declutter

3 Things NOT To Do When Styling Your Home To Sell

May 2, 2019 by Naomi

Research into home buyer psychology tells us that we have just 30 seconds to make a first impression when selling our home.

So you need to nail the look and feel of your property if you want to sell faster and for more money!

If you want to get prepared before the property stylist comes to perfect your space, here are three things to avoid doing during the process:

Declutter

A lot of clients tell me that their homes feels comparatively empty when it goes to market. This is where the idea of cosy vs clutter comes in.

It’s often difficult to differentiate between the two when it’s your own home, however it’s essential not to get this one wrong. The best rule is to try to avoid the “cosy” look when selling your home. Having too many accessories, personal photographs and other items in an attempt to create “cosy” will actually make the property seem cluttered and lose its appeal to the broader market.

Stick to stylish, understated and sophisticated accessories. There’s a fine line though, you don’t want your property to feel cold – but the property stylist can help you bring in warmth with great styling choices.

Not being able to look past your own personal style

This is an area of great concern when you are styling a property for sale. You have to remember that your personal taste is not necessarily that of the market. When selling, you need to appeal to as many people as possible so remember – when you have your home styled for sale it is not about you (I know that hurts but it will help you when you sell, trust me).

This is why bringing a professional in can be the best thing you could do to increase your chances of selling for more.

Choosing furniture that is the wrong size for your space

The use of furniture that is too big or the wrong shape can drastically affect the way a potential buyer sees your home. It’s all about scale and making the space feel light and airy. If your bedrooms are small, your choice of furniture could either emphasize the tiny space or completely transform the feeling for a potential buyer.

Your home stager can work with you to choose appropriate furniture if yours is the wrong fit.

Are you a home stager? Want to boost your career? Come to the National Home Staging Symposium! Click below!

Clutter and Your Mindset

July 5, 2018 by Naomi

I wanted to share something with you today that I was reading on my phone earlier, so you’ll see me looking at it a little bit. It’s about clutter and money.

There’s an amazing, good friend of mine, as well as an amazing business woman, called Denise Duffield-Thomas from LuckyBitch.com. Go over and check her out. You’ll find the stuff that she does absolutely amazing.

I was reading the morning about this really great piece she wrote about decluttering. I see a lot of home stagers doing some of the things that she talks about in her blog.

You’ll see in here that she talks about clutter and decluttering is great for money manifesting. She goes on to talk about all the different things that maybe we are doing with our clutter.

For example, in our office spaces, are we holding onto a desk someone gave us when we first started our businesses because we feel that we need to have more money or be a bigger business before we then give ourselves another desk?

A little like – and this is a phrase that Denise talks about, as interesting as it sounds – beggars can’t be choosers. “Someone gave me this when I first started business, so I’m going to keep using it.”

I really want you to head over and read this blog because this is absolutely amazing. It speaks about if we’re holding on to some of the things that we were gifted and we feel we have to be grateful for in our businesses, we aren’t opening up opportunities for new energy, new money and new abundance to come in.

I see this a fair bit in home staging. I see it with people’s stock. When I first started and I was getting stock in and I was like, “Wow! My business is growing!”

Then, as I got more and more stock and I wanted to turn it over, there was this ridiculous attachment to the stock that I had first because, “Oh, gosh. I need that. I need to be grateful. That’s where I can from.”

It wasn’t until I had the most epic garage sale that suddenly my business started to flourish. I got rid of all that old stock that was tying me down and that I wasn’t even really using. I was getting a warehouse full of clutter.

This is something that’s really important in home staging.

Look at your stock, look at your inventory and avoid it becoming clutter. It is the main commodity for many home stagers who have higher for making money.

Why do we allow a money making item to become a cluttered item?
Why don’t we cut it loose and allow more space in our warehouse, more space in our energy, more space in our business for abundant stock, customers, clients and agents coming in.

This is one way that I find a lot of the home stagers that I mentor and that are on our memberships are a bit attached to clutter. But I want to share with you from my phone here. I love reading Denise’s stuff.

She had some other great top tips and I wanted to read you some of my favorites about decluttering in the business because it’s so important; just as it’s important in life, it’s essential in business.

The first one is a really great one about unsubscribing to emails that you don’t want anymore. Deleting old contacts out of your phone.
Backing up and cleaning off your computer. If your desktop looks like a mad woman’s breakfast, clean that up. You’ll be amazed at how good it feels.
Shred old documents. Old documents that you don’t’ need, get rid of them. There is no need to have that clutter and store them.
This is a really interesting one: clean up your Facebook feed. It doesn’t mean you have to defriend people or unlike people, but if there’s someone that’s on your feed and you just don’t want to see their stuff anymore, make sure you remove that from your feed.
The other one that I love, which is really interesting is deleting websites and getting rid of the histories in your browsers. That can be really interesting.
Then, one of the last ones that I want to read to you – and this is a great one – is say no to networking groups that have become an obligation and not a joy.

I believe massively, guys, in the five people that we surround ourselves in are the people that we’re going to become and the people that we’re going to be the biggest reflection upon us.

That could also be said for networking groups. Many of us got involved in networking groups, which can become clutter in our calendar and clutter in our life.

Take Denise’s massive inspiration. Head over to LuckyBitch.com. I want you to get on and read this because it’s a really amazing blog.

I want you then to have a look in your warehouses for cluttered stock; I want you to look in your offices for all those things that you feel you should be entitled and that you’re really gifted to have and you need to keep and I want you to look in your computers and in your phones.

Rid yourself of that clutter and that will open up the energy for abundance and more business, more wealth and more opportunity to come your way.

Thanks so much for listening, guys. I’ll be back again soon.

Organising your Kitchen

July 17, 2015 by Naomi

Not only the busiest room in the house, the kitchen is also one of the rooms you spend most of your time in; so you better make it a space you love! Follow these 5 tips below and get ready to be kitchen proud.

De-clutter: If you’re anything like me, your bench tops and cupboards become home to all sorts of clutter you don’t need! To fix this have a good look and consider if you honestly need everything. Do you really need those dusty vases that you got for your 21^st or those broken plates you were going to fix five years ago but never did? The answer is probably no! So chuck out what’s unusable and take the rest to your local charity store. It’s a perfect option on all accounts, you’re doing something good for the world and at the same time cleaning up your house, and nothing starts off a project better than a good old-fashioned clean out!

Find the must haves: Put everything you’re going to keep in the correct and dedicated spot. An easy way to do this is by putting your fragile glassware and fancy dinner sets in the top, hard-to-reach shelves and putting your daily crockery in the most convenient, easy-to-reach drawers.

Junk spot:If you can find a person that doesn’t need a junk spot in their kitchen, well I need to meet them! It would be, dare I say, impossible not to have one, so don’t be afraid to have a designated area, be it a cupboard or storage basket. On all accounts it is much better than the alternative, of throwing your car keys, pending bills and shopping lists all across your bench top.

Cupboard organisers: Perfect for quickening up the cooking process, cupboard organisers can be as simple as a small plastic container storing similar objects like cake decorating ingredients, or larger containers for pasta and flour. If you have open cupboards, switch up the plastic containers for rattan baskets. Both convenient and pleasing to the eye!

Space saver: If space is at a premium, install hanging storage from either the ceiling or walls. An ideal place to store pots and pans, you can also turn it into a feature by having all utensils in the same colour, be it a pop of blue or metallic.