The Ultimate Guide to Home Staging

Posted by admin // September 9, 2022 // Blog

When you’re selling your home, you want it to look its absolute best for potential buyers. That’s where home staging comes in. Read our guide to home staging — learn what not to do, how to stage room by room, how to do it on the budget, whether it’s worth it to hire a professional home stager, and loads more!

What is home staging?

You’ve seen gorgeous images of impeccably decorated homes in magazines, on TV and on social media. They inspire envy, or maybe just inspire — and they are all staged. Home staging brings out your home’s most impressive assets so that the maximum number of potential buyers can imagine themselves living in it. Home staging is a marketing strategy (with a dash of psychology). It’s adding and rearranging furniture and decor. It’s upgrading curb appeal. It’s doing whatever is necessary to dress up a house so it sells quickly and for the highest possible profit.

By minimizing the house’s flaws and highlighting its best features you are “packaging” your house in the most appealing way that would lead to more interest, higher offers and quicker sales. Home staging, if done right, creates a relaxing and inviting atmosphere, where potential buyers would want to linger. A well-staged home will draw the buyers to online listings and showings, and, hopefully, will end in generous offers.

The psychology behind home staging

A lot of effort goes into buying a home. Buyers look at countless home listings and make split-second decisions whether to move on or to see it in person. For your home to stand out, it has to feel like home to a potential buyer. Of course, all practical details come into play, but allowing a buyer to develop an emotional attachment to the house also has a big role. Home staging is an art, but also a science. A prospective buyer should be able to visualize how he or she would personalize their new home, so the stage you set should be neutral yet feel personal. Visualization is a key concept in home staging. If buyers can see themselves living there, they will develop a personal connection to the home and will feel good about investing in it.

home staging modern staged living room

Why is home staging important?

According to the 2021 Profile of Home Staging by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), 82 percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home. And consider these numbers that demonstrate home staging is a common and effective industry practice that professionals feel confident spending money on:

Staging the living room was found to be very important for buyers (46 percent), followed by staging the master bedroom (43 percent), and staging the kitchen (35 percent).
Among buyers’ agents, having photos (83 percent), videos (74 percent) and virtual tours (73 percent) available for their listings was more important since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
23 percent of buyer’s agents said 23 percent of sellers’ agents reported that staging a home increased the dollar value offered by between one and five percent, compared to other similar homes on the market that are not staged.
31 percent of sellers’ agents said they staged all sellers’ homes prior to listing them for sale.
49 percent of sellers’ agents used a staging service.
The most common rooms that were staged included the living room (90 percent), kitchen (80 percent), master bedroom (78 percent) and dining room (69 percent).
The median dollar value spent when using a staging service was $1,500, compared to $300 when the sellers’ agent personally staged the home.

To emphasize, the three key benefits of staging a home are:

Staging helps a prospective buyer visualize living in the home
Staging can increase the amount of the offer
Staging can lead to the house spending less time on the market

With so much to gain, it makes sense for sellers to put time and effort into staging their homes, and, fortunately, many of the best staging tips don’t require spending a lot of money. Whether you’re just getting ready to sell or are trying to add new life to a stagnant listing, take a look at your home staging options and make changes that can help your home sell faster and for more money.

What are your home staging options?

There are three options, but you can also do a combination of all three. When looking to stage your home, you can do it yourself (DIY), get your real estate agent to do it or help you with some of it, or you can hire a professional home stager to do it all for you. Which type of staging is right for you depends on your specific situation and your budget.

How do I stage my house myself?

If you want to save money and have the time and the desire to do what it takes to present your property in the best way, the DIY option is the way to go. The tasks you might need to perform will be a medley of repairs and home design: rearranging furniture, decluttering, removing personal photos and decor, adding new curtains and throw pillows, repainting, touching up the walls, and a whole lot of cleaning. You can also add homey touches like cut flowers and house plants, and make sure your house smells amazing (candles, a diffuser or even a plate of fresh-baked cookies will work). And don’t forget the exterior! We’ll go over these and more tips in detail below.

