I’ve helped folks sell many homes over the years. One thing I know that has been proven over and over again is the necessity to make your home look its best.

One key way to do that is by “staging.” Staging a home is simply arranging and preparing your home to appeal to the buyer. 81% of buyers find it easier to visualize themselves in a property as their future home when it is staged, AND almost a third of buyers are more willing to overlook faults in the property when it is staged.

This can be done by yourself with the helpful advice of your realtor (Me!), or you can hire a professional stager to do the work for you. If you have vacated the home that you are selling, hiring a professional stager may be the best choice as they have the furniture, understanding, and skill to stage effectively. However, if you are ready and willing to take this on yourself and you are living in the home while it sells, this may be a great option.

For those ready to stage their own home, here are 5 helpful tips to get you on your way to a stunning home!

1 Don’t take staging advice personally.

When staging your home to sell, it is important to keep an open mind. It can be a stressful process and often our homes are our sanctuary, so sensitivity about our homes is understandable. You may love the 30 figurines in your china cabinet; but to a buyer, they may be off-putting or feel cluttered. Your realtor has key advice that will help your home sell fast, so it is important to listen to her advice and not be too easily offended when suggestions are made to remove furniture pieces, photos, and collectibles. Buyers wants to picture themselves in your home, and it’s the realtors job to help them do that….so trust your realtor’s advice and be flexible with your space while you sell it.

2. Depersonalize Your Home.

Most homes are full of special mementos, family photos, and family heirlooms. These items help your home feel like a home, but can often times become a deterrent to buyers’ attempts to picture themselves living in your home. It is important to pack away those family photos, knick-knacks, and mementos…after all, you are going to have to pack them away eventually anyway. This is just a head-start on that chore. By removing the personal items in your home, you help buyers easily see your home as their home. Another way to depersonalize your home is to get rid of or minimize your own personal decor. That zebra print rug you love so much may be too much when appealing to a buyer. It is best to stage with neutral but beautiful items to help the buyer.

3. Clean Your Home

This may seem like a no-brainer, but this is often a missed step when sellers are marketing their home. Unfortunately I have heard “the house was dirty” more than once from potential buyers. You want to tear down any obstacles that will get in the way of someone picturing themselves in your home.

So, make sure that kitchen shines; the stovetop, the oven, the sink, and the floors…..just act as if your mother-in-law is coming for a visit. Make sure the bathrooms look and smell clean as well. Tackle that grimy shower door that you have been putting off scrubbing, make sure the toilet is sparkly white, and don’t forget to clean the smudges off those mirrors. In your cleaning endeavors, don’t forget the floors and the baseboards. Mop those wood or tile floors, and vacuum and spot-treat those carpets. Folks are always examining the floors, so make them look their best. Lastly, a helpful tip is to let some fresh air in. A little fresh air can go a long way in a home feeling clean.

4. Spice up Your Curb Appeal

Positive curb appeal is a definite must when selling your home. No matter the season, you can simply clean up your yard by pulling weeds, trimming bushes and trees, repairing bricks, fencing, and walls. This communicates to the buyer that your home has been cared for and doesn’t overwhelm them with future chores as soon as they pull up.

Another easy way to spice up the entrance to your home is by adding some color. If you have existing potted plants, make sure they are in good order; and if you don’t, invest in a few pots that you can plant with color. Depending on what type of yard you have, you can also plant directly in the ground to trim out walkways, the curb, and tree perimeters. In winter you can use decorative cabbages, in fall mums are great, and in spring and summer many options are available to you for a little spice.

5. Increase the Flow of Your Home

When a buyer open the front door and begins to tour your home, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to see all that the home has to offer. To do this you can work on optimizing the flow of your home. You can eliminate furniture that creates an obstacle to touring a room, you can replace rectangle or square tables with round ones making it easier for a buyer to walk around a room, and you can get rid of oversized or bulky furniture that seems to swallow the room whole.

You can also create nice flow by simply rearranging the furniture. Go outside and walk in your front door and try to act like a buyer. Is the sofa in the right place? Is the bed in an optimal spot to create flow in the master bedroom? Should you really have the side chair in that spot? Do your best to simplify and make all rooms easily accessible for a tour. Lastly de-clutter each room. It’s amazing how much we can amass when living in a home for a while. Don’t let that stack of bills, papers, and school art papers distract the buyer or the 200 stuffed animals your daughter has accumulated on her bed, or the many things you’ve hidden away in your closet. Simplify and allow the potential buyer to breeze through your home with ease.