How to Stage Your Home For Free (By Shopping The Rooms You Already Have)

I did an online consult in a client’s home
and
while the living room was doing all the heavy lifting
the guest bedroom was completely empty
the fix took 20 minutes and zero dollars
today I’m gonna show you
exactly how to spot the wrong pieces in your room
and where to move them
hey there
my name is Kasha Mcdaniel
and I’m an occupied home staging specialist
welcome to the Creative Home Staging Show
where I talk about home staging
tips for your home while you’re living in it
so when it comes to home staging
most home sellers believe that staging equals shopping
and that you have to buy all new things
and that’s not necessarily true
professional home stagers like me
when they walk into the home
they normally look around the home
and see what is in the wrong place
and not necessarily what’s missing
so this is a skill that you can use right now
without spending a dime just looking around your home
and reshuffling things around in your home
so when it comes to looking around your home
you may have lived with a piece for several years
you may have always had this credenza in this spot
or this accent chair in this spot
that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where it should go
when you’re staging your house
it may be work
it may work actually better in a different room
and that all ties into what I call seller’s blindness
because you’ve seen seen it
lived with it for so many years
you’re just accustomed for it to be in the same spot
every time
so before you go shopping
you may already have the things you need in your home
to stage your house
so
let’s go through a system that you could probably use
and I’ll show you some examples
in some of these pictures that I have
so in this one room that was a living room
the furniture was just too large
and took up too much space
it was actually kind of dark in here
and they had these accent chairs in another room
these accent chairs actually gave a little pop of color
instead of giving it the dark Moody
you know
caveman room kind of look that we’ve gotten here
so what you can do is that there either
sometimes an accent chair
maybe too many in this case
we brought those two out we put in a beige colored um
couch that we had
and replaced it instead with those two
with the big couch along with the two green chairs
and give it a pop of color instead of just a dark room
another example would be another accent chair
maybe you have an accent chair in a master bedroom
maybe you have it in the corner
and if you’ve gone through my Basics home Staging
Basics course online course
I have a minimum actually
a maximum
amount of furniture that you should have in each room
and an accent chair in a master bedroom
is not one of those things
that really should be in there
whether it’s in a master bedroom or in a kid’s bedroom
that accent chair is actually just too much
but what it could be used for is
maybe it fits better in the living room
or maybe it’s a reading nook
in a loft area or a wider hallway
maybe you have kind of
like a bump out or something like that
maybe you’ve kind of always wondered well
this would be a great reading nook
and that’s kind of the lifestyle
that buyers are looking for
and the story
they’re trying to imagine themselves living in a home
going oh
this is a really great reading nook
or maybe this is a great place by this window
have a chair right here where I can sit by and
in the morning and have my morning coffee
that’s kind of the story that we’re trying to show
so that accent chair
that’s really not doing anything in the bedroom
would look fantastic in this
maybe little corner nook over by a window
in this bump out
so what to look for is maybe
is the seating area in your home telling a story
okay what story is it telling
right maybe it’s a great spot for a game area
or a homework area all of those things are stories
that your furniture can tell
when you’re staging your home
another examples are lamps and lighting
if you take a look at your bedside light lighting
the lamps may be too small for the bedside table
maybe they’re just kind of little
dinky little things
so you probably need to replace it with some big ones
it is okay to swap out your lamps
that maybe you had in the living room thinking oh
these would look better
and maybe they need to go in the master bedroom
or maybe it’s a great console table light
maybe by the entryway
or maybe that reading Nook that you created
maybe that goes over there
see so it’s not
it’s easy things to swap out
you probably have it you just need to
maybe
move things around to different rooms in your house
side tables are another great example of where
maybe you have too many side tables
um sometimes in a
in a living room you may have lots of tables
lots of little chairs
there’s just too much in that room
spread those things out
maybe you need to have that little side table
with that reading nook to put the lamp on right
you see where I’m going with this
we took a chair from the bedroom
we took a extra side table in the living room
and now we have a lamp from another room
and now we put it all together
and made this cozy little nook
reading area or your coffee breakfast area
whatever it may be
that’s something that you just reused
and cost zero dollars
and another example I have for you
it could be artwork or mirrors
maybe they’re just kind of hanging in the hallways
just kind of randomly put there
well if you’ve done some of the homework already
if you’ve downloaded my free guide
the how to start staging your house now guide
in there I talk about
one of my staging tips
is to take down your family photos
yeah well
now if you take down all the family photos
now you’re looking at an empty wall going
well it was filled with all this stuff
well now it looks so empty
well walk around your house right now and see well
do I have extra artwork
or extra mirrors someplace that are hanging
