Staging the Farmhouse

It was quite a job getting our house ready to be looked at by potential buyers.  We did some painting and took care of a few minor repairs that needed attention.  Then it was time to declutter.... big time.  We could have done more, but we were working on a deadline once we invited people in.  We hired a couple of teenagers to help us move some furniture and boxes of stuff out to our storage shed.  I emptied every closet of excess stuff, leaving all closet floors empty...  because my sister said that was a rule when showing your home.  Whew, was that a lot of work!

My good friend Teresa came over to help me stage it.  Her mantra was, "LESS IS MORE." She kept saying that as she suggested which items needed to be removed and put in the shed.  It was super helpful!

On the morning of the open house, I even put my toaster, Kitchen Aid mixer and a bread basket into the trunk of my car! Here is how a few of  the rooms ended up:

Living Room: Took lots of stuff away from the coffee table and mantle. Opened all the blinds and put flowers on the coffee table.

Family Room: Put away all gaming devices, DVDs, remotes, shoes, ironing board, etc etc.

Bedroom: Removed 15 framed family photos from shelf over bed, put TV away, got rid of stacks of books on each side of bed.

Kitchen: Cleared almost everything off counters except a couple of decorative items.

Upstairs Bathroom: Same story... everything off counter, only left a couple of nicely folded towels hanging on bars, took out hamper.

Looks pretty good, huh?  Not perfect, but we do still live here and we tend to be messy people. So  just clearing counters made a huge difference.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our house.  I only showed you the good stuff.  Maybe later I'll post a picture of our shed. :)