Almost every time we complete a home staging job where sellers still live in the home, we hear, “Where have you been all the years we have lived in this home?” Often the things we “correct” are the very frustrations that sellers have been dealing with since they bought their home years ago. Universally we are told that sellers wish they had lived in their home this way all along. Perhaps it is time to take some of our best home staging techniques and begin living with them now.

Five home staging techniques you can live with now

1. Organize your closets. Closet organization is one of the most important home staging tips for occupied dwellers. We live with too much stuff and buyers are likely to feel like there isn’t room for them. Take this message to heart now and start living a more organized life. Spend a little money on getting the same hangers throughout your closet, ditching the wire dry cleaning hangers (Often the dry cleaners will take them back, making recycling them easy.) Organize by type, then color. Get everything off the floor and use baskets, bins, or boxes to store items on the shelves.

2. Strip wallpaper and paint dated spaces. You stare at your walls hating them every time you walk into the room. Still, they are so much work. Well, shocker, but we are going to tell you to fix it before you put it on the market, so why not do it now? You’ll spend the time and money on it before you go, shouldn’t you enjoy it now?

3. Get rid of stuff. Look around your home and find what’s not really working for you anymore. Sell, donate, or throw away anything that is past it’s purpose. Look particularly at silk arrangements that are 7 years or older, anything in your house covered in dust (a good sign that you don’t use it or pay much attention to it). If you’ve been hanging onto a family member’s stuff (like Grandma’s old table) find out if another family member wants it. If not, then maybe the best thing you can do for her memory is to find it a good home and someone who will love it like she did, not just sitting there taking up space.

4. Change out your builder grade light fixtures. You just built a $300,000 home and the installed a $15 dining room light fixture. It  happens every day (and in all price ranges). Light fixtures dramatically change the appearance of a room. Go to a local home improvement center or light store and get one fitting of the style of your home.

5. Invest in lighting and large artwork pieces. I mentioned that you should change out your builder grade or dated light fixtures, but interestingly enough, most homes don’t have enough lamps or artwork either. These are common items that we’ll tell sellers to buy or rent when putting their home on the market. Most of the time living rooms should have 2-3 lamps in addition to overhead lighting. The master bedroom should have 2 lamps, and each additional bedroom at least one lamp – all in addition to overhead lighting.

As for artwork, it’s not at all uncommon for sellers to have nothing, or one small piece of art over their sofa. A general rule is that artwork should be 2/3 as large as the piece they are hung over. For sofas, that means that they probably need to be at least 3-4′ wide.

If any of these leave you scratching your head or wanting more information, call Home Matters. We can do a home evaluation and give you ideas on how to make your home staged to dwell, not just staged to sell.