that kind of make no sense now
hanging right there
maybe move that mirror into the living room
to go over the fireplace or
maybe that painting would look better over the bed
in the primary bedroom take a look at that and see
maybe those are some simple things that you can do
and move right now without costing you a penny
so now that after giving you some of these examples
I want you to get up pause this video
and take a look around your house right now
what room are you sitting in right now
so if I have you
maybe you’re sitting in your office or your living room
watching this take a look around and go okay
well
Kasha just said I need to take down the family photos
well I just see one
two three
four big family photos that I need to take down
okay do I need to replace them with anything
okay I can yep
now that I’ve taken down these photos
where what do I put in its place
do I have to put something in its place or
if you’re looking in your living room
are there extra side tables
technically
there should be a couch and maybe a chair or two
depending on the size of your living room
and there shouldn’t be any more than two side tables
if you have extra little tables in there
start taking them out
moving them out to other rooms that might need it
maybe that side table could be used as a nightstand
that you didn’t have necessarily
maybe in a kid’s bedroom and now look
you have a nightstand that you can use for them to
kind of finish the picture
see what I mean in my home staging basics
I do have a checklist
where I talk about the furniture that you should have
in each and every single room
and it’s a simple one where
it’s an Excel spreadsheet
you just go in there actually
maybe Google Sheets is what I have it as um
I’m dating myself I know
but it tells you exactly well
if you have this kind of bedroom
then it should have these
you know pieces of furniture in it
these kinds of accessories
those types of things so it’s a nice checklist to go
yes yes yes
oh well
I have all this extra stuff
well guess what
that means that extra stuff should be taken out
so take a look around
and see which room has too much furniture
which one feels kind of sparse
maybe it doesn’t have very much at all
um what’s sitting in a corner doing nothing
is it not adding to it I’ve had one
where the homeowner
had a little bit too much stuff in there
and it really didn’t do anything
it didn’t add anything to it
it just kind of cluttered the room
so take a look at that if it’s not functioning
if it’s not necessary um
let me show you this one room
this picture that I have of this living room
where this is before as you can see
the couch is blocking the entryway
I’ve used this in a different video
but what I wanna show you is
I actually moved that couch ninety degrees
moved things around
and then took out the TV that was sitting there
in that corner there on that barrel
um yeah
that like
you don’t need to have a TV in a living room
if TV can be watched in a different room
room like maybe a bonus room
a family room right
it doesn’t have to be in the living room
we’re all just used to that
but here’s one tip within the living room
if you do have a TV in there
just be aware that when you take a picture of it
it is a big black box on the wall or against the wall
and it doesn’t do anything
it doesn’t add anything it’s just a big black box
go ahead take a picture right now
of your living room with your TV in it
I want you to turn off the TV
by the way
and then take a picture and then come back to me here
but no seriously
take a look and see it doesn’t do anything to it
if it doesn’t add anything to it
remove it
so if you’re not sure of some of the rules
that’s okay I got you
I got you covered um
I like I said
I do have the um
Home Staging Basics course
where I talk through
go through all of the rooms in your house
and tell you exactly what needs to happen
there are pre recorded videos along with checklists and
um
accessories guide that you get with this whole course
um you also get the opportunity to ask me questions
after the course if you’re wondering
well Kasha
do I really need to move that TV out of the living room
yeah maybe you do
maybe you don’t cause some of you may be going in shock
and having a heart attack going
she took out the TV but
but I need that I know
I know I’m just
I’m just giving you a hard time okay
so I’m just trying to show you what it is that I see
because again
with seller’s blindness that I’ve mentioned before
you don’t see it anymore cause it’s always been there
the furniture that came in with the movers
they just happened to put it there and they go
oh well
I guess that’ll work
it doesn’t always necessarily means
that’s how it works best right
so all these kinds of rules and different things
I’ve talked about furniture layouts
and colors and accessories and things like that
I got that all covered in my home staging basics course
I got the skinny version of it
with the five room master class
if you wanna do that or if you wanna just say Kasha
just tell me what to do let’s do an online consultation
we’ll work through your house and go room by room
okay
let’s get back to that chair I talked about
the accent chairs
that chair that I mentioned
did it move it should be moved by the end of the week
right or that side table
maybe you notice extra lamps that just don’t quite go
now after I’ve talked about it
you’re like oh yeah
that’s what was bugging me
uh huh
yep so you’re closer than you think
you just gotta move things around
shuffle them around
so tell me in the comments
which is
what is one of the pieces that you just realized
oh I should move that
leave that in the comments below okay
I’d love to know and if you like this video
please like
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so that you can get more home staging tips
just like this to help you sell your house
I hope you guys have a fantastic week
and we’ll talk to you later bye