how to stage your home to sell - tips you haven't heard already

Post originally written in 2021; updated in July of 2026.

If you're preparing to sell your home, you're probably wondering whether staging is actually worth it.

The short answer? Yes. For sure.

But the typical advice isn't that compelling. "Declutter and bake cookies" is the common Realtor advice. And it has it's place.

But staging isn't just about making your home look expensive. It's about helping buyers emotionally connect with the space, be able to imagine themselves living there, and ultimately make an offer (and a strong one).

After designing hundreds of homes, we've learned that the biggest improvements aren't always the most expensive. Many of them are free. We're going to share the ones that actually make a difference.

We sold our last house smack in the middle of COVID. It was back in August of 2020, and if you’ll remember, everything was still pretty much locked down. The housing market was starting to heat up a bit, but people were still very leery to leave their houses and attend an open house. We hosted 2 open houses after we listed, and well over 100 people came through our house. Our realtor was shocked at that amount. We received multiple offers and within just 6 weeks we went from listing to closing to moved out (and our house ultimately wound up on House Hunters!).

We lived in a desirable neighborhood for sure, but believe me when I tell you – the huge turnout and offers had A LOT to do with the staging.

When that house was featured on HGTV’s House Hunters, it was filmed totally empty without any of our stuff in it. And I could feel America collectively scratching their heads as to why they picked our house instead of the other 2 on the show. The answer?! The buyers saw it when it was staged, and they could imagine their life there.

The facts are there. Staging helps your home sell faster and for more money. Hiring a stager is for sure the easiest way to do this, but I’m going to share some tips that you can absolutely do yourself (like we did).

There are the tips we all know – like be sure to touch up paint, deep clean, spruce up your flower beds, etc. - so I'm not going to go through all of those here. Instead, I’ve got some sneaky ones you may never have heard of and some controversial ones too. Let’s dive in!

NON-CONTROVERSIAL ADVICE

Here are some items that most Realtors will agree with me on.

Declutter. We do need to start with the obvious one. I don’t mean shove things into closets and under beds to make it look nice. And I don’t mean stuffing them into your garage or a storage unit (there’s a time and a place for a storage unit, but it’s not to store 19 boxes of kid's toys and clothes you don’t fit in).

I mean, don’t move all your crap to another house if it isn’t serving you now. This helps you not only with moving but with selling. We all slowly accumulate stuff we don’t need. The very first thing you should do is go through your house with a trash bag, recycle bag, and a donate bag and be ruthless. If a buyer opens your closet doors, drawers, and looks under your bed and there is stuff everywhere, they are going to subconsciously understand that this house lacks storage, and it’s too small for them. BAD NEWS. You want them to open a cabinet and see lots and lots of space.

Remove some furniture. It’s so important for a house to feel open and airy. If you’ve over-collected chairs or bookcases, benches and stools, or other odds and ends furniture, get some of it out of there. This is the point where it may be worth getting a storage unit. Potential buyers need to be able to effortlessly walk through your space without bumping into things. You and your family might be used to turning sideways to squeeze between the barstools and the breakfast table, but other people will immediately think the house is too small.

It needs to be easy breezy to move through. Think spacious.

Tell a story. Help people imagine their lives here and what each room could be used for. People are visual, and they aren’t necessarily going to make the leap on how to fill a large room.

It’s a HUGE mistake I see all the time, especially in awkward-sized rooms. You’ll see in listing photos a big space with one sofa. The average home buyer isn’t a space planner and won’t immediately be able to reason where other chairs could go, how their coffee table would fit, etc.

Or if you have 3 living areas (like our last house did) you need to show people how each space could be used. We had one set up as our office and formal living, one as a family room, and one as a playroom. The buyers for our house didn’t have kids yet, but they did have dogs, so they could imagine how they could use that space in the future (playroom) and how they could use it now (pet area).

If it had just been empty or filled with sofas, they may not have understood how to use that space, decided that it’s wasted space, and then moved on.

