Organize Family Room

With all these functions, the family room can accumulate a lot of "stuff" which must find a new home so that the room can be staged properly.

Our mission in the family room is to emphasize the casual nature of the room and differentiate its purpose from the purpose of the living room.

Casual doesn't mean disorderly, and it is in this section that we will get to work creating order out of chaos. This is one of the harder rooms to keep organized because it gets a lot of use. Follow along as we give you our tips for rediscovering the roominess in the family room.

The trick with family rooms is to create such a welcoming space that the prospective home buyer can see themselves enjoying the time spent in the room with their family.

• Family rooms should have a sofa and at least one comfy chair. You should choose pieces that you own that are in the best shape - not worn, not too-broken-in that they look broken-down. A side table or two are necessary to display lamps, and perhaps a coffee table. All other furniture that is not attached to the wall (such as bookshelves which are built-in) need to be removed and stored away for your move.
• You can hold off on arranging the furniture optimally in the staging stage. Now's the time to make a mental calculation of traffic flow - make sure that there isn't too much furniture in the room that might block the natural flow of traffic through the room.
Clear off all the things that are on top of the tables and mantel (if any). Pack these items away for your move. If you need them on a daily basis, we will usually suggest that you find a department store gift box for these items and stash themunder the sofa for showings. Easy, quick, very convenient.
• If there are bookshelves, then you should leave a few books, but do not fill the shelves. Strive for shelves that are about 15-20% full. Pack up the rest in sturdy boxes. (Tip: For books, we get smaller boxes, about 12" x 10" x 15". Anything larger just gets too heavy to lift - especially if you own a lot of books.)
• For children's toys, we suggest that you get one medium-sized box for each child. Each child can fill only one box with the toys they want to use while the house is on the market, everything goes into storage for after the move. In a pinch for last-minute showings, the toys getput in the box, the box gets taped up and moved to the garage or a nearby closet. Quick. Neat. Neat boxes are perfectly natural for a family that is about to move. You'll find that the kids make a game of how many toys they can fit into "their" box, and a potentially difficult situation is turned into a fun project.
• Remove wallpaper and wallpaper borders. We can't recommend the Wagner steam remover strongly enough - we've tried everything else and this appliance makes quick work out of a thankless job.
• If you will be replacing carpet, then now's the time to remove it. You can replace carpeting after you paint the room. Removing carpeting can get dusty, and you don't want to have to clean this dust twice.
• Window treatments should be removed at this point to make painting easier and to see if they need cleaning or replacing. You might be able to leave the hardware up if you will be using a similar style covering for staging.
• Pet items should be removed entirely. The home should not show any signs of a pet in residence when it is on the market.
• Remove all artwork and other pieces on the walls. We will place art in the roomwhen we stage it.
• A good sized green leafy plant is appropriate for family rooms. If you have a good, healthy one, keep it nearby for staging. Fake plants and flowers should bepacked away if you want to use them in your new home. You want your home to feel "alive!" to prospective buyers, not phony and fake.

What is the number one trait a prospective buyer notices when they walk into a home that's on the market? Cleanliness. Family rooms get a lot of use, so keeping this room really cleanwill tell prospective buyers that this home is super clean throughout.

• With wall-to-wall carpeting that is going to stay, it is a good idea to have it professionally cleaned to remove any odors, traffic wear patterns, and stubborn stains. Rental machines just don't do as complete a job and your time can be better spent on other tasks.
• Hardwood or tile flooring needs to be squeaky clean. Make any necessary repairs to the flooring such as addressing scratches or chipped grout. Our favorite cleaning product for this task is Murphy's Oil Soap concentrate.
• Clean the baseboards, windowsills, doors and mouldings with the same Murphy's product. Make sure you clean behind and under furniture that has been positioned near walls.
• Any light fixtures, ceiling fans or lamps need to be thoroughly dusted. You don't want someone turning on a fan only to have years of dust fly in their face!
• A simple upgrade after painting is to replace switchplates and wall outlet covers. For around 60 cents each, you can give the room a new feel.

All of the extra furniture and accessories that you have cleared out of the family room should be boxed up and removed. Pack away like items in boxes labeled "family room" so that unpacking will be less like a mystery novel and more like a road map. The few objects and books that remain after the main packing has been done will come in handy for staging when we get to Step 3.

If you can get most of the extraneous items out of the way now by packing them up, then organizing won't be difficult and the room will stay uncluttered for showings.

By organizing the furniture in a small, manageable number of pieces, there won't be extra work involved in straightening upthe family room at the last minute either- and we all know that showings do pop up at the last minute. The stray morning newspaper or plastic spaceship parts just won't be that big a deal because everything else has been streamlined.

You have your battle plan for the family room: One box for eachchild's will-use-everyday toys, one under-sofa box for the remote control, reading glasses, latest magazine and the dog's chew toy, and everything else safely packed away and stored. Easy, quick, practically fool-proof, an organized family room.

The family room is now ready to be staged for maximum impact. The creative part is about to begin. Still thinking about where to begin? Go back to our home page from organize family room and see what other adventures we have in store for you.