Home Staging Q&A – Toddlers, rugs, minimalist

hey there home sellers
welcome back
i am back with you for some more home staging q
and as that
you guys have brought up to me on my youtube channel
so i’m gonna jump right into these questions
hey there home sellers
it’s your favorite occupied home staging specialist
kasha mcdaniel and i’m here today to talk
to give you some answers to some of your questions
that you have left behind on my youtube channel
and i really appreciate you leaving comments
leaving questions i’d love being able to answer them
so let’s dive into this first one
um it is by diana
um she wanted a video on staging with a toddler playpen
toys fenced off living room
baby gates everywhere etcetera
we need to keep the living in the house
but don’t wanna miss out on selling
at the best possible price
now diana
i know that we’ve been through that too
where we had baby gates on the stairs and we had toys
um and it
it is gonna be a challenge
i am gonna tell you that um
but what i highly recommend you doing is that hopefully
the when you’re staging your house
and the day that you’re taking the photographs
that your toddler is not there during that time
hopefully they are at a daycare
at a friend’s house someplace where you can focus on
get in your house ready and taking
and pulling away all of those things out of the
pictures
cause that’s the first thing that people are gonna see
when they come to see your house
they’re gonna look online right
so you wanna show off the house
without all the baby gates
without all the toys everywhere
the playpen the
you know all that kind of stuff
so
number one is that when it comes for that picture day
you need to take all that down
that’s part of the staging that’s
you know it’s gonna take some time
i’m sure there may be one
maybe baby gate at the top of the stairs
if you have stairs that you may be saying
well that’s just
you know drilled into the side of the wall or something
might be difficult to to remove perhaps
but here’s the thing it depends on your home
on whether it’s the type of home that is a larger home
where families are gonna be looking for a house
and they have little children too ok
so you got to think about how
who is gonna be looking at your house
who is the ideal person persons
is it a family a young family
an older family is it more for um
a bachelor bachelorette type of house
what kind of house is this for
cause this is a one bedroom or a two bedroom
they may not have children okay
so keep that in mind when you’re staging your house
but if it is a larger home and you’re moving
cause you’re moving cause the military
or you’re just going for a new job
in a different state whatever the reason may be
if it’s a larger home like three
four bedrooms
then more than likely it is meant for a family
and they’re gonna have little kids
okay so
if it’s one of those baby gates
that are hard to remove
that you’re gonna remove later on when you leave anyway
um
that i would probably leave behind drilled in the wall
but when it’s time for you to leave
and you’re taking that down
definitely have to patch and paint and fix that hole
unless you know
the buyers are gonna be like
oh yeah please leave that up there
okay maybe they have pets
and they don’t want them going up the stairs too
okay that’s one thing
um the other part is so that’s for the photos
ok so
we’re taking out everything
that has to do with anything
that looks baby gates
toys and things like that
ok so that’s the phase one
ok phase two is yes
you have to live in the house right
i know i believe me
we actually had um a house is a colonial home um
in virginia and our next door neighbors had
basically the same footprint
almost exact um to our house
except i think just the finishes were different colors
or the walls are different colors
maybe flipped from one side to the other
that was it so their kids
they had um
twins and they didn’t allow their
their kids to run around in circles
basically is one big circle or a square
if you will right
you could run from room to room
to room to room without being hindered
except their kids
they didn’t want going into their dining room and
or their other room
that they just wanted to keep neat and tidy
right they kept one side of the house for the kids
with all the toys the other side of the house like uh
uh nope
no kids here so they had baby gates and everything
well when those kids came to our house
we didn’t have baby gates up it
and it was the kind that you could run from
from room to room to room in big circle
we’re like okay
that’s the kids that’s the way they’re gonna be right
so it was interesting to see how the kids were like
wait we can move from room to room whoa
so it was just funny
how two very identical houses set up differently right
we weren’t selling at the time either
but we didn’t have baby gates
and they did it was then their toddlers
i wanna say yeah
they were like two
three years old yeah um
so yeah
they were just like we can go from
is this allowed is this okay
so yeah
so i totally know what you’re getting at
um but when it comes time for showings
i digress i’m sorry
when it comes time for showings
i would definitely take out the baby gates
if they’re temporary enough
okay a playpen you can easily kind of
kind of put away for the day
like say for example
you all are leaving to go to work
you’re going to daycare and
you know there might be a showing that day
a couple of those things
the playpen you could probably put away
