Staging 101: Closets

We talked about Staging Bedrooms in the last segment of Staging 101. But what about the closet! You don’t want to have a beautiful room, all dressed up and ready for sale, but have a tatty, cluttered, messed up closet. After all, storage space is a huge concern for potential buyers. They might love everything else about your home then fall out of love with it because it doesn’t “appear” to have enough room for all their things. "Well then Dana", you ask, "how do you go about Staging a Closet?" Believe it or not, some of my Rules of Staging apply here too.

1. Declutter! in my closet????? Certainly! We all have 2 or 3 seasons worth of clothes in our closets.  If you remove all the items that aren’t in the current season, then you can create a huge amount of “space” in your closet.  Like we said before, you will be packing up soon enough, might as well get a jump on things! (Here you can see lots of long dresses and costumes along with all 4 season's of clothes)
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2. Clean, Clean, Clean:  Give everything a good dusting and vacuum.  Add some air fresheners to your space or generously spray the closet (and clothes) daily with Febreze to create a lasting fresh smell.
3. Max out your lighting!  Builders have a tendency to put small, inadequate light fixtures in closets thinking that great lighting in there just isn’t a concern.  You don’t have to change out your fixture, just make sure that the highest wattage bulbs possible are lighting up your space.
4. Keep other items to a minimum.  You’ve already removed all the out of season items, but if your closet is anything like mine, it still contains plenty of other junk.  Box up and remove any other items that you can live without over the next 90 days to create as much space as possible.  You don’t want the closet to be unrealistically empty, just as open looking as possible. (Here, we have removed all the out of season clothes, now it's time to organize what's left)
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5. Organize what is left.  OK folks, get ready for some of the craziest, way over the top organizing ideas that you have ever heard of.
   1. First of all, I want you to change out all your coat hangers to 1 style. I prefer the white plastic hangers, they can be bought almost anywhere, just make sure that all your hangers are the same.
   2. Second, hang all your clothes like with like. So all shirts together, pants, shorts, skirts… you get the idea.
   3. Next, I want you to organize all your clothes by the colors of the rainbow. I know, you’re probably looking at this like I have lost my mind, but trust me. It should look something like this… White (beige/tan), red (pink), orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (violet), grey, brown (dk tan) and finally black. I know it sounds completely crazy and no one (no, not even me!) actually lives this way. But right now, you are selling a dream, a fantasy in a way. That your current home is the potential buyers dream home – large, spacious, organized. Everything that their current home isn’t. So, just go with it.
6. Create a focal point. I don't usually say this for a closet, but this walk in closet had the space for it. Besides, what lady wouldn't like a beautiful mirror with additional lighting and a place to sit down to put on her jewelry. This addition took the closet from being "Nice" to "WOW!" And that's the reaction we were looking for.