Green-Staging Your Home

It's a buyer's market and selling homes for their maximum sale price is hard in these days of foreclosures and short sales. You've heard that home staging is the way to go, but you don't want to rip out perfectly good fixtures in order to make your home shine. Is there a way you can improve your home's appearance without putting a huge strain on the environment? The answer is yes!

Cleaning is the number 1 home stager's weapon. Nothing can take the place of soap and water when it comes to marketing your home. Clean homes smell better - even if you or the buyer doesn't notice it - and look better. Invest in some orange oil cleansers for a fresh citrus scent and scrub, scrub, scrub! Instead of replacing bathroom fixtures, clean and polish them. Have your home powerwashed if it is covered with vinyl siding.

You may want to repaint your home's exterior and interior to give it a fresh, new look. There are low- and no-VOC (volatile organic compounds - bad environmental juju) paints available and recycled paint made from bucket leftovers. By carefully cleaning your brushes and rollers, you can make them last longer and be usable for more paint jobs in the future. Trays can also be cleaned and reused. Reusable dropcloths can be used for years instead of temporary plastic ones.

Instead of buying new furniture, reupholster, recover or repair the old. Many chairs and tables only want a couple of turns of their screws to steady out wobbles and a new coat of that recycled paint can make them shine again. You can also buy or make inexpensive slipcovers to quickly and easily cover your couches and chairs to harmonize with your living and bed room walls. Secondhand, good quality bedspreads can completely transform the look of your bed, as can a coat of paint applied to most frames.

In the kitchen, cleaning and staining old kitchen cabinets can give them an entirely new look, which is cheaper and less wasteful than buying new ones. When it comes to the kitchen, replacing old appliances with new can be better for the environment - replace your old stove and refrigerator with ENERGY STAR certified ones, which use less energy than appliances from former years. (And don't forget to buy certified appliances for your new home!) Your old appliances can be disposed of at your local recycling or reclaim center.

Bathrooms are another place where ENERGY STAR rated appliances can be better than the old and more appealing to environmentally-minded buyers. Low-water flush toilets can save a lot on water and water-efficient shower heads are a great selling point. This is one room that cannot be too clean, given its purpose. Everything should be sparkling, especially the toilet! You cannot be too scrupulous in this regard.

Flooring can be updated with merely a good cleaning. Further work on hardwood floors can be effected by repairing isolated spots, sanding and restaining. Carpets can sometimes look completely new with a thorough vacuuming and steam cleaning. Carpets can also be dyed to remove the traces of stains and provide a more uniform appearance to the room. Keep in mind, however, that some carpets can't be dyed and a carpet can only be dyed darker, not lighter.

Preparing your home for sale, while still trying to keep wastage to a minimum can be easy! Just adhere to the principles of "reduce, reuse and recycle" for an environmentally responsible home staging.