maybe in a closet or in the garage
laundry room even
that’s just another place to kind of just stash it
out of the way and then pull it out when you need it
if you’re at home later in the day
okay right
maybe you work half a day
or
maybe the kids only go to daycare for only half a day
right um
the less toys you have out
the easier it is for you to clean up
okay and what i mean out
meaning i packed up the kids toys
about like ninety percent of their toys in boxes
yes i’m the evil mom that did that
but i left their lovies i left their favorite toys
the ones they always played with
they didn’t have like a walker
a swing a stroller
the baby dolls the barbie dolls
the oh my god no
the big bulky stuff those were out
those were gone packed away
put in the garage set aside
neat and tidy they were not in the house
okay cause those are big items right
so those types of things blocks
you know anything that’s
that fits in your hand
is too small and just needs to be packed away
you can have a lovey like a stuffed animal
a couple stuffed animals um
trying to think back to my days of toddler
cause i know i have teenagers um
but yes definitely minimal toys
if you can i would stick them in like
a basket that you can throw them in easily um
whether it’s in the living room
like a kind of basket you could put a lid on
you know what i mean
it could even be like kind of like a
like a laundry hamper type of basket right
um it could be
if you have an ottoman that hides blankets
maybe put the toys in there right
then they know the kids you know
the stuff comes out there
um if you have a playroom
you definitely would you know
lessen the amount of stuff that comes out
especially those little things like the blocks
the the
you know the dolls
the
maybe not the t sets cause they’re toddlers
but you know what i mean those type of big toy things
the big toys need to go away
and it’s gonna look different
the kids are gonna look around going what
but they’re really not gonna know much difference
as long as they have their favorites
okay and you may be thinking
well their favorite is a big toy
okay well
maybe they’ll just find a new lovey that you just found
and go oh
well look at this
you know i
and i know and it’s placating to them
i know they’re not gonna know much better
they’re younger um
so yeah
so when it comes times for showings
i would definitely um
the playpen um
the toy toys are easier to kind of put away
and kind of pack up you know
like the fire engines the trucks
the dinosaurs those loud
noisy type of things too
yeah yeah
those i would pack away mm hmm
mm hmm yeah
um so that’s phase two
okay so phase one we talked about
for photos nothing should be out
there should be no baby gates out
um but for showings
you can have certain baby gates
you know as long as they don’t hinder the buyer
from either opening them or getting out
you know going up the stairs
they don’t have to like
you know do a hurdle just to get over
you know the baby gate
you know what i mean
they still need to see the whole house
you don’t want to hinder them
from getting from room to room either
so think about it that way okay
if you had you know
your mom or your grandma coming to visit
can she get over those things that are there
you know what i mean the baby safety gates and
and things like that okay
so think about it that way
um
so yeah
so hopefully that answers your question on baby gates
toys playpens
fenced off living room yeah
hopefully that does it if not
let me know in the comments
if you have other questions
let me know okay
okay let me jump in here real quick
because if you are hearing some of this staging advice
and you’re wondering well
i really want some more information
like how to stage a living room or a dining room
or the bedroom um
what is clutter what accessories should i use
all that kind of stuff
i do offer my home staging basics
as an online course for home sellers
just like you
where i’ve divided up into fourteen videos
they’re about like fifteen to twenty minutes long
something like that
but they also have checklists and workbooks
and diagrams and everything
to help you get your home staged
by doing it yourself just by watching these videos
you basically picking my brain here
and taking it at your place
sorry your place and pace
yes um
so that you can get started on staging your house
and getting the most of money for your home
that you could possibly get right
that’s what we’re trying to do
we’re trying to sell it quickly
and for the most amount of money
so this home staging basics course is ideal for you
if you’re looking to stage your house
and you want some more information
like how to do all these things that i’m talking about
yeah yeah
that’s that’s what this course is for
so take a look i’ll leave the link in the show notes
okay another question
that was brought up by apples and peanut butter
i love your your little tagline there
that’s just so fun um
it she writes
this is a fairly long one
so i’m gonna read this okay
i know rugs are the thing to do
to soften up hard surface floors
but if i’m considering a house
i wanna see what is under that large rug
are the sellers hiding damage
okay that’s the first question
there’s other questions on later
so let’s start off with that one
okay
so you can definitely see what’s under that large rug
it is not normally meant to hide things okay
like hide scratches or whatever
if anything
it depends on how many windows are in that room
