your house. Now turn around and try to picture it as you did
the first time. Think about what attracted you to it; the garden, the look of it, or maybe being
able to see yourself being happy in it?
Now move inside into the kitchen, the heart of your home. I suggest you start with the countertop.
It is something that immediately catches the eye when you walk into the kitchen and once it is shining and
organized, it is something that will brighten you up each time you see it and remind you that all things are
possible. If you are like most of us, small appliances, a canister or three, and a dish drainer or kitchen
sponge have taken up permanent residence on your countertop. It is time to send them packing, at least for now.
Step 1. Clear everything off of the counter. Everything. No matter how often you use it,
take it off of the counter. This includes the salt and pepper
Step 2. Clean the counter. Not just clean, but pristine. Scrub it as if you are just moving in and
you want to make sure there is no trace of the family who used to live here. Do not take the finish
off of the counter material, but feel free to use a soft old toothbrush to get into all those nooks
and crevices that have accumulated bits and pieces of many meals.
If your countertop is tiled, get a grout cleaner and refresh the grout. Make sure you use a product
especially made for your countertop material. Granite, marble or stone requires special care, cleaners
and sealers. On laminates or other man-made surfaces, a non-abrasive cleaner should work fine. Now buff it
up with a soft cloth and a bit of polish if that is right for your countertop.
Caveat: Do not consult the toaster, can opener, canisters or whatever you took off of the
countertop. Change is difficult, even for coffeemakers. It is only natural they will want to
stay put. Now is the time to be strong.
Step 3. You Are Almost Finished, (except for one small detail.) What are you going to do with all
of the things you took off of the counter? If you are like me, you like the new look, but miss some
of your old friends. It is okay to put some things back, but be careful. Even something as innocuous
as a napkin holder has a way of reproducing and morphing into coffee pots, salt shakers and
telephones.
You probably have more than a few things with no place to call home. This is part of the process.
As you look to find places to put things, do not by shy. If you think the drainer is best kept
under the sink, but there is no room, start fresh. Empty everything out from under the sink.
That's right, just like it was on move-in day. At some point you will be moving things out the
door and into the trash or staging it for a garage sale.
Remember how the kitchen looked when you first saw it? The very first time, when you knew you
could be happy there? That is the ideal. The closer you get to that, the closer you will be to
falling in love with it all over again.
That is it for today. Only one item left on the agenda: Look at your shiny, clean, organized countertop and beam.
This is the first in an ongoing series about using staging secrets to not only stage your house for sale, but to stage your home when you want to stay.
For more on staging, please see: Staging to Sell ASAP
