How to Stage Your Home Ready For Sale

Getting ready to sell your home can be one of the most exciting things in the world, but it is also one of the most stressful! 

A crucial part of selling your home is ensuring that it is ready for viewers to picture themselves living there. 

Your estate agents have a heap of information to make sure you hit the market and get plenty of bookings. In the meantime, this handy list can get you started. 

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

What is home staging? 

Staging your home involves arranging it so that buyers are moved to put in a bid. It might be letting in more light, creating a soft, welcoming scent, or making your home look like a show home. 

Great staging will allow the would-be buyers to imagine themselves living there, which is half the job done. 

Clean

If a buyer walks into a home that doesn’t look like it’s seen a duster in a while or that the corners of the kitchen haven’t had a good scrub – it seems like too much work. 

Although most buyers will clean a house when they move in, they don’t want to do several deep cleans or pay for a professional. 

Before you put the house on the market, book a professional cleaner – they’re worth it. 

Essentials 

It’s time to declutter and remove everything that isn’t essential for you to live there. Clutter will make the space seem smaller and cramped. 

If you can afford to put things in storage, then do so until you close the sale. Most of us have way more in our homes than we need anyway. 

This may present the perfect opportunity to start donating and selling what you don’t use or don’t need. Be like Marie Kondo – if you don’t love it, let it go. 

Freshness

Plants have this magical thing about them, where they just make the room feel fresh and bright. If you already have a lot of plants, you will need to space them out strategically so that they’re not taking up all of the space in one area. 

If you don’t have any plants, it’s time to invest in a few to bring the home a natural appeal. 

If you have pets or the house doesn’t have a great breeze blowing through it, then some vanilla candles can help to mask those smells. 

Carpet Cleaning

A carpet can hold a lot of dirt and a lot of odor. Even if you manage to mask the smell with a vanilla candle, you really should be booking a professional carpet cleaner. 

Not only will it make the carpet look incredible, but it will ensure that any lingering trapped odors are gone for good. 

Let the light in

Let in as much of your home’s natural lighting as possible. Put voiles on the windows to maximize light and still give you some privacy. 

Add some floor lamps to light up any dark spots; this allows buyers to get a better idea of the actual space. Dark corners can make rooms seem much smaller. 

And that’s it! A few quick tips to help you make the most of your home before you sell it.  

Need more? Check out the Moving House archives for tips, tricks, and great information.