Should you stress over staging your kid’s bedroom?

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Hey. My name is Kasha, and in this show, we talk about home staging for home sellers. If you are getting ready to sell your house soon, you are in the right place. We cover home staging tips, strategies to help make it easier on you, and ways to influence buyers. So roll up your sleeves, get a notebook and pen handy.

Yes. I do things the old fashioned way, and let’s get your house ready to sell. Hey there, home sellers. Welcome back to the Creative Home Staging Show. Today, we are talking about whether you should stress out about staging your kids’ bedrooms and how much you should really worry about that.

But before we get into that, I really wanna get you up to speed on some staging, statistics and home seller and home buyer profile statistics that I found that I’m gonna share the link with you in the show notes. So if you’re interested in looking those up, you can definitely take a look. But before we get into should you stress over it, let’s go over some statistics. And I know statistics can be kinda boring, but they’re really kind of important to help set the stage as to what you should really worry about. So let’s start off with statistics and facts.

So my sources are the National Association of Realtors. They have, profiles that they’ve written up every year. I I’m looking at the 2023, profiles for home state home buyers and home sellers, and there’s a home staging one too. So with times that are changing, things are different, people are moving back into their homes or staying in them, things Things are changing us a little bit. So I wanna make sure that you are aware of some of these things.

So starting off with the profile of home staging. Okay? Staging in the living room was found to be the most important for buyers, followed by staging the primary bedroom or master bedroom and staging the kitchen. Alright? And another thing that I found very interesting that I did not realize had increased or changed was that according to the profile of home buyers and sellers, 70% of recent buyers did not have a child under the age of 18 in their home.

70%. 70. I’m like, what? And that is the highest share recorded. Back in 1985, 42% of households did not have a child under the age of 18.

Wow. Yeah. So 70% do not have a child under the age of 18, those that were selling their houses. Okay? So this is interesting to hear because that kinda changes what things we look at.

Right? And when it comes to staging certain rooms, we know this helps us know which ones to focus on. And as you noticed, as you heard, the kids’ bedroom is not one of the top 3, top 4 rooms to stage. Right? So the most common rooms from the profile of home staging said that the living room, was 91% staged, the kitchen was at 81%, 81% would stage the primary bedroom, and the dining room at 69%.

So those are the 4 most important rooms that you need to stress over and worry about. Okay? Notice it didn’t say kids bedroom or spare bedrooms. They’re lower on the list. Those are not the ones that you need to focus on, you know, as much.

So what are we gonna focus on? Number 2. Those are the 4 most important rooms. Right? The living room, kitchen, master bedroom, and dining room.

Those are the 4. Okay? Now I do have a masterclass coming up for my Black Friday deals, which is the first time I’m doing our Black Friday sales. I’m actually doing 5 deals on 5 days. And this masterclass, go we go through how to stage those rooms.

So it’s a 2 hour live class that I will send you the link that you can take a look at if you’re interested in selling your house soon. Basically, we’re gonna go through those 4 rooms, and I’m gonna give you furniture layouts. I have diagrams. It’s a PDF file that you get, and you get to download and use it towards your home. There’s a PDF file on the 10 best ways to, arrange the furniture in the bedroom.

The living room has 26 different layouts based on the different shapes and sizes of your living room. And then putting putting the finishing touches using accessories like artwork, tchotchkes. What kind of tchotchkes are we talking about? Right? And you get a staging checklist and colors.

There’s a lot. There’s a lot that you get in this Black Friday deal. So you can also just get the digital products. If you don’t wanna sit through the class and you just want the digital products, the DIY toolkit, if you will, you’ll see that in there as well, my Black Friday deals. So I’m really excited.

I’ve never sold them this way before, so you can look at the links. And it’s probably gonna be the only time I’m gonna do this, basically, to sell them that way. Okay? So if that’s something you’re interested in, you know, how to stage those 4 rooms, take a look at that those Black Friday deals. Okay.

The kids’ bedroom still matters. I’m not saying to neglect them. Okay? If you have a 3 bedroom house, there should be at least 2 bedrooms with beds in it. Okay?

I know. Maybe the kids have moved out. Maybe they’re you know, have outgrown it. They moved on to college. They have their own place.

Fantastic. Right? But I did find it interesting that according to the profile of sellers, the typical age of a seller is 60 years old. Now wow. 60.

That’s typical. And that hasn’t changed because at that point, they’re going through and probably downsizing at that point. Right? Maybe they’re moving closer to be the family. Right?

So maybe it’s a multigeneral generation home. As a military veteran, we sold our houses every 2 or 3 years since I was, like, 30. Okay? And so that’s not a typical age bracket. I get it.

But I am getting closer now to that 60 year old age now, and we don’t move as often unless it’s for a job. Right? And come to think of it, most of my staging clients are in the 50 to 60 year old range as well because they no longer have kids at home or they’re, you know, empty nesters or the kids just moved out and they’re like, why do I need all this space? I don’t. You know?

So we still need to make an effort in the bedroom with clutter being the biggest thing to work on. Alright? You may have left things the way they were when the kids moved out, but it’s time to help your kids take their stuff with them. Right? They’ve probably left their memorabilia.