Can I ask my real estate agent to stage my home?

It’s not your real estate agent’s job to professionally stage your home, but they also want to sell your home, quickly and profitably. Some might provide recommendations or help you find a professional home stager to either do a consultation or provide the home-staging service; others might do more to spruce up the property. Some real estate agents are certified home stagers themselves and can be very helpful (this scenario is not common). There are no cut-and-dry rules when it comes to enlisting the help of your real estate agent in staging your home, just as it’s not a given that you won’t end up footing the bill. It all really depends on your personal circumstances, your budget, and how much work your home needs.

What does a professional home stager do?

If you have the budget for it and want someone else to do the work, opt for a professional staging company. They will have the design and interior decorating experience to do wonders with your home. They will look at your home, inside and outside, evaluate its marketability, and then provide a consultation on what should be done to increase the home’s appeal to the prospective buyers.

A professional home stager often has an inventory of decor, artwork and furniture they can use to stage your home (furniture rentals can come with an extra fee, so ask ahead). They will also rearrange your furniture as needed and help you declutter. They will make the best and more efficient use of your space, showcasing it in the best light. Services can also include painting some exterior surfaces and removing furniture.

If you already have furniture that they can use (that will appeal to most buyers), a home stager will add homey, personal touches to the interior in what’s called soft staging. This means adding neutral and approachable touches like artwork, flowers, decor, throw blankets, and anything that will warm up your home and make it more attractive to the buyers (but not the furniture).

Home staging extends to the house’s exterior and outdoor spaces to improve your home’s curb appeal. This might include painting the front door, adding colorful flowers in window boxes or planting them, pressure washing and cleaning, replacing the mailbox, updating the lighting, and staging such outdoor areas as your deck, patio or pool area.

How much does home staging cost?

According to the price guide Fixr, on average, a homeowner pays $1,000 to $3,000 to have their home staged professionally, but, of course, you can find home staging services for more or less. The average homeowner can expect to pay $1,500 for an initial consultation, a day of staging, and no furniture rental. A simple consultation is around $200. A full-service staging with furniture rentals and redesign costs up to $10,000. HomeAdvisor estimates a typical range of the cost of home staging between $741 and $2,669. An empty house will be more expensive to stage if you add furniture, but you can still stage an empty house without furniture to save some money.

If you are staging the home yourself, consider the costs of paint, repair and cleaning supplies, storage options as you declutter, new furniture, accessories and decor.

Is home staging worth it?

As the numbers show, home staging can add a considerable selling advantage. It can market your home in such a way that you’ll get a higher offer, quicker. Whether it’s worth it in your case? Consider a few factors and then decide:

Your timeline
The total cost of staging
The value home staging could add to your home
What the sellers’ market is like where you live

If you can’t decide on your own, ask your Realtor for suggestions as he or she knows the hyper-local market, or hire a professional stager to pay you a consultation-only visit.

Home staging process

Let’s go room by room, then head outside.

Living room

home staging modern living room

Remove unnecessary furniture to create more space
If you have dark curtains, replace them with the neutral-colored ones
Update lighting if it’s dim
Put cords and wires out of sight
Open the blinds to let more natural light in
Pull furniture away from the walls
If the walls are painted in a dark color, consider painting them with a lighter neutral color
Remove personal photos and decor
Add warm touches like flowers or attractive decor (vases, throw pillows, candles, coffee table books)
Hang the largest piece of art on your largest wall
Declutter (put away books and magazines, clear surfaces from personal items)

Dining room

home-staging-dining-room-min

Improve lighting (open blinds, hang light-colored curtains, update lighting fixtures)
Declutter
If using table leaves, remove them to make the room look bigger
Add house plants, a bowl of fruit or a flower arrangement
Set the table (only if it adds to the ambiance, not distracts from it)

Bedroom

home staging modern bedroom

Change the bedding so it’s fresh
Add pillow and throw blankets
Remove personal items
Declutter the closets and bookshelves
Pull the bed away from the walls
In the closet, organize clothes on the hangers. Don’t overcrowd, and try to use the same kind of hanger.

