Staging is the art of editing the items that don't belong.
Kind of like the game on Sesame Street.
That's not to say they are wrong for the owner to have just that they are not always visually appealing for a staged home.
For example, today while staging a kitchen my staging partner and I agreed that the real banana and avocado didn't look right placed in the bowl of faux limes on the kitchen counter. So after a moment I placed them inside the microwave.
An odd choice in storage at first glance but think about it...in the fridge both would turn dark and in my opinion would be inedible. While they are still room temp in the microwave and in no danger of being cooked because to be used the microwave must be opened first.
It has been the rare occasion that I have ever dealt with snakes on a stage. Lizards in tanks yes but not snakes.
Well in the last month I have had two!
Both were wild snakes, not domestic, if you can domesticate a snake...
The first snake I never saw personally but the evidence of it was quite apparent.
Large holes in the ground all around the front porch of a rural home. The sellers were quite fond of their friend, a large bull snake, that had inhabited their yard for a couple of years.
I suggested that they add fresh mulch to the beds and never bring up the subject of the snake's dwelling.
My second encounter of the slithery kind was just today.
We were in the basement of the a home tucking a few things in the closet when my staging partner moved a box and the 'carpet' wiggled!!!
There he was, the same color as the carpet, no bigger than a freshly sharpened pencil.
Oh and I did I mention there was a showing going on upstairs!!!
The realtor had a couple viewing the house prior to it even going on the market.
Now what to do? Say nothing and let him slither out of his hiding place at the worst possible moment.
Or try to catch him---not an option as that would have caused a great deal of commotion between us.
So we took Option #3 and prayed he would stay put until the showing was over!
All went well and Mr Seller came home for the big reveal and helped us remove the snake with kitchen tongs and a plastic tub.
Snake removed and order restored we finished and said good-bye satisfied with the day....until about three hours later when the seller called my staging partner asking where his avocado and banana had gone.
Well is it not obvious??? They are in the microwave of course!