and what kind you know
if it is hard floors like wooden floors
maybe the rug over time
depending on how many years that the people
previous owners have lived in that home
maybe the rug has kind of um
covered the rug so the flooring
so
the flooring underneath is darker than the flooring on
around it cause it’s lighter
cause the sun kind of
kind of bleached it kind of a little bit
you know so they may have done some
you know the sun just
nature can do that um
but it’s nothing
basically
if there’s gonna be a rug probably in that spot later
you just find the same size rug for that area um
because again the flooring
it may not be damaged on purpose
it may just be just the way that the rug is
covering that portion of the floor
so naturally that floor is gonna look darker um
you may want to if you move into that kind of house
that has that kind of a pattern
maybe lighter floors
and then the darker one in the middle
cause there was a rug there
is then not put a rug there and then just later
nature take its course i know it’s not ideal
but normally rugs are not meant to hide damage um
and it’s just an easier way
sometimes if you have you know
lamps and stuff like that
that you run the cords underneath that
and it’s not a tripping hazard
and then those cords are underneath the rug
you know so there could be a lot of reasons
normally yes
i use a rug in the living room
if there are hardwood floors in the living room
but it’s normally meant to help lighten and
like you said soften the rooms
but definitely take a look
don’t feel like you you know
but just don’t move the furniture around
i wouldn’t necessarily do that
you just kind of look and go okay
well that may be something you just have to be aware of
okay so normally
as a home stager i actually had a job where
in the very beginning
my first job was that they wanted to put a rug over the
um by the kitchen sink
because there were some water damage
and i’m like okay
rugs are not meant to hide damage
that’s not what it’s there for
so yeah
i can understand where you’re coming from
but if it’s small enough that you can kind of lift it
and move it out of the way
normally i don’t use too many rugs in a house
when i am staging a house
like lots of runners
like in the hallways or in the kitchen or whatever
that’s just tripping hazards in my mind
um and i actually had one homeowner where he had like
i don’t know seven or nine runners in the house
all over the place and he had beautiful floors
but he was an older gentleman
it was a beautiful
large house looking over a golf course
um
so i knew the new homeowners should be probably older
or at least have older kids
um but even then
the runners were not necessary
we rolled up a whole bunch of
i think like
six or seven of those runners um
we removed because the number one
they were tripping hazards
they had the little tassel type things
they were kind of curling up on the edges
um and number two
it just you wanna
you wanna see the floors right
yeah and you want the rugs only in an area where
there
you’re trying to create either a conversation area
or kind of group some furniture together
but there’s really no reason to have it down a hallway
as you’re going to the bedrooms
okay so if that answers that question
part one for you for apples and peanut butter
i do want to interrupt for a quick second here
i do offer a free home staging guide
for those of you who are maybe new to home staging
maybe you’re just kind of curious as to well
what are some top things that i should work on
what are some home improvements i should do
i do answer all those questions
in my free home staging guide
called how to start staging your house now
totally free i’ll leave the link in the show notes
so you can download it
and get some home staging tips to get you started
she continues to write
we are prepping to sell and have looked at a few homes
i’m pretty good at seeing the house and not the stuff
we saw one house that stayed on our contender list
which was the first time
i found the decor hard to see beyond
yeah so
only ten percent of buyers
can actually see beyond the stuff that’s there and
and see the house for what
it’s good for the the bones of the house right
it’s only ten percent
the other ninety percent have to be shown
okay this is where the bed should go
this is you know
how big the couch should be
this is where they should be placed
you know those kinds of things right
um so
she felt like
the sellers probably had the same decor theme
we’ve dubbed it home spun americana
and are blind to how much there really is
it really drove home the point
that severe cluttering is crucial
yes so decluttering is a big deal
um a lot of people just think
oh well
i have lots of quilts it’s um
lots of signs lots of decor
and that should be okay
that is actually cluttering up the space
it just makes the eye kind of
eyes kind of just stop and just stare
and you actually want to kind of move around the room
not go oh
my god this is too much stuff
okay yeah
so
what she has asking is a video taking a deep dive into
properly staged and too minimalist
would be interesting
too minimalist okay
so i kind of had it in i’m gonna get your input on this
apples and peanut butter
i’m gonna show you some pictures
um for example
she wrote i am not a throw pillows on the bed
sofa and occasional chair person
i don’t have blankets artfully draped over furniture
i have severe dust allergies
and have no big rugs anywhere in my home