Kitchen

home-staging-kitchen-min

Clean the refrigerator inside and out. If you are using it, empty it temporarily or at least organize and declutter.
Clear and clean the counters
Clean the oven
Update or repaint cabinets if they’re dated
Clean or remove appliances (toaster, coffee maker, kettle)
Replace old hardware, knobs or faucet
Declutter the cabinets
Fix any leaks

Bathroom

home-staging-bathroom-min

Fix any leaks
Recaulk if necessary
Replace the faucets and a shower head if they’re old
Paint or stain the cabinets if they’re dated
Hang new, clean towels in a neutral color
Provide new soap in an attractive container
Clear the area around the sink (remove personal items like toothbrushes)
Organize and declutter any drawers, cupboards or closets
Empty or put away the wastebasket
Clean the mirrors, the toilet, the floor, the shower or the tub
Clean or replace the shower curtain
Keep the toilet seat down

Hallway/Entryway

home staging modern entryway

Clean the floor/shampoo if you have carpet
Replace a welcome mat if needed
Paint the front door if needed
Fix the front door if squeaky
Consider adding house numbers
Replace the mailbox if needed
Declutter the coat rack, shoe rack and closets

Outside/Curb appeal

home staging modern curb appeal

Trim the trees and the bushes
Mow your lawn
Remove dead leaves
Clean gutters
Add flower boxes or potted plants or plant flowers
Cover any bare spots with plants
If it’s the holiday season, add some seasonal decorations like a tasteful pumpkin, a wreath or a few attractive decorations
Pressure wash the deck, the patio, the pool area and the exterior of the house
Touch up/repaint the exterior of the house if necessary
Fix cracks in the sidewalks
Add sealant to your blacktop driveway
Clear away any debris
Declutter (put away tools, toys, pool and grill accessories, rusted and dated outdoor furniture, trash cans)
Replace the mailbox if it’s old
Upgrade lighting fixtures and doorknobs
Accessorize your porch, deck or patio (add attractive furniture and plants, lights, candles, etc.)

Throughout the house

modern home staging

Repaint any bright, bold colors with neutral colors
If you have dark curtains, replace them with the neutral-colored ones
Wash all the windows, inside and outside
Convert “themed” rooms into neutral rooms
Pack away most toys
Clear the surfaces like tables and counters
Fix squeaky doors and loose boards
Replace any missing fixtures
Update lighting
Store away any signs of the pets
Make sure all windows and doors open quietly and easily
Clean ceiling fans
Dust all surfaces
Clean the floors

How can I stage my house for cheap?

Need to DIY home staging on a budget? You can make your home more marketable without breaking the bank. Here are some ways:

This is step one of home staging and it goes a long way. The house should feel like home to the potential buyers, but they should also be able to envision what it would look like without your belongings in it. By decluttering, we mean cleaning out your closets, clearing off your countertops, thinning your shelves, and putting away any personal photographs or decor. You can sell or donate what you don’t need. Or consider renting a storage unit.
Deep clean. Now that you’ve decluttered, time to deep clean the whole house. Wash the windows and floors, shampoo carpets, dust, polish, vacuum, and clean ceiling fans and AC vents. Give your bathroom(s) some extra love. The bathroom(s) should have fresh towels and new soap. All beds in the bedroom(s) need fresh bedding and must be made.
Make the rooms appear bigger. The bigger the rooms seem to a buyer the better. The tricks of the trade include adding mirrors to create more light, opening blinds and curtains, removing rugs and unnecessary furniture, and keeping to a neutral palette for the walls, the furniture and the window coverings.
Repaint and touch up. Speaking of a neutral palette, if your walls are painted in bright colors consider repainting them in neutral colors like grey, beige or pastels. Touch up walls, molding, stairwells and baseboards. Repaint or touch up the kitchen cabinets.
Put away personal decor and photos. Leaving a few up is OK, but if you have a lot throughout the home, potential buyers might perceive it as cluttered and distracting. And this is part of decluttering anyway, as tables, desks and bookshelves should be cleared.
Remove the bad smells and add the good ones. Keep your pet away and put away your pet’s things for the listing photoshoot and the showings. But first, wash their bedding and bowls, and clean the litter box. Some potential buyers might be allergic, others don’t care to imagine their new home full of pet clutter. And a bad smell can be a dealbreaker. Try not to cook anything smelly and air the house thoroughly. Adding fresh flowers to a few rooms can also brighten the home and add some lovely smells. The flowers don’t have to be expensive. Adding candles, diffusers or an air freshener also won’t break the bank.
Borrow decor or furniture (or buy secondhand). Renting furniture and decor can be pricey, so borrow from friends and family, or hit a thrift store.

