36. Clean out and pack away half of the stuff in the closet. Home buyers almost always look into the closets when looking at homes for sale.

38. When cleaning out the closet, replace any mismatched hangers so they all match.

39. Some homeowners have complete sports or princess-themed bedrooms. It’s a good idea to transform a room like this into a more neutral bedroom.

40. When transforming a playroom into a neutral bedroom, clean up and store away most of the toys.

Bathroom

41. Put away toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and any other toiletry items.

42. Add new, white towels to the bathroom. Consider folding towels into thirds to take up less wall space.

43. Remove old, mouldy caulk and apply new, white caulking around the bathroom.

44. Hide or store away wastebaskets.

45. Add one new bottle of nice hand soap on the bathroom counter.

46. Roll small, light-coloured hand towels and place in a basket on the counter.

47. Make sure you thoroughly clean around the bathroom, including the bathtub and even behind the toilet.

48. Hang a new, white shower curtain or completely clean the old one to make it look new again.

49. This is a pet peeve for not only most real estate agents but for some home buyers: Always keep the toilet seat/lid down.

50. Quiet doors will go unnoticed, but a squeaky door will stand out to a home buyer. Fix any squeaky doors throughout the home.

Entryway

51. Give the entrance of a home a new look by cleaning and painting the front door.

52. One creative way to add personality to the entrance of a home is by getting creative with new, attractive house numbers.

53. Pack away any shoes or coats by that are usually kept at the front door.

54. Replace that old, worn-out Welcome mat with a new one.

55. Make sure all doors not only open and close easily, but that they are also easy to lock and unlock as well.

56. If you have pets or if you wear shoes in the house, chances are that your carpet may need some extra attention. Give your carpet a deep cleaning.

57. When packing away items, don’t just stick them in closets or in corners behind furniture. Get started early and be creative when decluttering your home.

58. Make sure any signs of pets are taken care of so they are not easily noticed by any visitors.

59. Sometimes home buyers like to randomly check windows. Make sure all windows open and close easily.

60. When cleaning the house before a showing, make sure you clean and dust ceiling fans, too.

As you can see, it takes a lot of work to get a home ready for the market. But having worked in the industry for 4 + years, I have seen the results of the hard work. In order to save money, we are doing all of the work we can ourselves, including painting our 1,800-square foot home!