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Jul 2010  |  By Kiki Luthringshausen  |  Comments (0)

Bin There, Done That: Organizing Your Home for a Staging, or Guests

TAGS: home organization, design, staging

What could be worse than listing your house in this horrible market?

Well, having a teenager, a busy family and trying to clean up for a showing. I had to find this out the hard way. Two days after listing the house, an agent called wanting to come in a couple of hours.

Great news: Getting a showing so quickly. Not so great: I needed to make all the “stuff” in my daughter’s room disappear and hide my collection of magazines in the family room.

After assessing the mess in my daughter’s room, I purchased a huge bag of racks and containers. Being excited about our little project, I emptied out the bag on her bed and explained how they could be used. She proceeded to shove me out the door and click ... she locked me out. Cinderella had her own vision and I was clearly not part of it.

The family room was a quick fix. I added some crisp, oversized linen bins under my coffee table to store magazines. It’s clean and the stacks are gone. A big orchid, a pretty yellow candle and the space was already looking good. As for Cinderella? She emerged from her room five hours later and all was tucked away neatly in her bathroom and closet.

Here are a few easy tips to get you organized, whether you’re staging or getting ready for guests:

Organize bathroom cabinets with small bins. Everything looks much cleaner when it is contained. If you have overnight guests, you can remove the bins to make room for their toiletries.

Clear off the counters, dressers and tables of clutter ... you can’t possibly need everything out!

Take a photo of the space and see how the room looks for yourself. You will be surprised what you see when you photograph your own home.

Once you’ve got it organized, think about staging to give the room a fresh look:

• Pull out the items that make you think winter, spring, summer or fall
• For summer, put away the heavy throws and put out a few pillows in light weight fabrics
• Flowers in a seasonal vase always brighten the room
• Think DELETE, then ADD when it comes to accessories for any room.

You can read more about this author's experiences with home decor at Confessions of a Tear Down.