Staging your Charleston home for showings will always be a
time-eater. The word itself is indicative: “staging” means transforming your
busy household into a theatrical set. In addition to thoroughly cleaning every
nook and cranny, it usually means spending on paint and a variety of minor supplies
to tweak the production. Then comes the actual visits by potential home buyers,
sometimes interrupting your schedule (sometimes with very little notice).
If you have kids, keeping the staging in pristine
condition must clear an extra hurdle. When the kids spill food on the floor (or
leave toys underfoot for potential home buyers to trip over), selling your home
can turn into a hand-wringing ordeal. It needn’t be. Here are a few sanity-preserving
pointers:
Designate
one room for the kids
While it may be impossible to totally prevent kids from
being messy, we can keep the youthful chaos quarantined to one room. Designate the
place in the house that will be the “kid’s area” so that the cleanup in advance
of a showing becomes more manageable.
Keep the show
towels separate from the real towels
A successful Charleston staging routine pays special
attention to focal points in the kitchen and bathrooms. Both should come as
close as possible to a model home’s—which makes it crucial to keep a separate
set of unused towels and floor mats to switch in whenever the home is going to
be viewed. (There should be no secrets within a family, except maybe for this
one: make sure the kids don’t know where you hide the show towels!)
Clear the
“stage”
There are many items we keep handy that aren’t essential
for day-to-day living. Whether it is unnecessary pieces of furniture or extra boxes
full of toys for the children, these things combine to contribute to a sense of
cluttered spaces. Stashing as much clutter as possible in a temporary storage
unit will make your staging cleanup jobs much easier. It will also contribute
to the clean uncluttered appearance home buyers find appealing.
Thinking of selling your home in Charleston, SC this
winter? I have a marketing plan for this
season’s market ready to go – call me today!
Interested in selling your
Charleston area home? Visit: www.jeffcookrealestate.com
Interested in buying a Charleston
area home? Visit: www.discovercharlestonareahomes.com
-Jeff Cook
Jeff Cook Real Estate
Charleston, SC
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