oprah organic cleaning

What to Do When You’re Asked to Stage a Filthy House

If you find yourself meeting with homeowners who should be on an Oprah episode about compulsive hoarders, you’re not alone. I’ve found myself in similar situations and just like you, when this happens, my first instinct is to turn and run!

Instead of running, though, you should fight that impulse and remember one important thing about home staging – no two projects are the same and every home staging consultation will happen on a different level depending on the clients and the property.

Some houses are relatively clean and you can spend all of your time on the creative side of things, what we typically think of as “home staging.” Other homes just need a good thorough cleaning to make a huge difference— in those cases you’ll spend more time covering the basics.

You can still talk about decorating while you’re addressing the cleanliness issues. For example, you are going to have to address the fact that the kitchen is filthy and there can’t be dirty dishes in the sink when showings are happening but you can also say something like, “once this is all cleaned up, here’s what will need to be done in this kitchen.”

You should make it a non-negotiable fact that the house be thoroughly cleaned as a first step.

Generally the filthiest houses also have the most clutter. I don’t clean houses, nor do I sort through belongings. I have cleaners and home organizers that I recommend for these tasks. I make it clear to the client that these individuals are less expensive than I am and that’s why it’s best to use my time to focus on home staging and how to best decorate each room so that it shows to its best potential.

When I’m in a filthy house, I’ll use my initial consultation to give them very specific direction on what needs to be cleaned and to what degree, and also how much clutter has to be removed. For example, I’ll say these pieces of furniture will need to be removed, this closet has to be emptied by at least 50%, etc.

Ask them point blank whether they’d like help taking care of this all the while making it very clear that not doing it can cost them thousands of dollars or make it impossible to sell their home in a timely fashion. Then provide contact information for the cleaners and organizers and ask if they’d prefer if I have them call them directly to set something up.

Then it’s clear that’s the first step that must be taken— no getting around it.

Remember that every house you go into you’ll be faced with different challenges and different personalities. One of the things that makes home staging such a gratifying career is that you will never stage the same house twice— you’re doing something new every time you tackle a new home staging project because the layout is different, the contents are different and the personality and needs of your clients will change.

Sometimes you have a clean slate to work with and sometimes making the slate clean is your main goal! There is also a deep satisfaction that comes with helping someone get control of their environment, especially when you see how this starts to ripple out into the other areas of their lives.

Oprah- The real dangers of household cleaners

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