Archive for home staging

The guest-worthy & stress-free home

Do you enjoy house guests? Or avoid them?

Is your home guest-worthy?

Does the thought of having people over cause a small panic attack?

In New Mexico the holidays start with the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October! Many of us host visitors during that time. Some of us have friends and family who visit during the summertime, or during the winter holidays.

Even if no one’s spending the night, we might host parties and other celebrations throughout the year.

Or….we avoid company altogether because we are embarrassed about our clutter and our imperfect homes.

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3 Steps to Falling in Love with Your Home Office

Home Office AFTER

How does your home office make you feel? If you have the sort of business where you have clients in, are you embarrassed to let them see it? One of my organizing and redesign clients said, about her cluttered, drab room, “I feel like I’m going to prison every morning.” Oh no, that’s terrible! Depending on how you use it, you might be spending more time in your home office than you do sleeping in your bedroom! (Which, by the way, is the other most neglected room in the house for décor, but that’s another story.)

So, what can you do? Here are 3 steps to falling in love with your home office:

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How to Live and Work by Design, not by Default

Living and working BY DEFAULT means choosing the easiest path, either by unconsciously resorting to bad habits, or by maintaining the status quo. Sometimes we seek to avoid the conflict that can come with making a change. Sometimes we feel we have no choice in the matter. But I’m with Henry Ford, who said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.”

Those who live and work BY DESIGN notice when things aren’t going well, and make adjustments accordingly. They live more calmly, purposefully, and mindfully.

Here are some examples: (more…)

Occupied Staging and De-Cluttering for Home Sellers

This is the companion article to The Occupied Staging Clutter Flow Chart. It answers these questions: What is “Occupied Staging Clutter”? Why can’t I part with my clutter? What should I do with my clutter? What if, despite my best intentions, I am still living with clutter? (more…)

Who’s Afraid of Their Storage Unit?

Have you seen A&E’s Storage Wars? This cable TV show features abandoned storage units being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The bidders are essentially gambling on whether or not the contents will be worth more than they paid for them. Usually they’re full of crap. Sometimes there is a treasure inside. Either way, I figure the owner has lost track of the contents. Why pay to store crap? Why not retrieve your treasures before abandoning the unit? I can only imagine the variety of possible answers and, in some cases, I’m sure, the unit owner has died and failed to leave behind a map to the buried storage unit treasure.

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Home Staging to Stay, Not to Sell

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Living Room AFTER: We removed the piano and wall unit, and rearranged furniture and artwork. Now it’s a great space for entertaining!

 

Why wait until you are moving to stage your home? When a house is on the market, the seller usually goes to great lengths to make it as attractive and as comfortable as possible…for the next owner, that is.

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