Behind Closed Doors: Staging Tips for Your Closets

Have you ever toured a home and found yourself opening the closets? I’m willing to bet most people have. If you’re serious about purchasing a home then it’s important to view every aspect of the home including how big the closets are and how much storage they have. So, like any other part of your home, if you’re selling, your closets should be staged and looking their best as well.

The first step is to declutter and start packing. Depending on what time of year it is, pack up all the clothes you wouldn’t normally wear in that season. For instance, if you’re selling in June, you can safely pack up most of your sweaters, jeans, and winter jackets. Also, pack up anything you don’t use anymore, such as a wedding dress. Once you’ve packed up, donated, or got rid of many of your clothes and other stuff you’ll have less to work with and the staging part of this will be easier and quicker.

Going hand-in-hand with decluttering is maximizing floor space and creating lots of “white space.” Do you ever notice when you walk into a closet or open a closet in a show home they only have one or two shirts hanging up? Realistically, most people own more than one or two shirts. What they achieve by only hanging up a few items is showing you that there’s plenty of room. If you see a closet that is jam packed full of stuff you will think, perhaps even subconsciously, that there isn’t a ton of storage. The trick is to have space between your clothes hanging up, space on the floors, and space on any shelves.

The next staging trick is to create consistency. One of the easiest ways to do this is to colour coordinate all your clothes. I’m actually wondering if you, my readers, will laugh at this suggestion because maybe it sounds a little too, what’s the word I’m looking for, organized? When selling in the past, I have always taken the time to colour coordinate because it truly makes a difference and can change your perception about how a closet looks. I always start with dark clothes first and work my way to whites. I also like to create consistency by hanging similar clothes together: Jackets in one area, sweaters together, dresses together, etc. Another way to create consistency is to hang all items in the same direction, for instance all fronts of clothes facing forward with jackets and sweaters zipped or buttoned up. You can also use all the same type of hangers, such as all wooden or all white hangers. In my pictures below I haven’t used all the same hangers as I just did this as a demonstration for this post but my type A personality would certainly love to have everything the same.

As always, what’s key in staging is ensuring the space is clean. Vacuum the floors, dust the shelves, and use pretty storage boxes to hide any remaining clutter.

So, in an attempt to keep things real I’m going to show you a before picture of my closet. I’m embarrassed because to me it’s a mess and while I love being organized as much as possible, it’s certainly not my reality at all times. Before:

And here’s the after pictures:

Staging, organization, and design are some of my other passions in life. When you list with me, you get full staging advice and support. I will do a walk through, room-by-room with you to highlight and provide tips and tricks to get every aspect of your home staged, including the closets. You will also get a Home Preparation package which includes staging tips and a checklist to help you along the way. For me, it’s not just about listing and selling your home, it’s about working with my clients every step of the way to earn them top dollar and to get them the best terms in the sale of their home.