Delcuttering – A Step Too Far
“Declutter, declutter, declutter!” It’s the mantra of virtually every home stager and Realtor, and is often the #1 item on the multitude of websites, lists and home design television programs that advise homeowners getting ready to sell their house.
As a professional home stager, I can tell you that what I see when I enter a house to do an occupied consultation (when the homeowner will be living in the house while its on the market) is pretty much the same across the board, regardless of the price point of the property – mementos of family vacations, collections of interesting items, diplomas, awards and certificates of achievements mounted on the walls, generations of family photos. And often when people have been living in a home for more than 15-20 years, there’s a good chance I’m also going to see older furniture (especially upholstered pieces), and odds and ends of chairs and tables cobbled together in a home office, bedroom or in the basement. All of this is clutter.
What I tell homeowners is that clutter is not a bad word – its simply a description of all of their belongings that have been collected over the years, and for the purpose of selling their house these items need to be packed or purged. Our goal is for buyers not to be distracted by these things and to see the potential of the house as their next home. So we tell the homeowner that they need to declutter.
But decluttering can go a step too far. When the homeowner declutters too much, they often remove the very things that help the house feel like a warm and welcoming home along with furniture, lamps, pillows and art - and we’re left with half furnished rooms that look mismatched and feel barren and antiseptic. The character and context of the room is missing. We end up staging with what’s left over, and unfortunately, we’re now working to try to not make the room look like a budget staging.
How does this happen? Well, decluttering IS the #1 thing homeowners are supposed to do before selling their house, right? Unfortunately, sometimes they aren’t given guidelines of what can stay and what should go, and sometimes they are too anxious to get rid of stuff (admittedly there is a sense of freedom when you can let go of extra stuff in your house) that they get rid of too much.
A well-staged home strikes the right balance to let buyers imagine themselves living, working, playing and celebrating in the house. Excessive elimination of furniture and accessories creates an odd “what’s missing here?” feeling that we want to avoid.
How can over-decluttering be prevented? The best advice is to have a professional home stager do a walk-through consultation with the homeowner very early on in the selling preparation process. Trust me, you don’t need to get your house ready for the home stager (sort of like how people clean before the house cleaning crew arrives). We’ve seen it all, and for the purposes of helping homeowners, we need to see it all. The most important thing to remember when working with a professional home stager is that our job is not to judge homeowners and what’s in their closet or the condition of their house. Our job is to help them prepare their home so they can sell it quickly and for the most money.
All the Best!
Preferred Staging
