Staging homes is a careful, meticulous process that requires a certain level of expertise and a keen eye for what needs fixing. If you’ve obtained your staging certification and have some experience behind you, clients will want to put your services to use in order to sell their homes for the best price.
If you’re serious about being successful as a home stager, a certification and experience are important, but you can take your training even further by focusing on professional organizing.
Now, professional organizing is usually seen as a separate branch of the design industry – and it is! However, putting organizing systems in place for your clients to eliminate chaos from their homes is a beneficial skill for stagers. Read on for 5 ways professional organizer training can help home stagers, and get ready to add some new tricks to your repertoire!
1. Getting rid of clutter
Decluttering is a top priority when it comes to staging homes, and your eyes are immediately drawn to storage closets, surfaces, and oversized furniture when you enter a home. This was part of your home stager training, and you pride yourself on your ability to recognize and tackle clutter right off the bat. But clutter isn’t just an issue faced by homeowners trying to attract buyers – it’s also a very common problem for individuals and families with hectic routines!
These people will find themselves with bedside tables, junk drawers, and closets overflowing with useless items. Usually the services of a professional organizer are sought out when clients can’t handle the level of clutter (and chaos) in their homes any longer, but that doesn’t mean that you need to become a professional organizer to help clients get their lives back on track.
Professional organizing courses teach you skills to restore order and productivity in the home. Whether they’re getting organized for their own sake, or need help decluttering before putting their house up for sale, offering professional organizing services as a home stager will seriously up your game in the industry. You’ll also have the added benefit of knowing how to work with different client personalities, as staging and organizing courses together will go above and beyond to prepare you for various clients.
2. Preparing for a big move
As a home stager, you’re there to help your clients prepare their home for sale. You love the processes involved, including depersonalizing, getting rid of clutter, and improving curb appeal. You take a great deal of pride in the finished result, and you’re able to help clients move on to the next chapter of their lives.
Did you know that many clients reach out to professional organizers to help them prepare to move? It’s no surprise – if there was ever a time to be totally organized and clutter-free, moving into a new home is it. The skills you’ll gain in a professional organizing course equip you to help clients get rid of furniture they won’t need, sort through their belongings, and pack boxes efficiently. Your work won’t end there, though! Clients will need your organizing services as they settle into their new home, so you’ll be there on moving day to help create some foolproof systems in their new space.
With a knowledge of both home staging and professional organizing, your services will be seriously valuable to clients as they prepare to move and settle into their new lives.
3. Offering better packages
When it comes to your home staging services, the dynamic nature of this role allows you to be very creative! Putting together appealing combinations for your clients based on their needs and your expertise is one of the most fun aspects of your job – you can offer rental props to your clients to enhance their homes for potential buyers, or offer color consultations to help homes look their absolute best. It’s your call!
If you want to really take your packages to a new level, you should consider the impact of adding professional organizing services to your existing combinations. Think about it – your home staging clients will need their rooms to be organized to attract buyers, and will likely need organizing systems put in place both before and after they move.
By offering professional organizing services in addition to home staging services, you can anticipate more clients flocking to you, plus a healthy boost in your salary! You’ll be worth your weight in gold.
4. Building a better portfolio
Never underestimate the importance of a gorgeous home design portfolio. In the design industry, visuals are everything, and you’ll need a professional portfolio no matter how strong your resume is. While you can certainly include photos from your course work and your own home to showcase your skills, clients will be much more impressed by a portfolio based on your career work. Specifically, the homes you’ve staged and any other design services you’ve worked on professionally.
While home staging experience will lend itself well to portfolio photos, consider the impact of adding professional organizing jobs to it as well. If you’re trained in each of these branches, your portfolio will provide a dazzling example to clients of what you’re capable of – and your work won’t be limited to just one service.
5. Helping clients save money
This one is extremely important! Anyone who has ever owned a home knows how quickly items can accumulate – whether its piles of clothes, accessories, outdoor equipment, or books, they can get out of control fast. We mentioned the negative effects of clutter earlier, but for some clients, they can become so overwhelmed that they fall into a depression. They also may lose track of what they own due to disorganization and an abundance of clothing or accessories, which can lead to unnecessary spending.
This is where you come in! As a home stager, you know how to whip a house into shape by removing personal items and conducting necessary repairs, but you may not understand how to best eliminate chaos and keep your clients organized. That’s where professional organizer training comes in, and it can be seriously helpful for clients who need an organized closet (and need to stop shopping). By knowing how to organize closets and other storage spaces in easy and effective ways, you’ll eliminate the need to buy more things, which will save them money in the long run!
