Here are some statistics to help quantify the value of staging a home before putting it on the market...

According to the National Association of Realtors, the average U.S. home price is $173,100.

According to Real Estate Staging Association national statistics, staged homes sell on average 7 months faster than un-staged homes (or 78% fewer days on market).

Zillow.com reports that the typical home for sale averages a 1% monthly price reduction.

Trulia.com reports that homes under $2M experience an average 9% price reduction from list to close.

The typical investment in staging a home is less than the first price reduction.

A typical mortgage payment is around 0.75% of list price.

Carrying Costs = Utilities + Maintenance + HOA fees + other monthly expenses

Using these numbers, some basic calculations show us that staging the “average” home results...

If you've ever discussed decorating or redesigning a home with me, you've probably heard me talk about "function first, then pretty".  I am a true believer that if a space does not serve its function well then it doesn't matter how pretty it is...you won't be happy with it if it doesn't work for you.  The same concept can be applied to accessorizing a room.  I love using "functional" accessories, items that serve a purpose while helping make a space pretty.  Baskets are my absolute personal favorite.  I especially love wicker baskets, which add both texture and warmth, while also serving to contain or hide other objects.  I could spend hours in the "basket" section of Hobby Lobby admiring all the different styles and colors, dreaming up ways I could use them in my home.  (Ok, I know that seems excessive but I don't actually spend that much time there.  I...

While kids add excitement and life into our households, they also create clutter issues and additional storage and organizational dilemmas.  And although every house has their own unique concerns, this month we will address school papers and sports equipment specifically.

The first step to raising organized children is to realize that you, as their parents, are their first teacher and role model.  What they see you do, and how you live, is what they will mimic.  With a few tips at hand and a goal in sight, the process can begin.

1.  Start by assessing the trouble area.  Is it paper overload from school or sports equipment that cannot be found before the big game?

2.  Assign one home for anything related to school.  This would be the backpack.  After the day's paperwork has been removed and reviewed and homework is complete, place everything needed for tomorrow's day back into...

Regardless of the real estate market conditions, there are two keys to selling a house quickly.  It must be well-presented and priced right.  So if you are thinking about putting your home on the market, how do you ensure you get those two things right?  Well, that’s easy.  First, you find two well-informed, respected, and trusted experts…a professional home stager to help you with presentation, and a real estate agent or realtor to help you with pricing.  Second, you listen to and follow their advice!  They are the experts, after all.  And they have something very important that most homeowners don’t have when it comes time to sell…Objectivity.  The definition of objective, according to Merriam-Webster.com on-line dictionary, is “expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices or interpretations”.  Let’s face it; most...

Have you ever decided to buy a new piece of furniture, measured your space, picked out something that fit within those measurements, got it home, and thought, “Wow, this seems a lot bigger than it did in the store!”?  So what went wrong?  In decorating, the size of an individual object tends to be less important than scale, or its size relative to the other things around it.  Think about most furniture stores for a moment.  They tend to be large, wide open spaces with very high ceilings.  Even the largest piece of furniture doesn’t seem all that big in this kind of space.  Now put that same large piece in a twelve by twelve room with an eight foot ceiling, and it suddenly seems bigger than its actual size.  Understanding scale is important to creating rooms that feel balanced and pleasing to the eye.  The size of each piece of furniture should make sense compared to the size of the room itself, as well as to all...