Ready to sell put your Allentown, Pennsylvania home on the market? Any staging professional will tell you that staging can make your home warm and inviting to potential buyers. Before you find a realtor, here are five effective tips for staging your home. 

Make it Clean

Hire a professional cleaning service to clean your baseboards, cabinets, ceiling fans, cupboards, mantels, windowsills, and other hidden corners of your home. Making your home clean doesn't just mean dusting and vacuuming it. It needs to look like a model home, which means you need to de-clutter and get rid of anything that no longer fits in with your home. 

Rather than stashing these items in your cabinets, closets, or under your bed, you should donate or sell these items. Home staging professionals require that 50% of your surfaces look like bookshelves and should be empty at all times. In addition, your drawers should be 30% empty. Neatly fold your sheets and towels and keep them in your linen closet, if you have one. Determine if you can do without one set of sheets and towels for each bedroom. 

Light it Up 

Lighting is essential when it comes to staging your home. It's an affordable solution that can increase the value of your home. The best way to introduce lighting is to include a combination of floor lamps and table lamps. You want to do it in a way that doesn't add more clutter to your home.

Add a floor lamp in a dark corner of a room. Or, a ceiling fan with lights can change the entire look of a room. You should add three sources of light to each of your rooms. You want to include three different light levels, which can accentuate each area and make your home feel bigger.

Make it Neutral 

You want potential buyers to see themselves living in your home. They can't do this with things that look like you live there. That means you'll have to remove the family photos, religious decorations, and other knickknacks from your home. Neutral colors don't mean painting your home boring beige. 

A beautiful light blue, pale gray, or warm tan can provide a neutral backdrop. You should also make the master bedroom and bathroom neutral as well. You never know the gender of the potential buyer, so you want to make choices that will appeal to them. 

Add Fresh Flowers

Fresh flowers can make any home warm and inviting. These little additions can add aroma and beauty to any living space. Use a bouquet as a centerpiece on an island in your kitchen or on the dining table. Smaller floral arrangements can be used on coffee tables, nightstands, and side tables. Even green plants or a few small stems can provide a welcoming touch. 

Make it Inviting 

You want your home to be warm and inviting. It should give potential buyers good vibes from the moment they walk in. This means making your rooms more spacious so they appear more inviting. Even the top selling realtors® don't enjoy bumping into coffee tables and seeing the backs of couches and sofas when showing your home. 

That doesn't mean you have to back your furniture up against the wall. Instead, you should float your furniture in the most unexpected places. This makes your room appear larger. Your furniture shouldn't be the focal point, but rather a natural flow of the room. 

Using the right accessories can also attract buyers. They should follow a common color, texture, theme, or shape. Three is ideal when it comes to arranging your accessories in the shape of a triangle with key elements at each endpoint. Move tall objects in the back and place small items up front. These tips can help you stage your home like a professional.

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