How do you stage a house for pictures?

The NAR gives this advice:

Think how it will look through the camera. Since you are staging for the camera, find out where the camera will most likely be and go from there.
The camera hates wrinkles and exaggerates them, so use a professional steamer for sheets, pillows and shower curtains.
Harsh sunlight will make the image look blown out, so look for the best time for indirect sunlight. Cloudy days provide good light for photoshoots.
Clean up areas outside the window that can be seen. They shouldn’t draw attention to themselves, especially if they contain debris, trash or clutter.
Limit the color scheme. Pops of colors are great, but neutrals as the prevailing palette will look better.
Think repetition, pattern and rhythm when staging for photographs. These three design elements are to go by and have been found aesthetically pleasing to most.
Don’t overdecorate. The house should appear big and bright in the pictures.
If you want professional-looking images, hire a professional photographer.

Tips on home staging your living room

Since the living room is typically listed first as a room with the most impact when it comes to home staging, let’s spend a few more minutes talking about the living room decor. It’s also one of the largest rooms in the house, and the one with the most foot traffic. Just like with any room in the house, the key is to strike a perfect balance between physical objects and structural features. Furniture, art, decor, plants — all need to live in harmony among the room’s walls.

Look for inspiration. If you’re not hiring a professional home stager, look at what the others are doing with their living rooms in terms of colors and the layout. You can find a wealth of information online — blogs, social media (Instagram and Pinterest are among the most visual platforms), magazines, etc. There are quite a few home stager sites out there with the “before” and “after” images of staged living rooms.

Plan the layout. Create a focal point with a seating arrangement (could be your couch by the fireplace or by the window with a lovely view) and arrange all the other furniture based on where the focal point is. Home staging experts recommend leaving easy-to-navigate pathways and not pushing furniture against the walls. Create conversation spaces a potential buyer will be drawn to and don’t use any furniture that doesn’t match the rest, isn’t comfortable, is damaged or broken, or just seems unnecessary. The largest pieces of furniture should go around the perimeter so it doesn’t create a visual block.

Add texture and colors. As we’ve mentioned, stick to neutrals with pops of color using art and accents (a bright throw pillow or a painting). Cozy and relaxing are the goals. Rugs, especially not the heavy kind, can also add color and texture to your living room. Place one to designate a conversation area or a pathway. Careful though: Too large, and the rug will overwhelm the room, too small, and the room will appear unbalanced.

Are you familiar with the 60-30-10 color rule? For a balanced, well-designed look, 60 percent of the room should be one color (the dominant color), 30 percent a complementary color (the secondary color) and 10 percent an accent color. Also, check out our take on how to choose a color scheme for your home.

Add plants. If you just can’t with the real ones, artificial would do. But the real plants will add a pop of color and some freshness to your living room (and they have health benefits). They don’t have to be fancy — many indoor plants are low maintenance.

Choose art. You might avoid anything controversial, personal or political in a staged living room. Remember, you’re marketing to a mass audience of potential buyers, so choose subtle, attractive, relaxing pieces. Think landscapes, abstracts, nature and still-life. Remove all family photographs except a few. The art you hang should fit within the color scheme of your living room and complement its style.

