Home Staging & Decor with Dianne Morris

Fresh Start is Important to Staging

To begin a new year with all of the hopes of the newness of a recovering world – whether buying or getting a home listed for sale or just reorganizing to work better from home, there is no better way to start than to get started. Staging is no different in cultivating the skills and habits needed to commit to such a challenge as one learning to garden or do puzzles. The first step of becoming a beginner stager can be hard, but it’ll be worth the effort! Try to remember the exhilaration of something new!

A recent Twitter poll revealed that 44 percent of people would accept a pay reduction to work from home and that in itself requires small, simple efforts to prepare a productive area. And if you are planning to sell your home, the opposite is true – that most homeowners want larger offer amounts they will consider. As a listing agent, I greatly appreciate staging.

Here’s my list of how to make the best start to staging your home:

• Organize like items in any room so that they are together in a center of organization. You can grab free boxes from some local storage facilities that offer a sharing box of gently used boxes. If the items don’t need to be in view, you can find fashionable storage options at many local, Vancouver stores in the downtown area.

• Share; lend; give – Make a pile of things to go. You’d be amazed at how fast items go from a box at your curb listed as FREE items or listed on social media.

• Stage Left! – Part of ridding oneself of items not needed or wanted anymore is important, but it is also important to keep the “like” items that you compiled to go together in boxes (temporarily) outside of the room you are working.

• Cultivate the room once smaller items are out of the room and make a conscious effort to look at the larger items in the room. Did a piece of furniture get placed in the room because there was no place else? If so, get that piece out of the room. Next, ask if you need a better piece of furniture or if you can borrow a piece from another room to make it more
conducive to the look you are going for.

• Select colors that are dominant and wanted for the room. Starting to stage doesn’t mean one has to paint unless it is necessary. You will be able to tell. Impacting with color often can mean adding something simple like a small rug or blanket or vase, etc. Remember to especially focus on selecting items with the colors that you want. Choose up to three colors.

Remember the feeling of meeting a challenge or remembering how it felt when you first learned to ride your bike. Oftentimes, a willingness to try or what psychologists call “openness to experience,” brings a cognitive and behavioral flexibility that help us meet the challenges of the day. Even if you believe in Zen or “beginners mind” which is the lack of preconception, you will benefit in the process.

Dianne Morris, Real Estate Broker
360.635.1121

Dianne Morris is a real estate professional and specializes in the home staging industry for her listings