Staging your home systematically allows you to plan and prepare your property for sale. We suggest going room by room and that you do not stage the entire house at once. Follow these 14 steps and you’ll be done before you know it.

1. Assess the room

How is it used and can it be used for any other purpose?

2. Take inventory

What stands out about the room? Pick a focal point and draw attention to it.

3. Remove clutter

Do one room at a time, going from small spaces to larger ones. Box up all non-essentials, including closet clutter.

4. Depersonalize

Remove personal collections and most pictures. Make your property appealing to the largest pool of buyers.

5. Renew, repair, replace

Fix the little things that make buyers wonder, “What else is wrong?” Before doing renovations, check in with your sales associate.

6. Rearrange furniture

Minimize furniture in dining rooms, bedrooms, and living rooms. Whatever you remove can go into storage or in other rooms.

7. Re-accessorize

Highlight the focal point of each room. You may need to go back to items you removed from one room to add to another.

8. Fine-tune your work

Concentrate on details and revisit your focal points. If the focal point still isn’t clear, revisit steps 1 through 7.

9. Clean, clean, clean

Straighten closets and clean inside kitchen and medicine cabinets. Assume buyers will look in every nook and cranny.

10. Add life

Use potted plants or a bowl of fruit. A touch of nature always livens up a home.

11. Target high-impact rooms

Concentrate on the rooms buyers value most. In order of importance, they are: the living room, kitchen, primary bedroom, dining room, bathroom, children’s bedroom, and guest bedroom.

12. Borrow design concepts

Generate new ideas from magazines, real estate TV shows, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube as well as from researching homes for sale, both physically and online.

13. Prepare to show

Get into the routine of preparing your home for a showing to help present your house at its best.

14. Ask for help

Your sales associate can recommend storage facilities and assist with discounts on repairs and supplies.

Setting the Stage: Where to Start to Stage Your Home