6 Simple Organizing Steps to Stage a Home While You’re Still Living In It
Selling your home while living in it can feel like shoveling during a blizzard. Buyers and realtors expect a neutral, spacious, and move-in ready home, but you still have to cook meals, fold the laundry, and live your actual life.
The good news is that staging a home for sale doesn’t require perfection. With a few simple organizing steps, you can make your home show-ready without losing your mind (or your keys).
Creating systems that make daily reset easy, reducing visual clutter, and helping buyers see the potential of the space is something you can do realistically, even as you continue to live in your home.
Below are 6 organizing tips and strategies that will make staging your home for sale possible.
Pack up family photos, personal items, and valuables
This classic staging advice is classic for a reason: it matters. Your family is beautiful, but buyers need to be able to picture their own life there. Neutralizing the space by packing up photos and other personal items will allow people to envision their own kids’ drawings on the fridge. You’re not erasing your family’s history with this temporary staging solution, you’re getting a head start on decluttering and packing for your own move.
While most home viewers won’t feel compelled to pick up your one-of-a-kind collectables or look at your tax returns, packing up valuables saves you worry and keeps your family safe. Any personal or sensitive paperwork should be locked away, either in a small safe or safety deposit box.
2. Cull knickknacks and collections
Your knickknacks and tchotchkes personalize your home, but they can be viewed as clutter from the perspective of a potential buyer. We’re talking about editing here, not purging. Get a lead on your packing by boxing up some of your knickknacks.
Leave one shelf or surface of your favorites to enjoy while allowing prospective buyers to envision their own stuff in the home.
3. Pack up anything you can live without for 90 days.
Consider this pre-moving without loading the truck. Remember, you want your home to show as spacious, not cluttered, and packing up the stuff you know you won’t use for the next few months is the best way to accomplish this. I recommend boxing up the following items to make your closets, cupboards, and storage spaces feel roomy.
Here are some ideas:
Off-season clothing and gear
Holiday décor
Extra kitchen gadgets
Books you’re going to read someday
Extra mugs, serving-ware, and other kitchen items
4. Simplify daily-use surfaces (especially kitchens and bathrooms)
Life flows smoothly when we keep things where we use them, and sometimes that means vitamins or appliances or toothbrushes are out on the counter. Normally, that works fine, but during a home sale, it’s important to try to keep countertop clutter to a minimum.
If you’ve done #3 and decluttered the kitchen cabinets, you should have room in the cupboards for some of the things that normally live on the counter. A small box or bin can house them day-to-day and when you have a showing, these items can be easily placed in a cupboard.
Morning and Evening Reset
Creating a 5-minute morning and evening reset routine during the home sale process will save you from last-minute panic. Your routine can include things like putting dishes in the dishwasher, toothbrushes in the drawer, and a quick wipe-down of countertops.
Leaving only one decorative item per surface serves double duty by reducing visual clutter and making your 5-minute routine smoother.
5. Be intentional about where packed boxes go
Garages and basements matter, but all the items you’ve boxed up ahead of your relocation need a place to live. Buyers will look in garages and basements so you can’t just throw your stuff willy-nilly in those places. Storage and parking spaces sell homes and need to be seen by prospective buyers. I’m not saying you need to rent a storage unit for your packed boxes (although this is one time I don’t hate the idea of a temporary storage unit), but you do need to be intentional. Labeling boxes or bins clearly and stacking them neatly along walls will go a long way to show that your home has plenty of space for a new family’s stuff.
6. Create a Grab-and-go system for daily clutter
When you’ve staged a house for sale but you still live there, stuff will have to be out and used. That’s just life! A grab-and-go system can save you when it comes time for a showing. Here’s what to do:
Get a bin for each level of the home–a hamper with handles works great
Everything that’s sitting out gets dumped in the bin when you have a showing
Bins go in the trunk of your car for the duration of the showing
Bonus: staging + downsizing + moving tips:
Change furnace/AC filters and clean the litter box often to reduce pet smells
Make sure all light bulbs work. A bright house is an inviting home
Label packed boxes by room, not just content. This can reduce future moving stress and allow others to help when the time comes.
Donate, sell, or trash items that you know you don’t want to move to your new home. It has the twofold benefit of reducing the clutter in your home and reducing the number of boxes you have to pack, move, and unpack!
Progress over Perfection
Like most types of organizing, staging a home while you’re still living in it is about progress, not perfection. Every box you pack and every surface you simplify makes showings easier and moves you one step closer to your next chapter. If you’re downsizing or preparing for a move, think of this process as practice: you’re learning what truly supports your life and what you can let go.
If staging your home while living in it feels overwhelming, you don’t have to do it alone. At Good Help Organizing, I help families in and around Jamestown declutter, downsize, and create simple systems that work in real life. Whether you need help getting started or support through the entire process, I’d love to help make this season easier. Click here to contact me for a complimentary consultation.