Think “Hotel beds.” You know that feeling when you open the door to a hotel room, and there’s a big fluffy bed waiting for you? It makes you go ahhhhhhhh and your blood pressure drops a little bit?

That is exactly the feeling you want buyers to have. White bedding is always a winner, and a few (not a thousand) curated throw pillows to make it look finished without being fussy.

Paint. Guys, I’m just going to say this once. If you have crazy-colored rooms, tone them down.

No, everything doesn’t have to be white or beige, but it does need to be more universally appealing.

Buyers notoriously have horrible imaginations and we have seen more people than you could ever believe not buy houses because they hated the paint color.

Colors that tend to do well are natural, subdued hues. Blues and greens are pretty universally appealing and non-offensive.

If your kid's bedroom is purple or teal or maroon, you need to paint it. Bite the bullet.

If you're struggling, check out this post on our favorite white paints. They're all winners.

Highlight outdoor spaces. Outdoor living has always been a thing, but dang, since COVID having an outdoor space is a game-changer. Open the umbrella, turn on string lights, set the outdoor dining table, and put some fresh pillows on your seating.

Help buyers imagine themselves sipping on a cocktail in the backyard. In our House Hunters episode, they talked about what it would be like to sit outside and relax by the pool with a drink. It worked.

CONTROVERSIAL ADVICE

Get ready, because I’m going to rock the boat a little bit here. Here are some things that some Realtors would disagree with, but that others have confirmed for me (along with our experiences in several home sales for us and for our Design clients):

Don’t remove rugs. For some reason, this has become a thing, but people, for the love, do not remove your rugs.

If you have a tiny postage-stamp-sized one near a door or something, sure. But in no way should you take larger rugs out of a room. They help define the space and tell a story as we talked about above for how that room will be used.

If your rug is too small for your space, dirty and worn, or wildly colorful and distracting, I suppose you should take it out. But honestly, if it meets those criteria it shouldn’t be in your life anyway.

Leave out some family photos. I KNOW. It’s all we hear all the time – take down your family photos! Buyers need to picture THEIR family in the house and not YOURS.

Guys, people in general might be a little dumb, but I think a buyer can imagine that if they see a picture frame with your cute baby in it they can imagine that frame with their own baby.

If you have a giant gallery wall of oversized wrapped canvases of your family over your sofa, for sure take that business down. Your child's face at 2 feet wide is going to be a distraction.

But a 5x7 photo here or there isn’t going to turn off a buyer. They will just imagine showcasing their memories here.

Don’t clear off your counters (totally). Pare down the knick-knacks for sure, but don’t remove them entirely.

A kitchen looks better with a bowl of fruit or a cutting board on it.

People understand that in a bathroom there should be soap to wash your hands.

A bedroom looks inviting if there’s a stack of books on the nightstands.

Be selective about what you leave out. If a soap bottle is out on the counter, it should be a pretty glass one and not a neon green Walmart Great Value bottle. Aim to reduce what’s on your surfaces by 50% or more, but don’t leave them totally empty.

We want just enough things so that folks can imagine how their life fits into this house.

PLANTS. Yes, it’s in all caps because it’s important. Plants literally breathe life into your space. They soften hard edges. They provide a pop of neutral color. And subconsciously they say to a buyer “look, I care for these houseplants and they are alive, just like I cared for this house really well.”

If you have a black thumb, faux plants can do the job as well. There’s just something about some lovely greenery that contributes to that overall feeling of ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s ingrained in our souls.

Music. We have a Sonos system, and I will be the first to admit that I’m not totally tech-savvy, but I figured out how to play music through Sonos while showings and open houses were happening. Game changer.

You want to keep the music selection really universally appealing, with songs not too recognizable, but not elevator music, and keep the volume low. It becomes like a movie soundtrack for your house. Our Realtor commented that she (and many others) really enjoyed it during the showings.