To find some appropriate pieces, check out local galleries and street festivals, search online marketplaces like Etsy or browse local thrift stores.

Top 12 Home Staging Tips

Not sure where to start? Here are some general recommendations that will make your house more sellable under any circumstances.

Stage where it counts

Not all rooms are considered equal when it comes to home staging. You want to focus your efforts on the rooms that have the biggest potential to influence buyers’ decisions, and spend less time on the rooms that won’t make much of a difference. The rooms with the highest impact are the living room, master bedroom and kitchen. These are the rooms that you want to focus the most on when you’re staging a home. Don’t worry as much about the rooms that have less influence, such as guest bedrooms, children’s bedrooms and bathrooms.
Depersonalize the space

One of the primary objectives of home staging is to help prospective buyers visualize the space as their own. The fastest way to accomplish this is to set as blank of a canvas as you can. You want the home to have style and charm, but it should be devoid of personal touches that suggest this home belongs to the seller, not the buyer.

Start by removing any personal photos, making sure to take down both framed photos on walls and surfaces and anything that’s hanging on your fridge. Keep clothes stored away and out of sight, and clear bathroom counters of personal items, like toothbrushes. While it’s true that depersonalizing your home makes it a little odd to live in, it is extremely useful for helping buyers better connect with the property.
Get rid of clutter

Clutter takes up space, and space is what sells. Make your home look bigger and more desirable by editing down to just the basics. You don’t have to get rid of things forever, but you should certainly be packing them up and getting them out of the house. This includes any clothes you’re not wearing (no need to crowd your front hall closet with winter coats in the summer), most of your decor (you can keep a few select pieces if they’re subtle or minimalistic), papers, games, and pretty much anything else that you don’t need on a day-to-day basis. Buyers will be opening your closets to look at their storage potential, so take your time to remove as much miscellaneous and non-crucial items as you can. The less clutter you’ve got in the space, the bigger it will look and the more appealing it will be to buyers.
Clean like you’ve never cleaned before

Spring cleaning has nothing on the cleaning you should do when you’re putting your home on the market. You want every square inch to shine, from the baseboards to the corners of your ceilings and everywhere in between. A squeaky clean home suggests to buyers that the current tenants took good care of the property, a notion that extends beyond the kitchen countertops to the entire house. If you’ve neglected certain tasks, like cleaning the inside of your refrigerator or regularly dusting your window blinds, now is the time to tackle them.

The cleaning you’ll do for staging purposes has similar steps to the deep clean you do when you move into a new home, so start with those and add on as you need to.
Patch and repair

Home staging is a good time to tackle the tiny nicks, scratches, holes and other imperfections that signal neglect to buyers. Start with a melamine foam eraser pad and go room to room removing any scuffs from walls. Keep an eye out for any areas that could use a little TLC, then spackle and caulk as necessary. If you notice areas where previously applied paint has chipped, you may need to do some paint touchups. Just like with cleaning, the purpose is as much about showing potential buyers that you’ve put effort into maintaining the property as it is about making the place look nice.
Go neutral

This staging tip is a bit more time- and cost-intensive, but it can make a major difference when it comes to your sale price and time on the market. Bright colors on walls help people express their personality in their homes, but they can be a major turnoff for buyers. When you’re staging your home to sell, one of the very best things you can do is paint over any garish colors with neutrals, like gray, white and taupe. Bold colors can distract from a room’s assets, and like photos and clothes, are bold signifiers not of the home’s future, but its past. Buyers might want bright colors themselves, but a neutral home gives them the option to do that – or not.
Make a good first impression

The first thing a buyer is going to see when they walk up to your house is the front entrance, so you want it to make a strong positive impression. Remove any sort of seasonal decorations, which can date a house in both pictures and during viewings. If you have a front stoop, consider power washing it, or at least scrubbing off any dirt. Then add a touch of charm with a simple doormat and perhaps a potted plant or two, provided they are in perfect condition (a dead or dying plant will do you no favors). Keep the space simple but welcoming to start buyers off on the right foot and suggest that more of the good things await inside.
Focus on fresh

