So, I am sure that by now most people know that if they are getting ready to list their homes for sale, they need to depersonalize. If you were not previously aware, you are now. I am bringing this up first because most homes have family photos displayed on the walls, tables, mantles, stairwells, bookshelves, and refrigerators, as well as in the living room, family room, kitchen, bedrooms, etc… Prepare to leave the house and take them down. If your house is on the market, pretend it is not yours!

Imagine yourself as a potential buyer and you are walking into your dream home… You would not want to see pictures of someone else living in your dream home… You want to imagine yourself living there! As a seller, you need to remove as much of your personality and style from the house as you can to make it easier for buyers to imagine theirs.
So, as you begin the staging process at your home, remove everything from the walls…
OK, let me say that again: remove everything from the walls. I will give you a moment to process that.
Staging is all about intent.
Do not leave something up or out because it looks good to you. As a stager, I am trained to remove everything from a room and only put back the necessary pieces. Necessary pieces include furniture that helps to display the rooms intended purpose and accessories that are intended to draw your eye to certain places in the room.
Not sure if it should stay or go? Err on the side of caution, and remove it! Especially if it is a personal item, give it the boot!
Once you have all the wall decor removed (and furniture plead…another blog post), you can assess the features of the room and draw attention to those, or perhaps draw attention away from less desirable places.
Example
- Draw attention to: the furthest corner of the room. You want potential buyers to see the depth of the room and have it feel spacious. This is true for most homes, but not all. (For example, if you have a very large open concept, you may want to help divide the room so the buyer can see how the space is multifunctional. These homes are very important to stage with furniture or buyers can have a really difficult time determining layout.) Wall decor and lighting are great ways to draw buyers eyes into a specific area.