Five Easy Steps to Stage Your Kitchen

Five Easy Steps to Stage Your Kitchen

In a previous post you learned the five easy steps to stage your bathroom.  In this post you will learn the five easy steps to stage your kitchen.   Follow these posts to get the most money you can out of the sale of your home.

1.  CLEAN

Clean is the first step in most staging adventures.  In kitchens, the counters should be cleaned, and if they are granite, polished.  Floors, sink and appliances should also be cleaned.  And don't forget the windows!

2.  DECLUTTER

Take away most items you use daily from the kitchen counters.  It's a pain, but it makes the counter space appear larger.  Items to stow away include dish drying racks, knife blocks, juicers, blenders and so forth.  And a huge item to declultter will be the refrigerator itself.  Remove all miscellaneous papers held by a magnet and then remove the magnets.

3.  DAILY DECLUTTERING

Make sure that the kitchen sink is not filling with dirty dishes.  Keep it empty and clean.  Same with the other items you've cleaned and decluttered.

4.  REMOVE RUGS

Just like in bathrooms, area rugs may be useful, but they break up the contiguous flooring, making the space appear smaller than it is.  The idea of staging is to make things look as large and inviting as possible.

5.  ACCEPTABLE STAGING ITEMS

There are some items that are great to add to the kitchen so that it doesn't look stark and univiting.  A spice on the counter.  Perhaps a cookbook in a decorative holder.  And if you have an eat-in kitchen, setting the table in a decorative fashion can be great.

While it is not a staging tip, one word of caution about cooking while your home is on the market.  If you must cook, make sure you clean up after yourself and maybe burn a neutralizing candle as you do cook.  Stay away from cooking items like fish, for instance, that have strong odors.  For every dinner smell that someone loves, there is someone out there that doesn't like it. 

Chris Ann Cleland, Associate Broker- Licensed in Virginia, GRI, SFR, Northern Virginia Short Sale Specialist. Affiliated with Long & Foster, 7526 Limestone Drive, Gainesville, VA 20155.  To contact Chris Ann, call 703-402-0037 or email chrisann@LNF.com.  Or you can visit her website:  www.nvarealestate.net.

Header is a combination of photos, taken by Chris Ann Cleland, of various listings and neighborhoods in the Bristow-Gainesville-Haymarket area.