Staging is the art of creating a visibly inviting space. Like any homeowner, you will take your furniture with you when you move out of your home. Until then, your personal taste and style will be showcased while your home is on the market. In upcoming pages, you will learn about depersonalizing your home—but first, we’ll examine the concept of creating space by keeping furniture to a minimum. Buyers are attracted to spacious homes, flooded with light. At the same time, they are repelled by darker homes, filled with cramped and unnavigable spaces. Remove all unnecessary furniture from your living spaces, and store it elsewhere while your home is on the market. Home shoppers want to walk through your home without obstacles. Space and storage are high on buyers’ lists, so every area of your home should feel spacious. All closets, pantries, and storage rooms must be organized and free from clutter. Remove the things that aren’t necessary for daily living, and store keepsakes, photo albums, rarely used appliances, and so forth out of sight, preferably off the premises, so closets and cabinets are not cluttered. This will create interest and showcase the home’s space and storage capacity. Strategic furniture placement is an easy way to highlight unique features of your home. A grouping of chairs in front of a fireplace, for example, will draw attention. Avoid pushing the furniture close to the walls. Every room has to be staged to show function as well as beauty. An empty room used for overflow of boxes or unwanted items should be transformed into a usable, desirable space. Clean it out, and create an office space with a desk and chair or a reading room with a lamp and recliner. If you have exercise equipment, feature it as a workout room. Furniture pieces, such as tables, can be taken from the living room for use in other rooms. Every room should have a purpose and be user-friendly. Make your home’s traffic flow obvious, so buyers can browse each room without
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