last minute (wo)man

(living room before & after)

Thanks for your indulgence on last week’s topic. Now on to other promises….

rouge recently completed a last minute staging job on a great 1 ½ story home in Halifax’s west end.

Under normal circumstances, we do a home evaluation first, leaving the client with a list of suggested repairs and a list of things to pack-up, remove…etc to be completed within a few days. In the meantime, rouge is working hard on generating ideas, making a staging plan, and picking up whatever is needed. Then we go back in and do the actual staging.

This, of course, is under ideal circumstances. We are very flexible, depending on the client’s & realtor’s timeline and can condense this process accordingly. Like anything else though, something has to give…either time, money, or product.

In this case, there was a very limited timeline. The cients found, made an offer, and bought their new home before they even really started looking. The purchase was conditional on the sale of their current home that hadn’t even been listed yet. And they had a short time in which to sell.

So tight timeline, as in…”can you come stage this house tomorrow and do the best with what you’ve got?”

It’s a challenge walking into a job blind…but it’s a challenge I love. Luckily, the clients were incredible – totally open to anything rouge suggested and they were ready to work.

Also as luck would have it, there was very little de-cluttering to do. On average, homeowners need to pack away 2/3 of their “stuff” before good staging can occur.

In this case, the homeowners were busy packing away closets and other things as rouge was working in another room.

We were efficient. In fact, rouge didn’t get all the “before” pictures because the clients were like a whirlwind in packing, de-cluttering and hauling out stuff going to storage!

At the end of the day, it was almost done. A small list for the clients to complete the following day. They did exactly that and listed their home in top “showing” condition in record time.

rouge is also thrilled to report that the home sold on the day it was listed with competing offers!

And we are sending our congratulations (twins!) and very best wishes to them as they move into their new place in the coming weeks.

For more about rouge, visit www.littlered.ca or check out past blogs at www.justalittlerouge/blogspot.com

mirror, mirror…

{Note: from time to time I will have special guests contribute to “just a little rouge…”. This week’s blog is written by my very good friend, Tracy Bennett. Tracy and her husband, Julian, run a successful home-based business called Firefly Digital Media. Smart, creative, wonderful, and leading the busiest lifestyles of anyone I know – not to mention raising two amazing kids – their home is my favorite “training ground & test kitchen” when it comes to trying out new rouge ideas. Always willing to give me free reign of their space, Tracy shares her thoughts on what that’s like from her perspective.}

By Tracy Bennett

I’ve had the good fortune of being on the receiving end of many wonderful things in this life, the lucky gal that I am. It must be said however, that one of the most uplifting experiences I’ve ever had was working with a stager to de-clutter my home.







Okay, so this might sound like a gross exaggeration. I assure you, it is not. Please allow me to explain.

I am the kind of person who can become completely overwhelmed by the state of my home. I try to pick one room at a time to sort out but I panic and don’t know where to start. I find myself thinking that there must be too much wrong in the room. Is it shelves I need? A closet? More places to hide the mess? And where the hell does all this paper come from? Ack! Then, that’s it. I’m out. Can’t do it. Give up and exit the messy room in question.

Decorating magazines don’t help me at all. Am I the only one out there in this situation? They just make me feel even more inadequate about my inability to create a soothing, comfortable home. Looks so easy, I just don’t know where to start.

I’ve got clutter, chaos, children, pets, more neighborhood children and to top it all off I run a business with my husband and our office is in our house. There is an awful lot going on in one little dwelling.

They say what we see in our lives is a mirror of what we see in our minds. Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way, but when my brain is overloaded with life, my life gets overloaded with stuff. Then of course, all the stuff everywhere makes me feel worse. This mirror thing seems to be working against me.

I think you’ve got the messy, unorganized picture that is my home. So imagine with me (because I like to revisit the happy memory of this day) that one day, into my house walks a stager full of ideas, energy and a keen eye.

For some amazing reason, she seems to know exactly what to do with all the crap in my house that has been driving me crazy. She knows how to make all my stuff, some of it that I don’t even like, look much better. She took all my things, moved them around and made it feel brand new. It still looked like my house and my stuff but all the negative feelings towards my space were gone. I don’t think I’ve ever liked my house quite so much as that day. As she went from room to room I felt like I’d had lost weight, had a makeover and a new wardrobe all in one day. Now that’s saying something.

The only sad part is that old habits are hard to break. I’m still messy and when I buy something new I’m still not sure if I got the right thing and put it in the right place or not. Good thing I know a stager who loves tackling my design challenges. I think people like me require some kind of frequent flyer program.

decluttering - tips & tricks

As promised last week, here are some tips for tackling the two most often cluttered areas in your home – closets and home offices. Take small bites. You can do it…and you’ll thank yourself later. I promise. Probably the very first time you are in a hurry, go looking for something, and you actually know right where it is!

Linen closets
This is a good place to start. Usually relatively small spaces and not too overwhelming a task.

Remove everything from the closet and sort into piles – according to use (towels, facecloths, hand towels / bedding, sheets, pillowcases / extra blankets…etc.).

