Preparing Your Home for Sale: My Complete Staging Checklist

In this video, I'm walking through my complete home staging checklist so you can prep your North Idaho home for photos, showings, and a stronger sale. In this video, I'm talking about the basics of prepping and staging your home to get it ready to sell. I'll cover decluttering, cleaning, and the projects you can knock out in a few weeks before a photographer shows up or buyers walk through the door.

For this checklist, assume you are not doing major remodels. This is about the tasks and chores that help your home make a great first impression. I'm Leslie Simpson, a real estate agent in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and if you are thinking about selling in Kootenai County or Spokane County, I'd love to help.

Hotelify Your House The first thing I tell my clients is to hotelify their house. As a rule of thumb, remove about 50% of your possessions. Your garage is usually the dump zone unless the garage itself is a selling point.

If you have a high-end organization system or a standout workbench, rent a storage unit instead. It is worth it. Declutter and remove items you do not use regularly, including clothes.

Go through closets so they feel spacious. Depersonalize by taking down family photos. A simple trick: buy collage inserts on Etsy, print them at Walgreens, and slide them over your family photos so you can restore the wall later.