Cleanliness is Next to Spotlessness: Staging 1.0

The only true prerequisite to staging is a clean home. A truly clean environment psychologically registers with all five senses to create a heightened sense of well-being. Why does this work? A number of studies have shown that a clean and well organized environment decreases the level of stress hormones, particularly in women. Purchasing a new home can be tiring and overwhelming. If a potential buyer enters your home and instantly feels a sense of ease you are already halfway to planting a sold sign in the front yard.

What do I mean by using all five senses?

Sight is obvious. Allowing the eye to move around a space in an unimpeded manner without landing on dust bunnies or dirty windows instantly gives the impression that the entire home is well cared for. The buyers will be more inclined to overlook other flaws if the overall first impression is pristine.

Scent would seem to be obvious, but it can backfire if you are overzealous. You obviously want a clean smelling environment. However, the house should never ever smell of bleach or ammonia (crime scene?), artificial air fresheners of any sort (what are you hiding?), candles or other products (allergic reaction anyone?). What you do want the house to smell like is fresh laundry cleaned with a mildly scented or unscented detergent. Bedding dried on a clothes line and freshly pressed with a natural herbal scented linen water. Open the windows and air out the home if you can. There are a number of lightly scented and less toxic cleaning products on the market  that are as effective as the ammonia, bleach and lye based standbys. I use the Method brand of cleaners in my own home. I also use a product called Zero Odor. It works by removing any trace of odor and leaving none of its own behind. If you have pets or children both of these product lines are invaluable.

Touch is vital as well. Trust me, people touch things. They run their hands over the counters, open the kitchen drawers, etc. One sticky moment will be etched in their visceral memory forever.

Sound is a tricky one. A clean sounding house is one without squeaking doors, loud bathroom exhaust fans, or strange high pitched squealing coming from the printer that you should have unplugged. Take a few moments to listen to the mechanical sounds in the home and insulate the heater room door or turn off the sump pump under the house if they are going to be bothersome during a showing. If you are tempted to play some music do so either at a very low volume or not at all.

Last is Taste. We are highly integrated creatures. It doesn’t take much to initiate a mental, or even physical, gag reflex in a sensitive buyer. You never know what will set someone off. Hedge your bets and clean the house from top to bottom. While you are at it give it a toothbrush in the crevices eat off of the garage floor scrub down. A home’s first impression should never leave a bad taste in a buyer’s mouth.

I was recently asked to take a look at an apartment in San Francisco that was not renting. Perhaps it needed staging. I was also asked to show it to three potential renters. As a matter of course I took my cleaning kit along with me. It was basically clean but I dusted the baseboards and shutters, polished the stainless steel appliances, swept the floor, and opened the windows. All three potential tenants wanted to immediately lease it. It was leased within two hours of the first showing. That’s the difference that a clean first impression makes.