Staging your home – making it look better to prospective buyers – is a great way to sell your home faster. In fact, it’s so important that people often pay big bucks to professional home stagers to create the perfect look for their home. The great news is that you don’t have to pay someone else to take care of the staging. There are a lot of small things you can do that could make a big difference. We list some of them here.

Replace Family Photos with Mirrors

Almost everyone agrees that keeping your family photos on display is a big no-no. When buyers come in to look at your home, you want them to be able to picture it as their own. This is hard to do with your kids’ smiling faces on the wall. Taking down the family photos is the first tip you’ll see on many lists, but we go a step further.

You’ll want to put something else up in their place, and you can’t go wrong with a nice mirror. Mirrors are fairly neutral, as far as decorating goes, but they also give the illusion of space in the home. That’s a big bonus when it’s a small room.

Replace your family photos with mirrors, and you’ll soon see how the space is transformed.

Get Covered Baskets for Your Clutter

You never know when someone might want to look at your home, so it should be ready to show at any time. It’s hard to keep up with the constant cleaning that goes along with this. You can make things a little easier on yourself by having a few decorative covered baskets to keep your clutter. You might have one in the kitchen for papers and junk mail, a large one in the living room to corral kids’ toys, and another in the bathroom to keep your toiletries tidy. At the end of each night — or before you leave the next day — do a quick sweep of the home for clutter, then hide it in these baskets.

Deep Clean the Bathroom

When buyers walk into your bathroom what will they notice? Hopefully, it’s not soap scum in the tub, mould in the caulking, and a mildew smell from dirty towels. These things can be big turn-offs to buyers. A lot of people overestimate how difficult it will be to clean someone else’s bathroom. It just feels dirtier when it’s someone else’s grime. The good news is that it isn’t that hard to give your bathroom a makeover. Scrub the toilets and tub until they’re sparkling. If the caulking around the tub or shower looks old, scrape it off and add some new caulk. Take care to wipe the sink down after using it each day. Your bathroom will start to look great.

Take Some Furniture Out of Each Room

Over the years, you’ve probably picked up some new pieces of furniture. While you might be completely comfortable in your space, a room that’s packed with furniture feels overcrowded and small to people who are touring your home. It sets a bad impression. With fewer pieces, however, the rooms will feel big, and people will have an easier time imagining what their own furniture will look like in the space.

Donate the furniture if you won’t need it in your new home or put it into storage until you sell your existing home.

Decorate in Groups of Threes

Here’s a great decorating trick that professional designers use: things look best in groups of threes. Use this tip when you’re setting things out. For instance, if you have flour and sugar containers on your counter, you want three of them. The third one could contain something like coffee or pasta. On the walls, hang paintings in groups of threes. Same goes for the mantel or the coffee table. It has a subtle effect that makes a big difference.

Freshen Up the Paint

Painting the interior of the home seems like a big job. It can be, but it can also make a pretty big difference in the way the room looks. It’s usually a smart idea to repaint the walls in a more neutral design if you have made some bold colour choices, but almost everyone can benefit from doing a fresh coat of paint. After all, the paint on your walls probably has a few nicks, scrapes, or scuff marks after years of use. While some people enjoy painting a new home when they move in, many others will appreciate not having to take the job on themselves. You can do the painting yourself, but it should only cost a few hundred dollars to do it professionally if you don’t want the hassle.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to get your home ready to sell. By looking over your home with a critical eye, you can see which areas might need some improvement.

Related article: Sterling’s Strategies for Selling in the Summer