It's time to sell your house, and you know you need to stage it for sale, but you're not sure how. This step-by-step guide will help you successfully prepare your house for the market, from fixing necessary repairs to cleaning hidden messes.

It's Sad To Say Goodbye, But It's Time To Modify Your Home

Staging a house is all about one thing: making your home inviting to potential buyers. Buyers want to feel like they could live in your home. You don't want anything to throw them off such a path, like seeing too many of your own things, damage to walls and furnishings, or general untidiness.

Start With A Purge

Clutter makes a home uninviting, so open your space by removing as many of the extras from your house as possible. Start with the junk that can be tossed in the dumpster, recycled, or donated. Get it out of the house so you can focus your attention on more important jobs. Organize your rooms and closets; then consider taking anything else you don't need to a storage unit.

Don't...

Enjoying your backyard in the summer months is a treat if you have been cooped up indoors during the cold and wet months. Here are four ways you can spruce up your yard and make it a summer haven.

1. Clean your outdoor furniture
After months of not being used and sitting around collecting dust and dirt, your outdoor furniture probably looks less than inviting. It's time to break out a bucket of water and soap, and clean them up. If they still look shabby, you can can paint them. This is a good way to change the look of your backyard furniture for the cost of a can of paint.

2. Create shaded places to relax
During the summer months it's nice to spend time outdoors, but there should be shaded areas so that no one has to be directly in the sun. If you're lucky enough to have a large tree in your backyard, you can arrange seating underneath. If you have a table on which you have meals outdoors, use an umbrella to create shade.

3. Add colorful flowers
One of the joys of summer is the abundance of...