After 3 kids, several cats, a few dogs and 20 years of living in the same house, it looked the worse for wear. Our decor? Let's just say it was peanut butter and jelly, with a few sharpie drawings on our tables and lamps (a 3 year old, left alone for only a few seconds, I swear) and lots of nicks and dings on the woodwork, fingerprints on the walls and LOTS of clutter. And more clutter.
       I kept trying to declutter but it seemed like the more I threw out, the more things expanded to fill in all the empty spaces. It was daunting, to say the least, and it was eating my time. But something had to be done. Things were getting out of control. As many as three or four people could enter a room and simply...vanish, camouflaged by all the stuff around them. If I yelled for one of my kids and went to the entrance to a room, I wouldn't see them unless they moved, coughed, sneezed...but if they held still, they were invisible.
       That is when I hired a home staging expert (although I liked to think of her as a "Marriage counselor for Homes and the Families that live in Them"). She came in and started noticing all the positive elements of our home, looking beyond the clutter to the bones of the home. "Oh, look!" she'd say and she actually sounded optimistic. "Look at the light in THIS room!" she'd enthuse, although I'd wonder what light she could possibly see in the murk of the books piled to the ceiling.
     She gave us a game plan...and that's where Ebay comes into the picture.
FIRST STEP: We had our home appraised so we'd have a starting value BEFORE we did the staging. We had 3 different appraiser come in and give us our home value.
 Then we gathered what we could and sold like crazy on Ebay so we could afford to rent a POD ( you know, one of those things that look like U-hauls, only without the engine attached). It came to live in our driveway. I hoped it wouldn't be a permanent resident. So did our neighbors. Some even left notes in our mailbox about that, especially after a month or two. But I digress.....

SECOND STEP:. Declutter.  Luckily, our home stager, patient soul that she was, understood this would be hard for us ---- so she broke it into steps. We did one room at a time. As we moved things out to the POD, I would list many of them on Ebay, so that we'd have MORE room to put things in the POD as we went to the next room. Funny thing - half the stuff that went out never came back in our home. I still don't miss it. Our Ebay profits paid yet again  for the next part of the process.

 THIRD STEP: Paint and LOTS of it. We chose one color for our bedroom and bathroom walls (giving it a united, master suite feeling) and another color for the living room and dining room. Ancient, outdated wallpaper was stripped off and new, fresh paint replaced it. The backs of some built-in bookcases went from white to a slightly deeper shade of the wall color, making the objects in them "pop".

FOURTH STEP - Yes, Ebay again. -  We bought some updated accessories from Ebay, including paintings, mirrors, candles and some accent pieces like leather books (always a nice touch and lovely to read as well).  She gave us suggestions. I went on a shopping spree (I LOVED this part). We also got some inexpensive but stylish window treatments that for the living room and dining room. We left "breathing space" on our shelves so you could actually see the few items we decided to display and our stager arranged them artfully.

FIFTH STEP -  Get a smaller dining room table in our formal dining room, an area that we don't use that much anyway, since we tend to gather and eat in the kitchen. The smaller table made the dining room look huge, a major plus for home buyers.

SIXTH STEP - She rearranged the furnture and placed the accessories to highlight the major features of each room. In the living room, that meant the fireplace became the focal point. In the bedroom, a large window with a nice view became crucial.

SEVENTH STEP -  Changed out the outdated hall ceiling fixture. Made sure ALL our lighting was optimal.  What wasn't in style anymore went on (you guessed it ) - Ebay.

EIGHTH STEP - Repaint the bathrooms, make sure they were so clean they sparkled and get some new towels and a few (emphasis on FEW) decorative guest towels and some soaps. Replace the bath mats. Pup up a nice picture on the wall.I bought the picture on Ebay, a one of a kind hand-painted plaque featuring birds in midflight and it is the focal point of the bathroom.

NINTH STEP (hang in there, we're on the home stretch here): Add some plants to the living room and bedroom. Plants add a lovely, homey touch. Same with candles. And did I mention antique or vintage books? You can find some great ones on Ebay, often at bargain prices.

TENTH STEP - Have a home inspection and get our home reappraised. It was appraised for......well, a lot more (see actual numbers below). The home appraiser even asked us when we planned to sell. She wanted our real estate agent to call her! We took that as a very good sign (that and the fact we were no longer living with the house painters, who seemed liked they'd been around forever).

Now, you must be wondering; So, how much did you sell your house for?  If you could see my face,  you'd be seeing a sheepish grin because...well, once we'd gotten through the whole home staging process we....fell in love with our home again, proving that love CAN bloom again, even after a 20 year hiatus. . It is a joy to live here now. But if we  do decide to sell, you'll hear it here first!

But here are the dollar and cents figures we DO have:
Total spent - $6K (rounded off)
Appraised value - 99K higher than before we did the home staging.
Value- Joy, less stress, rooms we love to be in. Lots more free time.