Maybe they’ve left they took the important things to them, but they probably left a whole bunch of stuff. Or maybe you said, oh, well, just leave it and just come back for it whenever you want. Well, now it’s time for you to sell your house. Yeah. It’s time for those kids to come get their stuff.

Yeah. Give them a deadline. Okay? This is how you can help them help yourself. Alright?

Give them a deadline to pick up their stuff, or let them know that the stuff will be donated and put on a truck on a certain day. It’s the easiest way to do that because that’ll get them moving. Now I know some kids may have moved out of state. You know? Maybe they, you know, just can’t have the space.

Well, then then have them get a storage unit if they need to to put it in there and have them pay for it. You’re not moving their stuff for them. You are not the one responsible for their stuff, so give them a deadline. This is tough love. I know.

You’re probably thinking, oh gosh. I can’t. It’s my child. But it’s your things. You are probably downsizing as well, and you’re probably not gonna have all the space for their stuff as well.

Okay? According to the National Association Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, senior related housing increased this year, that was 2023 when this was done, to 19% from 7% the previous year for the buyers who are over 60. Right? So they used to just stay in their house. Now they’re actually going to senior related housing, whether it’s a smaller community, maybe it’s a home, maybe because they need extra medical care, that kind of a thing.

So, and of those set with 17% of buyers typically purchasing condos and 12% purchasing a townhouse or a row house. So, again, they’re downsizing. So your kids’ stuff really needs to go. All that clutter, all their memorabilia, their trophies, their treasure box of pictures, Yeah. Those need to go to your kids if they want them, or you just donate it, or it goes in the trash.

Help them help yourself. Okay? So with those stats in mind, help yourself by minimizing those items to in your kid’s bedroom to just the furniture. Right? All their personal items like their clothes.

Did they leave clothes in their closet? Mine, my college age daughter? Yeah, she did. Memory boxes, pictures, souvenirs, those need to go to your kids in their new place. Basically, you wanna show that a twin or a full size bed, whatever size bed is in there does fit in that bedroom and can be used because the younger generation there will be looking for bedrooms and make sure that, yeah, a bed does fit in here.

Right? And, basically, you show the the put the bed in there, get some nice bedding, and not overcrowd it with other furniture. And please don’t use that bedroom as a storage room for just stuff to just collect. Because number 1, if you are downsizing, you should just be getting rid of it anyway. You should be donating it, selling it, have an estate sale, something, yard sale.

Just start getting rid of it because you don’t need it. You can’t take it with you anyway. Right? Okay. So like I said, my college daughter, she is in college.

She has an apartment. Now I know some kids are gonna be in dorms for a while. They can’t store all their things. That’s fine. Right?

But my college age daughter, she does have an apartment that she shares with some other girls. She did leave some personal things in her room, but it’s not much. She has done a great job of cleaning things out, and taking the things that are precious to her, but what she’s left behind are things that could fit in 1 or 2 boxes, not 10 or 15 or maybe more depending how much stuff they have. Right? So that way, you don’t have to worry about it.

Let them worry about it. Okay? So if you do need some staging help, I do offer a free guide on how to start staging your house now. I share 10 staging tips. I share how to influence buyers and the best home improvements you can do to sell your house quickly, and I’ll leave that hope that link in the show notes.

It’s called how to stage your house now starting now. So get yourself that free guide if you’re interested in doing that. Okay? Alright. Let’s move on to the moving tip of the week.

This is my favorite new segment. I really love this because you’re moving. Right? So one of my biggest tips that I use basically every time that I sell my house, which is every couple of years, is that I hire a cleaning crew to get the house cleaned before an open house so that, basically, once they clean it, you can just keep up with it afterwards. Like, they’ll do the hard scrubbing of the the showers and the bathroom and, you know, maybe what you weren’t so diligent in cleaning that kitchen, the stove, and things like that.

Right? They even vacuumed my furniture, which I was like, wait. What? Wow. That looks so good.

And dusted the cobwebs that I kinda get to sometimes. You don’t always get them, but, man, that crew, when they come in, there’s, like, 3 or 4 ladies when they come in, they just go. And I’m like, wow. This is amazing. Then you just keep up with the minimal part of it.

Right? So it’s a great baseline to clean the whole house, and then I can easily keep up with it, you know, during the showings. Right? Now if you already have a cleaning crew that comes in regularly, that’s fantastic. I don’t.

I I personally do not. I I do the cleaning in my house along with the kids. They have responsible for their bathroom, but I know sometimes I’ll have to go into their bathroom and, you know, clean behind them because they didn’t get into the nitty gritty that they needed to. Right? So hiring a cleaning crew is my moving tip of the week.

I have these kinds of moving tips and more in my moving checklist. If you’re interested, It’s in my Etsy shop called Willowbrook printable. Again, I’ll leave the link in the show notes below. So whether you’re moving to another city, another state, or international move, you can find these editable and printable checklists to help you move out and get your going, to get you moving to the next place so that you can move on and enjoy your next home. Alright.

So I’ve shared some statistics and facts on home seller profiles, kind of things that are changing just a little bit, which rooms to focus on and help you move out while minimizing what you take with you to your next home. So I hope you’ve learned a little bit of something of what to focus your efforts on, where to spend your money on, the rooms that actually do matter to buyers, right, so that you can sell your house and move into your next one. Alright. I hope you guys learn and have a fantastic week, and I will talk to you later. Have a great week.

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