While too many extraneous items in a home can detract from its perceived value, a few healthy, well-placed plants and flowers can add life and freshness to the space. Space them out so as not to clutter any one particular area, but try to have a couple of fresh items in areas that matter. Place a vase full of big, bright flowers in the center of your kitchen table, a small potted plant or some succulents in the living room, and perhaps a larger potted plant in the corner of the living room as well. Don’t have the time or green thumb to maintain fresh plants? Fake plants will set the same atmosphere with less work.

Another aspect of freshness is making sure there are no odors. A deep clean should take care of any lingering smells, but also be sure to always clear out your trash bin before showings so buyers aren’t hit with any offensive scents. You may want to install a small-scented plug-in in a couple of rooms too (or just one may be okay, depending on the size and layout of your home). If you do that, keep it on a low setting – you want the smell to be pleasant, but subtle. Choose a neutral clean scent that most people will enjoy.
Let there be light

Dark rooms are sad rooms. Brighten up by letting as much light shine in the house as possible. Open the blinds on all of the windows, which in addition to letting in more natural light will also make rooms seem bigger. (If your yard needs a bit of work, keep blinds down but open the slats to get a similar effect without showcasing any problem areas.) Turn on all the lights in your house for showings, including lamps and closet lights. This will help make your home more welcoming, and also saves buyers from having to stumble around figuring out which switches turn on which lights.
Rearrange your furniture

You want there to be as much open, walkable space as possible. This helps buyers navigate the space, and also helps them better visualize their own furniture in each room. Put extraneous furniture in storage to get it out of the way, focusing on getting rid of any oversized pieces, damaged pieces, and those that don’t match the rest of the room. With the furniture that’s left, rearrange it to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible.
Define rooms

Every room needs to have a single, well-defined purpose. It will help show the buyers how to maximize the square footage. This way, a finished attic can become a home office, a finished basement an entertainment room, and a room where you store your seasonal decorations or a treadmill, a guest bedroom.
Upgrade the curb appeal

The exterior and the entryway will be the first things the buyer will see so they need to make a good impression. If they’re a neglected mess the buyer might not even want to see inside the house. This means washing windows, pressure-washing the exterior, repainting or touching up the door, replacing old or broken hardware, cleaning and repairing the sidewalk and the driveway, and cleaning and decluttering outdoor areas like a patio, a deck or a pool.

You should also consider adding more lighting fixtures, potted flowers or a few tasteful seasonal decorations. Clear away the debris and prune the hedges and the trees. Mow the lawn. Replace your mailbox if it’s needed. If your outdoor areas are spic and span and look modern and attractive it will help market the house enormously.

What should you NOT do when staging a house?

By now we’ve covered the do’s, but about the don’ts? Some moves can turn off buyers big time and jeopardize the sale of the property. Here are a few common ones:

Over-staging your home. Over-styling can be distracting. It can make the house look inauthentic and too formal. After all, the buyer should be able to visualize living in your home.
Overdoing the ornaments. Curb appeal is very important, but you can go overboard if you have too many statues, planters or seasonal decorations. They won’t appeal to everyone and will feel too personal.
Leaving your “theme” rooms intact. They are fun, especially for kids, but they will feel too personal and might be distracting.
Doing major renovations. Some buyers won’t care about having everything new, and most prefer to do their own renovations anyway. So don’t spend a ton of time and money on gutting your kitchen or knocking down walls for a bigger bathroom.
Overloading on neutral colors. Yes, the palette needs to be quiet and have mass appeal, but pops of color here and there will add to that appeal.
Forgoing deep cleaning. A gorgeously staged home is not going to have the desired effect if there are dust bunnies and grime. Cleaning your house thoroughly (or hiring someone to do it) is a must.
Not taking professional photos. No, your iPhone snaps with your thumb in the way won’t do. As we said earlier, if you want professional photos (and why wouldn’t you?), hire a pro. After all, you’ve spent all this time and money to stage your home, now it’s time to show it off in a listing and reap the benefits.
Pushing furniture against the walls. It makes the rooms look smaller. Confusing furniture placement is also a turnoff for buyers.
Leaving visible signs of your pet around. Not everyone is OK with animals, and some people are allergic. You don’t need to conceal the fact that you have a pet or pets, but keep your pet away along with their (previously cleaned) belongings during the showings.
Staying for the showings. Leave it to your Realtor to show the house. If you’re home during the showings, it can get awkward. And future buyers may not connect with the house with you in it.

