How to Live in a Show-Ready House

Your house looks beautiful. You’ve cleaned, decluttered, cleaned more, and followed the advice of a professional stager. How can your family continue to live there without ruining it? 

Use Containers

You need a place to put your keys, the mail, the TV remote control, toothpaste, makeup, and countless other items that usually litter horizontal surfaces in the house. Put a basket or Tupperware container in places where clutter could re-emerge. When you leave the house, stash the containers in a cabinet or take them with you. 

Pick a Room 

Have kids? Pets? Designate a room that will be lived in normally. It’s where the kids can dump the Legos on the floor and you can put the cat’s litter box. When it’s time for a showing, the mess will be in one place instead of throughout the house. 

Create a Checklist

“Make the beds. Put out the good towels. Empty the litter box. Put the containers in the closet.” Write down what needs to happen every morning before you leave the house to bring the property back to show-ready condition. 

Your REALTOR® has experience listing houses for sale, so ask him or her for other suggestions to help your property keep looking its best. 

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