We can do better- Lessons from living in a staged home

If you have ever lived in a house while you are trying to sell it, you feel my pain. I’ve never felt so stressed about a dish in the sink or a bed unmade.

We hired a stager to help us set our house to be “Open House Ready!” She walked through and basically said “this needs to go” to about 75% of the house. The only room she seemed to really approve of was my daughters. She had the matching furniture and cute decor. I was a little insulted that so much of our stuff was not good enough, but we obliged since we wanted our house to sell.

We rented a POD to hold our stuff, and the stager returned and prettied up the place with strategically placed furniture and decor. I’ll admit, when we came home we were impressed. Our little house looked so tidy and quaint. The lack of clutter was calming- I had no idea that the stuff in the house was stressing me out!

The room that made me happiest was our bedroom. Though small, the fancy white bedding made it look so inviting.

We ended up living in that staged house for over 3 months. We made beds every morning, put dishes away every night…… kept up the look as best as we could with a dog and 2 kids! I found that I LOVED our home in that state. Though it lacked some personality (no family pictures etc), it was a happy place to live in.

The big take-away from living in the staged house- we can do better. We can keep the house more tidy. We can make our beds every day. We can do away with a lot of stuff that we don’t need.

Fast forward to our new home. I will say, I’m applying this life lesson daily. Our bed is made almost every day. Dishes are done daily as well. It’s so wonderful to wake up and have an empty sink! Who knew?

I’ve found some compromises in order to keep the house tidy, but also not go insane making it unlivable. When you open our pantry door, you will find artwork from the kids hanging inside– but when it’s closed its a calm, clean space.

Now that we have a larger home, we have an extra room we call the Utility Room (my husbands idea). It’s our office, toy room, back pack drop zone, and craft room. Unfortunately this room doesn’t have a door. Though we keep it tidy, it’s also the space where projects take place so it looks lived in. I hung a sheerISH curtain that allows the light through, but blocks visitors from looking right into this living space.

We are SLOWLY decorating and adding things to make our house a home. I’m keeping it simple and calm- with a kick of personality. One of our friends that had come to see our staged home in California said “It’s nice, but it’s missing your fun family stuff.” She was so right. We are finding the balance in our new home- one step at a time. It’s not easy, especially with little humans running around and both of us parents working- but it’s doable. I’m glad our time living in a staged house brought us a little clarity, and challenged us. We can do better!