home staging cleaning

The deep-clean checklist and supplies

As we’ve mentioned, the first step to making your house perfect for selling is deep cleaning it. The process is similar to the checklist you’d use to deep clean your house before you move out. You can use it as your guide to deep cleaning your house before you put it on the market. And here are some cleaning tips you will hopefully find useful.

Deep cleaning every room and closet will take time, so we recommend that you come up with a plan that spans two to three weeks before you’re ready to put the house on the market and start showing it. Cleaning the kitchen, with all the greasy residue, mystery food in the cupboards and a rarely-cleaned oven will take time and planning to accomplish. Ditto for the bathroom(s), especially if there’s mold.

Whatever your plan is, gather the cleaning supplies first. They should include (but not be limited to):

Cleaning gloves
Sponge or dish towel
Microfiber cloth
Paper towels
All-purpose cleaner
Dish soap
Oven cleaner
Floor cleaner
Products for special surfaces (wood, stainless steel, etc.)

If you’d rather use homemade, more eco-friendly solutions, you’ll need:

White vinegar
Baking soda
Table salt
Lemons

Removing stains from the carpet

If your carpet is grimy all over, you’ll need to shampoo the whole thing. But if you only have a few stains on your carpet or rugs, you can spot-clean. Getting stains off the carpet is not a futile endeavor if you use the right cleaning agent. Use the wrong one, and the stain can become permanent. Speed also counts.

The supplies you’ll need include:

A white cloth
Carpet cleaners
A mild mineral spirit solution
Nonflammable dry cleaning solvent
Aerosol shaving cream, club soda or carbonated water
Baking soda, cornstarch, cornmeal or talcum powder
White vinegar

Here’s a quick cheat sheet on which cleaning agent you should use for each type of carpet stain:

Greasy stains (oil, butter, salad dressing) or ink. Use a nonflammable dry cleaning type solvent, following all product instructions and warnings.
Light greasy stains. Coat with aerosol shaving cream or carbonated water. Speed-dry with a hairdryer and vacuum. You can also sprinkle the stain with baking soda, cornstarch, cornmeal or talcum powder. Leave on for at least six hours, and then vacuum.
Water-soluble stains (soft drinks, fruit juice, alcohol, candy, sugar and starch, mud). Mix one teaspoon of mild detergent and one teaspoon of white vinegar with one quart of water. Dab a clean cloth into the solution and apply as needed. Place several layers of white tissues or paper towels over the spot and weigh down with books or pots and pans. Let stand for about one hour. Replace with fresh tissues or towels and leave overnight.
Combination stains (coffee with cream, gravy, lipstick, ice cream). Use both the dry cleaning solvent and the wet cleaning agent to remove the stain.
Red wine. Use club soda to flush the wine from the carpet fibers.
Treat fresh spots with a paste of water and cornstarch, cornmeal, or talcum powder. Let dry and brush off. Cover fresh or dried stains with a meat tenderizer and add cool water. Sponge off with cool water after 15-30 minutes. Avoid hot water, which will set the blood.
Pet urine. Dilute with a cloth dampened with water. Then clean with an acid solution consisting of one teaspoon of white vinegar mixed with one quart of water. Or, apply a pet bacteria/enzyme digester according to the directions. Saturate the spot, cover with plastic, and allow to work as long as indicated.