Get rid of towels and linens that are stained or torn. These make great rags for the workshop, gardening shed or for cleaning up the aftermath of arts & crafts!

Fold towels neatly and stack them by size and color. This gives you a practical view of the contents.

Fold linens and stack them by the bed they are used for.

Hall closets
This is your guests’ first impression of the neatness to your home. It should only contain what is used on a daily basis and all clothes that do not belong there should not be stored there.

Leave empty hangers to hang guest coats.

Keep gloves, mitts, hats and scarves in a basket on the shelf.

Hang umbrellas on the bar or lay on the shelf.

Hang purses and bags on a hanger on the bar.

Boots and shoes should be the only thing on the closet floor. Place them on a rack or clean mat.

Bedroom closets
Don’t be afraid to clear out the clothes that you no longer wear. Bag them up and donate to any number of local charities.

Sort clothes and re-hang by category – shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, suits…etc – and by color. This makes choosing what to wear much easier!

Organized this way, you get a better handle on what you already have in your closet, so you avoid buying items you already have.

When you declutter or change clothes for the season, hang items on the rod with the hook turned backwards. Each time you wear an item, re-hang it facing forwards. After 6 to 8 months, cull out everything still facing backwards.

Use the one-to-one rule – for every item you purchase, get rid of something you have. This is an effective way to avoid an over-stuffed closet of unworn clothes. You will buy less, wear what you have, and save a startling amount of money.

Home office
A good filing system is key. Take time at the beginning to set this up in a way that works for you. You will increase efficiency and effectiveness. Neat, clean and accessible.

Unfortunately, you have to go through each piece of paper and decide to keep or toss.

(I know, I know...this stinks...and there are at least a million other things you can think of that would be less painful!)

Shred or throw out what you can toss.

Now decide where and how everything kept should be filed.

Not everything needs to be kept indefinitely. Check municipal and other government regulations to confirm how long certain documents (like tax records) need to be retained.

Many statement & bills are now also available on-line. Switch to electronic versions and be amazed how much paper you save.

It’s a good rule of thumb to keep all paid bills for a year, if you need to track annually. But credit card and other bills often don’t need to be saved once reconciled.

File insurance and medical records separately and keep for at least three years.

Use technology, such as a scanners, to help streamline files. Switch from paper to storing “soft” copies in well organized computer files.

Plastic storage boxes, baskets and similar storage solutions are readily available -- and better looking then ever! This is the best way to store items and keep them easily accessible.

One word of caution – don’t move the clutter from one room to another. You’ll never finish! Just remember, take small bites. Before you know it, you’ll be a de-cluttering expert. And keeping it up on a daily basis will be second nature.

Good luck!

decluttering – is it really worth it?

Let’s face it. “Decluttering” is not the sexiest part of a staging or redesign job. But I’d argue that it’s the most important. As far as staging goes, it can dramatically affect both the price and speed at which a house sells.

I recently read that “…an uncluttered home will help you achieve inner peace.” Wow. That’s a large, bold statement. Could it really be that easy to achieve inner peace? It made me giggle. Then, it made me think.

I’ll admit a cluttered space does make me crazy. Cluttered and cramped spaces do cause me some anxiety. I just want to clean and organize them. I can’t help myself. These spaces make my thoughts feel just as cluttered and cramped. I can ignore other people’s clutter to some extent, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t also mentally organizing things around me when I find myself in such a space.

“Clutter” can be hard for home sellers to recognize. It can be as obvious as piles of newspapers, clothes, mail, files and magazines. But it can be photos, shoes, toys and dishes….the list goes on. It can also be an expensive collection of antiques or collectables.

Try to imagine what a potential buyer feels like when looking at a house that’s cluttered. They are not imagining themselves living in the space. Instead, they are distracted by, and focused on, the people who currently live in the space...and wondering what’s the story behind that collection of roosters?

They will likely leave your home feeling negative emotions that are daunting, overwhelming & consuming. They will identify your home as the one with the {insert item name here}, instead of the one with the {insert wonderful feature / strongest selling point here}. That’s it. You just blew your opportunity to make a good first impression. And first impressions are what will make or break you here.

Trust me, it has nothing to do with your decorating style or your taste. It’s not personal. As a home seller, you must remember that you are trying to sell the space, not your stuff. If a potential buyer can’t see past the things in your house, they certainly won’t be able to see and appreciate the space. And then you’ve lost them. This is why how you live in your home is completely different from how you stage your home for sale.

Let me say it again – this is why how you live in your home is completely different from how you stage your home.

Some say that your space is a reflection of your life. I whole-heartedly agree. It stands to reason then, if you are trying to sell your space, it should not reflect your life. Instead, it should reflect the life someone else could have in it.

Go on, be brutal in your quest to declutter your home. Let potential buyers be wowed by the space, the natural light, and all the wonderful details that they will want to own and enjoy for themselves. Pack up those treasures and safely store them while your house is on the market. You’re moving anyway, right?

Achieving inner peace? I’d say I’m a believer.

Be sure to read next week’s blog for room-by-room decluttering tips.