They Don’t Live Here Anymore: Reflections on Home Staging

Posted by C.J.

My car is loaded up with a toaster, clothes, a boombox, an under-the-cabinet stereo, a laptop computer, yard games, and a number of garbage bags with unknown contents. Why? We’re trying to sell our home.

I forgot to move the tea kettle for this picture. It's gone now, though.

In order for someone to buy a home nowadays, you have to make it look like no one lives there. There should never be smudges on the hardwood floor, laundry in the laundry room, equipment or kids toys in the garage, trash in waste receptacles, appliances on counters, or paper on desks. Food in the pantry and clothes in closets should be limited to essentials so it appears that there is an abundance of storage space. But there should always be fresh flowers on the coffee table, a mound of green apples in the bowl on the kitchen table, and the aroma of scented candles in the air.

I could blame this seller’s nightmare on the economy and the buyers’ market. If we’re going to compete with other sellers in our neighborhood, including foreclosures and short sales, and the glut of new homes available in Madison, we have to make our house seem nearly perfect. Yet somehow focusing on the economy doesn’t seem quite right. It’s too complex. It brings in all kinds of larger issues, like shady lending practices of banks and bad city planning.

I need something easier.

I know…shows like The Stagers and Curb Appeal set the expectations of buyers way too high. I’ll blame HGTV.