When selling your home you'll want to put your best foot forward.

Staging a home can change its atmosphere & enhance its appeal, thus bringing a higher price and a faster sale.

The bedrock essential is to make sure that the entire house is clean, clear, & uncluttered - a neutral space waiting for buyers to picture themselves living in.

In general, try to make the house look & feel contemporary:

Expose hardwood floors and buff them until they shine.

Remove antiquated furnishings.

Add small decorative touches or creative vignettes.

Remove old draperies, swags & valances. - Today’s Buyers think less is more in window fashion. They prefer lots of light and few windows embellishments.

Update light fixtures: this includes old-style track lightings. Make sure all your light-bulbs are in working order and are the maximum wattage that their fixtures are rated for.

Remove all but the most recent wallpaper (wallpaper boarders are “out”) and repaint your walls with neutrals or calm earth tones - bold ‘commitment’ colors are likely to alienate most buyers.

Thoroughly air the house and make sure it smell fresh and clean. Today, many people are very sensitive to artificial fragrances. So, be careful what you use for olfactory appeal. Natural vanilla & cinnamon still work in most situations.

• Invite over a friend or real estate agent: A second or third pair of eyes will help you accent the best and edit the worst in your home. Be prepared for some constructive criticism. You want to hear it now, before you put your home on market, not as feedback from prospective buyers. Go room-by-room with a worksheet so you can take notes. Depending on how much time you have available for an update or a makeover, you will need to prioritize and figure out what will give you the biggest return. Do this at least two months before you put your house on market.
• First impressions are made before buyers even enter your home: So, paint the trim, fix up the front landscaping (clip hedges, pull weeds, trim the lawn, plant some flowers) and, if necessary, paint or even replace the front-door.
  
• Then comes the entryway: A simple consol table with mirror over makes a nice entranceway. Make sure this space is well lit day or night. Place adhesive under rugs so buyers don't trip or slide.
  
• Focus on the living area: These areas are where the majority of homebuyers will spend their time. For a small house with a small living room, take extra care to make sure that the room is well lit. And put something attractive or uplifting, such as a lamp or work of art, in the corner furthest away from the doorway into the room. This will draw the eye & force it to take in as much of the room as possible, thereby making even a small space appear larger. Again, a large floor rug will dwarf a small living room. So, take it out. Instead, you might want to use a smaller area rug to anchor a grouping of furniture scaled to the room. If you’ve got a fireplace or a view, you can also direct the buyer’s eye to that as the focal point of the room. And remember, fireplaces should always be operable and on in season.
  In a larger room, you might want to create a small reading corner by grouping a side table and a floor lamp together with a comfortable chair. Float sofas and coffee tables away from walls for a designer look. And make sure that all your table lamps match.
  Limit knick-knacks to a minimum, remove most of your personal photos (streamlining those that remain), and use wicker baskets, magazine racks, and other organizers to tidy up magazines, remote controls and toys. Then, arrange no more than three “staging” items (such as of candles and clear glass bowls filled with natural potpourri) per side table, coffee table, or cabinet, including the odd plant &/or vase of flowers for added life & color.
• Attend to the kitchen: If possible, update an old kitchen with new cabinet hardware &/or paint it to make it look bright & clean. Clean wood cabinets with degreasers and apply orange oil, letting the oil soak in a couple of hours before wiping it off. Organize cabinets with clear containers. If you can't see the back wall of a cabinet, buyers will think you don't have enough storage space. Ditto closets. Clear off the counters as much as possible. Put away all dish towels and rags in a handy drawer. As much as possible, eliminate recipe boxes, barrels of cooking utensils, excess-cooking machines, and cookbooks. “ Decorate” with two or three cookbooks. Budget to keep a variety of fresh fruit in an attractive glass fruit-bowl. Clean off everything on the refrigerator door. Edit family bulletin boards. Banish your throw rugs. Clean off windowsills. Remove old curtains and install new wood blinds. – A spic-and-span kitchen always looks more spacious and inviting to the eye.
  
• Spend time on bathrooms. Buy a new shower curtain and separate liner, adding a complete new set of towels that coordinate with the curtain. Wash the liner often if mold develops. In a small bathroom without glass shower doors choose a light-colored or transparent shower curtain, or else p ull the shower-curtain back. This will increase the apparent size of the bathroom while maximizing the view of the tub, which is what people want to see anyway. If you have an over-the-toilet cabinet, consider removing it and replacing it with a work of art.
  Clear off the counters, removing all cosmetics from the vanity. Put a colorful soap in the soap-dish, and bring in some fresh flowers or live plants.
• Bedrooms count: Do not leave your TV set in the master-bedroom. You want to create a soft, romantic, relaxing space. The TV just adds clutter and makes the room appear smaller, as does busy wallpaper and bedding. So, paint the walls a neutral color, get new bedding in light colors, and use throw pillows on the bed. Make sure all signs of daily life—like ironing boards, laundry baskets, and clothes thrown on chairs—are put away. They just add clutter and give the appearance that there is insufficient closet space in the house. Install closet organizers in closets. Eliminate wall and door hooks for clothes. Clear off dressers and nightstands of excess. Make sure bedrooms receive the maximum natural light. And never allow a king-sized bed to dwarf a small bedroom.
• Home office gains appeal: Home offices seem to have become an essential component of the modern lifestyle. So, find an extra bedroom, walk-in closet or an unused corner and convert it into a home office. Do make sure there is a electric, phone and/or cable within easy reach.
• Clearing out Closets: Older homes tend to have smaller closets, while, in today’s consumer society, we tend to have more stuff than ever before. Walk-in closets and roomy pantries are a necessity for many of today’s homebuyers who have lots of stuff and need a place to store it all.
  When staging a home for sale, remember that if a closet is packed to the gills, it’s only going to draw attention to itself. The smartest thing to do is to follow the “two-thirds-full rule” & weed through what you have so that you leave all your closets at least one-third empty, giving them the appearance of being larger than actually necessary. A further benefit of facing all the hard work required to purge and organize your closets is the head start this gives you on packing for the move. So, sift through your belongings and clean out everything that’s not used regularly. After all, it’s a fact that most people wear 20 percent of their clothes 80 percent of the time. So, it’s going to be easier than you think.
  Remove clothes, shoes, bulky jackets, purses, hats, & sports equipment that are out of season or are rarely used. Packed them up in labeled storage boxes, and store these under beds, in the garage, in the basement or attic, or even in rented storage space.
  You might also consider buying an inexpensive closet organizer that might double your closet’s capacity.
  In the kitchen, pack up rarely-used pots, pans, and other cooking utensils. Pot-racks may be a viable option. Non-perishables can be donated to a local food bank or stored in boxes in a less conspicuous part of the house. In the bathroom, extra towels and miscellaneous toiletries can be packed up for storage elsewhere. Toys can be packed away in under-the-bed trundles or attractive storage bins and toy chests—possibly doubling as benches or tables in the bedroom or playroom.
  It helps to paint the inside of closets a bright, neutral color and to clean the lighting fixtures so the space won’t appear dark and dingy. Quality hangers also improve the look; as can sorting & grouping similar clothing items together and facing them in the same direction. Rather than leave a closet empty, add a few decorative touches. For instance, hang a dress and place a hat box on the top shelf. Think Creatively, it’s always better to show off a home’s closets in their best light—even if they’re small—than it is to act as if the storage space is a downside of a property. By putting the best face on any small space, you should be on track for a successful home showing.