we don’t have much wall decor
i do have nine narrow
billy bookcases full of books and a red sofa
i love that that’s awesome haha
we have lots of bookcases in our house too
so i totally understand where you’re coming from
apples and peanut butter um
i think i have let’s see three no
two bookcases in the living room
um and then
the kids all have their own bookcase in their bedrooms
which are overflowing by the way
and i think in the playroom
there’s another bookcase or two
so yeah
i know i know what you’re coming from
we have more books than bookcases
yeah i hear you
i hear you um
so going back to the whole too minimalist
i’m gonna show you a couple pictures
of ones that are a little too minimalist
in my mind and i’m not a minimalist type person
i am more traditional um
slash modern if you will
i try to kind of keep it homie vibe
family vibe type you know
i am not a minimalist whatsoever
um so
you’ll see things in my house if you come visit me
that it it has more
it’s more of a homie feel
but not cluttered it’s clean
but not cluttered there’s still space to move around
there’s not messes everywhere
um there’s not toys everywhere
um so
but i i don’t consider myself minimalist
so apples and peanut butter
if you take a look at some of these pictures
i’m curious to see if you consider these pictures good
and i’m gonna go through them one by one um
and explain this one’s a little too minimalist
and i would add more to it
um but every home is different
now a minimalist home
is it in a you know
contemporary type style house
or is it a colonial house
is it a farmhouse you know
each house has its own style
and so sometimes like
for example if you have a farmhouse
you don’t wanna go too minimal
but you don’t wanna go overboard either
there’s a great you know
a good divide in the middle there
okay so i’ll show you these pictures
i’mma go through them one by one
okay so these are
i found this one article
about minimalist living room looks okay
so this is the first one that came up um
is part of this article
and i’ll leave the link in the show notes
so you can take a look at it yourself
um but this is yes
this is a minimalist and it look
has bookcases just like apples and peanut butter set
now not nine
but they still have color
i love that this has a little bit of color because yes
this is all white and i know some minimalist houses
rooms they like to
you know
kind of have one normal monochromatic type of look
but i love how this there’s a
you know just adding some warmth here
maybe the flooring is just a different color
you know flooring
it doesn’t have a rug
because the flooring has some interest there right
it’s not white flooring or
you know brown
you know it’s not tile
it’s not wooden this is
i think some um
i think it said uh
red terrazzo flooring
so this is just beautiful flooring
you wanna show that off
you don’t wanna hide that with a rug
so if you have beautiful flooring like that
then yes
you wanna show that off okay
and i love how they have this green um
marble around the fireplace too
okay so yes
it’s mostly white
but the books here on the shelves give it some interest
there’s no curtains to kind of hide the light
it’s really nice and bright in here
maybe for some people might be too bright haha
but again if you’re looking for this minimalist look
you want to bring in all that light
it’s not heavy drapery there’s just some um
light here um
with some lamps and stuff like that
for some cozy reading if you wanted to do that
and then again there’s another little um
cabinet back here that’s just
just gives it a little something interest to look at
whether you’re looking at the room this way
or looking at the room towards the fireplace
it draws your eye that’s kind of what we’re looking for
okay so let’s move on to this next room
this one is a little too minimalist
just a chair in a room that we need a little bit more
we need a lamp or a pillow
or a bookcase or two apples and peanut butter
are you hearing me here yeah
that’s what i would kind of put in here
maybe i put just one bookcase against this one wall
next to the window um
because it is a very sunny location
could be kind of dark
but you want to kind of cozy up with
i know a
but maybe it’s raining outside
and you want to cozy up with a blanket or something
right
this is a little too minimalist for me as a stager
if i were staging this room
i would add a plant greenery is also good too
and i know for those of you with allergies
the plants help kind of
filter out those allergens and stuff
so not the fake kind
no the fake kind just draws dust
that i know really
i’m talking about real plants here
okay um
so this one because it’s kind of a
a gray concrete looking floor
i would add some kind of rug here
okay um
again just to give it a little bit more juge
cause just this chair while the chair is beautiful
yeah what else do you use this room for
okay
um this room um
is actually in japan i was like
oh wow
i love more bookcases apples and peanut butter
this is for you i swear
for me and you i’m like
i love how they have these low nook
you know places
it could be storage for arts and crafts
it could be for the legos
it could be for books
and then you have all this desktop spot so you can read
have a comfy chair you know
a cushion cushions here right
you could put you know
something on this wall but not necessarily
you have something here maybe this is a
a classroom maybe you’re homeschooling the kids right
and this is your sub your classroom right
