Homes Staged To Sell - Cleaning

I seem to be in a pattern: words that mean one thing when you are selling house, and another thing when you are living in your home.

Imagine a brand-new, just completed house as it goes on the market. There is not a mar on any wall. Not a scuff mark on the floor. The kitchen and bathroom counter tops gleam. The interior of each cabinet and drawer is so clean it reflects light when opened. The sinks and tubs look like the faucets have never been turned on: not a watermark in sight. The baseboards, chair rails, window sills, yeck, the molding above the doors and windows appears to have never been touched by human hands or by dust. The filter in the fan above the stove does not know the meaning of the word "grease". Not a single dust bunny has hopped it's way across the carpet.

The builder has probably furnished the house. Each piece of furniture gleams. Not only are the carefully placed accessories spotless, if you pick one up you see the furniture underneath is spotless as well. Each model bed is exquisitely made. The bedding is immaculate. Dust has never touched the decorative fruit glowing in brightly colored bowls.

In many cities, when you sell your house this is your competition.

I imagine many of you are looking around your rooms and thinking, "yeah, right".

Yeah. Right.

On my website, I describe the steps I use to Stage an occupied house, the steps I suggest you use if you are going to live in your house while it is for sale. Cleaning is one of the last steps. This is because it is easier, and more practical, to clean a house once it has been Staged. And it is much easier to keep it clean.

So, don't panic and don't give up. If you have not yet finished the Decluttering steps, if you have not yet started arranging furniture and accessories, it is not yet time to worry about cleaning.

And, if you think you have finished Decluttering and Arranging, look around each room. Will it take days to do the initial cleaning, and hours each day to keep it clean? If so, it is very likely you have not really finished Decluttering and Arranging. On the other hand, if you see the initial cleaning may take some time but keeping it clean is going to be much easier than it was before the Staging, well, congratulations, you are there.

A Staged house looks a bit sparse when you compare it to lived in home. Running a vacuum around each room is straightforward because there is not a lot of furniture. Dusting is simple because there are not a lot of decorative items to dust around and under. The bathrooms and kitchen are easy to wipe down.

In the upcoming days I am going to discuss tricks and techniques to get it clean and keep it clean. Really, it can be done. And, you can have a life while doing it.