Removing Slime

If you have kids, you might be familiar with the slime — a fun, gooey substance kids love — but the carpets don’t. To remove slime from your carpet:

Use a spoon, knife or paper towel to remove what you can
Try freezing the slime before removing it by placing ice cubes on top of it for 15 minutes
Spray a vinegar and water solution directly on the stain (two-parts white vinegar with one-part water)
Let it soak, dab with a paper towel
Finish cleaning with a wet dry vacuum cleaner (the one that cleans both liquid and solid particles)

Removing stains from concrete

Like everything porous and made with natural materials, concrete stains with time. So you might end with oil in the driveway and food grease from the grill, as well rust, paint, dirt and pet stains. All those can hinder reaching the desired level of curb appeal, but can be successfully removed. Read our guide to removing all types of stains from concrete, with a different set of solutions and cleaning agents for each type of stain. We also give tips on how to clean concrete with a pressure washer and how to seal it (highly recommended) to prevent stains.

Removing rust

Anything made out of steel, iron or iron alloys can rust when exposed to the elements. That means that your outdoor furniture, garden tools and gym equipment can rust, speeding up their deterioration and corrosion and lowering your curb appeal. Knowing how to remove rust quickly, cheaply and effectively can save you a lot of time and effort and prevent rust from occurring again.

You have several options for removing rust, including a store-bought rust remover, abrasive tools like a sander or steel wool, WD-40, and using common household ingredients like vinegar. For more methods and tools for removing rust and stopping it from coming back read our handy guide.

Home staging FAQ

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this guide, but let’s close with a quick home-staging FAQ.

What happens to furniture after staging?

Unless they’re using the homeowner’s furniture, home staging professionals rent furniture from the furniture stores or bring their own inventory. After the home is done being staged the furniture returns to the staging company or the store. If you fell in love with a piece, you can ask the stager to sell it to you (if they own it) or get product information and find the exact same item for sale at the store they’re renting it from.

Is it better to sell a house empty or staged?

As we cited above, buyers prefer to see the houses staged. Empty houses may not seem as warm and inviting, and can wrongly convey the notion that the house has been lingering on the market. Another con is that without furniture and decor to distract, every scratch and the little defect is easier to spot (we’re talking about very minor imperfections, any serious issues must be disclosed). But there are some advantages to selling an empty house. Some buyers would actually prefer to see the house empty, without your belongings in it, to imagine themselves living in it. Another advantage is that it shows that the house is move-in ready and can sell quicker.

Should you set the table when staging a home?

You can if you want to, but it’s only generally recommended if you have a grand dining room with a large table. Setting the table can showcase how comfortably you can sit many people and how perfect the room would be for entertaining large groups. If you set the table with fine china, crystal and linen napkins, it will also play on the elegance of the room and will create a focal point.

For smaller homes, however, setting the table is not necessary. It can prove distracting. Besides, items could be broken or stolen, and you don’t want unsupervised kids playing with knives. So, only set the table if you think it will add to the ambiance, not distract from it.

What is the difference between home staging and interior design?

One of the most important distinctions between home staging and interior design is the intended audience. Home staging is meant to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. Interior design, on the other hand, answers to the specific aesthetics of an individual or family.

Although there are overlapping concepts, the purpose is different. Interior design aims to create a beautiful and comfortable space for you, the end user. The result will express your own personality, taste, style and preferences. Home staging’s sole purpose is to market the property to sell it faster and profitably. Home staging must keep to neutral hues to appeal to a mass audience of the as large a number of potential buyers as possible. With interior design, the sky is the limit.

Once you’ve successfully staged and sold your old home, it’ll be time to figure out how you’re going to move into the new one. To compare moving quotes online, simply give us your move details and contact information, and we’ll send you moving quotes from trustworthy interstate moving companies. From there, you can compare long-distance moving quotes and moving services to find the right moving company for your needs.

Article Source: https://www.moving.com/tips/home-staging/

The Ultimate Guide to Home Staging