Living In your Staged Home: little boxes all over the house

It has way over a year since I sold my last home. Today, when I buy five pounds of sugar (it's the hummingbird season, you know) I pour the sugar out of the messy-once-opened bag and into a large storage container. Then, I label the box, secure the lid, and stack it neatly under the container I am about to empty (it's the hummingbird season, the only way to survive is to plan ahead).

Actually, I repackage all of my dry goods. I never, ever mix boxes. Instead each label lists what the item is, when I bought it, and the best-by or use-by date from the box ("sugar", 7/3/09, 7/10/10). This way, I do not risk cross-contamination (dry goods can undergo chemical changes as they age), I know what to use first, I know when to toss, and my pantry looks neat and has extra open space because the boxes stack neatly.

Of course, it took me some time to get in the habit of repackaging. Hmmm, yes, I remember, after I tried it one time while staging my house I made it part of my routine forever more.

To enhance the repackaging, I store like things together (rice with rice, enriched flour by the rice and with the regular flour, sugar with the no cal sweetener.......). And I rotate so the oldest container of each item is always on top and easy to reach.

It takes a little time to do the initial repackaging/staging in a pantry. After the first time, with the pantry neatly organized, time saved, and stress relieved the process of continuing to repackage is usually easy. It takes much less time than the time wasted hunting for that one item in the recipe thirty minutes before you plan to serve dinner.

My husband got a zillion small storage containers and reorganized his work area in the garage. My jewelry lives in containers: a box for sets, a box for necklaces, a box for rings.....I have a box for scarves and boxes for different colored hosiery.

In a few minutes, when I am done writing this, I am taking the leftovers from the zillions of containers into the basement and organizing my crafting space in the basement. When we moved, over a year ago, things got thrown into boxes any which way...I am going to unpack the big boxes, check the paints and ribbons and trim and tools, then put them together in very specific ways.

When I tell my clients about using little boxes while staging their house, I encourage them to store the boxes out of sight (in drawers, in cabinets, on closet shelves). Because my house is not for sale, giggle, I store boxes exactly the same way: out of sight and very near the place the contained items will be used).

For me, the stress relief alone is worth the effort.

Everyone have a great holiday! I will be back on Monday.