so this could be neatly stored
but you have this open out to the greenery
you could also bring in some greenery in here
okay too
so this is fine i would
you know maybe add a couple more books
kind of tidy up these shelves a little bit
maybe use some pretty baskets
but again if it’s something that you can use
you want to show off what is the room used for okay
um again
this one is supposed to be
get away let’s see
ocean facing living room with wood paneling
and smooth brick flooring
oh wow
so that’s brick flooring again
another interesting flooring
that’s not your typical marble
not your tile this is brick
so it’s probably you know
gonna be kind of warm too
um
might be rough on the feet if you’re walking barefoot
um so this one yes
it’s minimalist this is almost a little too
but you know i would
i like how there’s a couple of books here
there’s a chair you know
there’s an interesting light
so this is okay it’d be
i might add a plant
that’s you know
i would do that maybe do something like that
just to kind of warm it up a little bit
i love the white brown and green color um combination
the color palette that’s just
that’s just me okay
it doesn’t fit in every single house
okay
alright moving on
this one’s a little what
this is a madrid in spain
this is a little too too busy
too many things going on like this architecture piece
i don’t know if that’s a window or that art
i don’t even know let’s see um
rubber flooring okay
raw mdf and galvanized steel
okay wow
pops of color add to the pared back but eclectic feel
it is eclectic yes
it is definitely eclectic
it just doesn’t to me by looking at this picture
i can’t tell is this supposed to be a living room
cause there’s closets potentially
here you can hide things
toys or whatever um
it just seems kind of random
this stuff is just put here
is this supposed to be like a pet thing
i don’t know stool
oh it’s a stool
okay um yeah
no this
this is a little
it doesn’t have function to me right now
so as a home stager when i’m looking at a room
i need to give it a function
a name of something okay
how do you use this room what is this
you know what do you do in here okay
um this is another one
this is in australia um
again i’m not a minimalist fan
but um the lights are kind of different
they’re kind of cool
this is really cool for a seating area
i don’t know how easy it is to get in and out
cause that’s one of those
i don’t know is that a rocker
that’d be kind of cool if it was
i don’t know um
but geometric cabinetry made from asian
australian spotted gum timber
as well as brush
stainless steel and nickel fish fixtures
okay so i like how they have the different things
but just just this vase right here
i’d afraid be afraid i’d kick it over
you need a little side table or something
just to put it up maybe
it just yeah that
that just randomly right there
it doesn’t do anything um
if anything i don’t know if this is a hallway
that goes back around here
these light this light fixture seems to be blocking it
um so again it
it is just not arranged well um
to maximize the space okay
and then this one is a big open floor plan um
in the uk um
beachside home for surfer and artist couple okay
i love this this is beautiful
i love the the white
the green the copper brown kind of color in here
um definitely minimalist
so here you can see the excess is a little
couple of books and a little side table
white furniture white flooring
but they add the green here
so they kind of by using color
they divide the space visually
even though it’s all open
okay um
and here they have a loft
looks like a like an office space
maybe a bedroom up here there’s a bathroom through here
so it is defined by the areas
this is this is great
i love to have plants in here
you know so just by color
you divide up the space and give it the function
you can say okay
this is the dining room this is the kitchen area
this is the living room just by circling it around
and this is one of the things i talk about
in my home staging basics course
um if you go through that
and i talk about how to do this for um
open space rooms like this okay
and then this one um
well this is a fun way
this is an interesting
this must be a staircase going up
and this is just a cool rounded um
couch here kind of hidden underneath
it’s just different
but it has some eucalyptus and some pot
you know a nice round table
and so this is minimal this is perfectly fine
this is yes
it’s all white but it has a little bit of color
has some texture um
it has some architectural features in here
it this is perfectly fine as a staged room
so those are just my input on these um
living rooms for example
on if i would stage them
if i would leave them the way they are
or if i would add something more
okay so
hopefully
this answered some of your minimalist questions
apples and peanut butter i’d love to know if it didn’t
um and maybe some of you were kind of worried
well maybe i’m overdoing it
maybe i’m don’t
you know did i take away too much stuff
does it look too empty now
yeah you don’t want that soulless look
i know some of you are thinking well
you’re just ripping out the soul of the heart
of the home no
no no
i’m not trying to do that
i promise you so if you like this episode
i would love for you to like comment
share it with your friends
um i’d love to hear from you
if you do have other questions
that way i can answer them in another future video
alright we’ll talk to you later
hope you have a great week bye