"Staging" your home - It Works!

It is normal to find it hard to let go of your "home". After all, memories are what make a home and the noises, smells and clutter are what tells the daily journey of those who live in them. BUT.........this does not apply to a home that has turned into a house for sale! My apologies.....

This section is supposed to inspire and refire you. I want to do that for those who are in the middle of letting go of their homes to move on or who are experiencing an overwhelming feeling because of the preparations that have to be done.

I like to think that using what the seller already has is the first consideration to preparing their home. This can be done without buying anything new. I know that spending more money on your home to make it into a house you are letting go of is hard to conceive. Wait, the expense of new towels or bedding can be taken with you. Talk over your budget with the realtor and stager who will recommend changes that fit the reality of what impact it may have on how quick it will sell and allow less chance of having to lower the asking price.

A road map can eliminate extra stress and hiring a stager who is an unbiased third party may be the best investment a seller can make.

Before Staging buyer notices stuff - After
Staging buyer sees the possibilities.

Keep this article.... it may be what you need to pull out of the files when it comes time to let go, move on and start making a new house into a place to call home!

I know staging works. I have decluttered, used fresh flowers, fresh towels, and rearranged traffic patterns so the buyer enters, falls in love and presents an offer within two showings!

Now that is inspiration!

New York Inspiration

Not long ago I made a spontaneous decision to go to New York City. It was an opportunity to use my aeroplan points and have an inspirational time with a friend. No pre-planned itinerary. I rearranged my schedule and took the chance that all would turn out to be an unexpected memory of the best kind. It was! I love history and the stories that make up that history. I love finding and discovering the unexpected. I love serendipity too. And this is what I experienced on an unplanned weekend with a girlfriend to New York City:

• We met two tourists who gave us their tickets to the Empire State Building observatory. It eliminated the line-ups! Yeah! Be sure to rent the audio story when walking around the top deck.

• Sat in prime seats overlooking the rotunda of Grand Central Station while sipping martinis, observing the throngs of people criss-crossing the floor with conviction on their way to their next destination.

• Tasted a perfect pepper steak at Le Halles on Park Avenue while drinking great wine and enjoying good conversation for under $100 for two.

• Rode a trishaw, swerving in and out of the madness of downtown New York traffic at midnight! Innocence of a tourist – I loved it!

• Haling taxis like a real New Yorker – if the middle light is on they are yours with a wave.

• Sitting on the balcony at the Metropolitan Museum, sipping tea and observing a couple, she, reading a play to him and he, painting a watercolour of the people around them. Do I have to say it ... this is compatibility!

• Stopping to listen to street music, jazz, rock and roll, and a capella in areas such as Soho, Greenwich, and Central Park. I dropped change in their case for a steal of an experience.

• Discovered Zabar’s, a famous and historical family run Deli that has everything one could imagine in food and culinary products.

• We stayed in a neighbourhood on the upper west side, just around the corner from the Beacon Theatre.

• AND...I could not resist a trip to ABC Carpet and Home Store. The Chinese Petit Point rug is now under my bed!! The interior decorator inside me is always on high alert!

I feel that spontaneity and little things in life can inspire us and recharge our senses for sharing our lives with others, family, friends and even people we don’t know yet! There is purpose and reward in having a well-decorated space, but there is also a purpose in having a well-decorated life too!