How to Live on a Stage

We have already established a difference between decorating a home to live in and staging a house to sell. In staging, there will likely be a lot less "stuff" around than in decorating. Multi-purpose rooms will show as single-purpose rooms. Personal identifying items and objects are gone, and the decor reads "generic." How are you supposed to live in a place like that?

First, remember that, though it might be inconvenient, you are living on the stage with the intent to attract your buyers to the house. Know that the stage is a temporary situation. As a matter of fact, taking into account the Law of Attraction, the more you tell yourself that it's temporary, the more temporary it's likely to be.

Also remember that, more than just living on the stage, you need to maintain the stage. That means everything has a place, and everything must be in its place. Picture every item on the stage with an imaginary footprint line drawn around it. If you move something, put it back in the outlines. If you unfold a towel, fold it back. If you use the coffee maker, clean it immediately and put it where it back on its footprint.

Here's one trick that I used to make life on a stage a bit easier. I put out "show towels." Nice, fluffy, beautifully presented towels arranged artfully on the towel rods. We never used them. We used our "B Team," working towels for showering and drying our hands. Whenever we left the house, the working towels went into the dryer, and the show towels were always there, ready to wow our buyers with a feeling of, "This isn't a bathroom; this is a spa!"