My go-to is a Pandora station based on the band A Fine Frenzy. They aren’t wildly popular, but also not unpopular, so you might only recognize a song or two, but it will also loop in music from other artists. It’s a winner.

Scent. I wrote a whole blog post on the best scents to diffuse when selling your house because scents are so important. Diffusing fresh, inviting scents in your home contributes to that overall feeling of cleanliness and happiness.

Smells have a huge impact on how we perceive space. Scent is the strongest sense tied to memory, so literally this can neurologicaly create a more favorable memory of your home, so take advantage of that!

Just like with music, you want scents that are universally appealing, not overpowering, semi-recognizable, but mostly just in the background. Check out that post for all of the diffuser blend recipes. The white tea + sage + eucalyptus has become my favorite and is based on the Westin Hotel scent.

Call in a ringer. Perhaps the most controversial of all the tips! I had never heard of the tradition of St. Joseph in selling a house until we literally unearthed a St. Joseph figure when planting flowers in the flowerbed of our second home. I had no idea what this was all about until my Catholic husband and friends filled me in. St. Joseph (aka Jesus’ earth-dad) is the patron saint of Fathers, Workers, and apparently real estate.

The tradition is to bury him upside down in your home when you are trying to sell a house, with bonus points of sending up prayers asking for St. Joseph’s help in the sale of your home. Here’s a link to a Real Estate group that gives examples of what those prayers might look like.

So back to my St. Joseph statue. We actually uncovered 2 of them in our flower bed. We brought one inside and left the other buried upside down in the flowerbed. When it came time to sell, we walked through the house with the statue and offered up prayers that the Lord would send us the right buyers who would love this house like we did and be blessed by it as well as asking for a smooth, swift sale. Then we placed the statue on our fireplace mantle and hoped for the best. The house sold in less than 2 weeks.

I know that’s hardly a guarantee, but if nothing else it definitely eased my stress a bit on selling calling on a ringer to help us out and offloading the stress to a Saint! Now that we've sold, St. Joseph lives in one of our houseplants full time.

We’d love to hear from you if you have used any of these tips, or if you try them and any work for you, or if you have others to share!

FAQs

What are the key benefits of staging your home to sell?

Very simple. Staged homes typically sell faster and for more money. Why? Because people don’t just want to buy a house. They are buying a future. They have aspirations of how they will live in a space and enjoy it. By staging your home in an appealing way, you’re making it easier for them to insert themselves into that story in your house.

An unstaged house that is cluttered, crowded, or otherwise unappealing makes a buyer have to work harder. You want to remove as much friction as possible. Let it be easy for them to say “yes” seeing themselves in this home.

How to I stage to sell for top dollar?

Think fewer things. Luxury is not more stuff, it’s the right stuff, placed well. Remove ticky tacky small objects (but not all décor). Focus on fewer, larger décor items. Every object helps to tell a story. A large cutting board in the kitchen. A large flower arrangement on your kitchen island. A large plant on your coffee table.

It is psychological. Clutter tells the brain “there’s too much going on here.” It also leaves an impression that if they couldn’t bother cleaning up to sell this house, what other home maintenance have they been ignoring.

Less is more.

What are the top tips to stage your home to sell?

Declutter. Remove some furniture to create breathing room. Make your beds look luxurious and inviting, like a hotel. Repaint in neutral appealing colors. Highlight special features like outdoor spaces.

Don’t remove your rugs; they help define your spaces and help buyers imagine how rooms can be used. Leave some small family photos out to help sell the home as a great place to raise a family. Don’t totally clear off counters and horizontal surfaces; focus on fewer, larger décor items that tell a story of how the space will be used.

Play soft music at your showings, diffuse luxury scents through the house, and when in doubt, add a statue of St. Joseph. Couldn’t hurt.

What should I not waste money on when selling?

Huge remodels. Don’t spend $100K to remodel your kitchen or bathrooms. Smaller updates – changing a tile, countertops, or updating lighting fixtures and fans, can go a long way to updating a home and making it more current and appealing. But save the big dollars for your next house.