The One Thing a Home Stager Will Remove from Your Kitchen — Every Time

Home decorating is about expressing yourself. Home staging, on the other hand, is all about letting the house itself shine.

“Decorating a home is specific to the individual; you have things around you that you love, and that’s the way it should be,” says Pat Evans, owner of Pat’s World Staging & Redesign in Richmond, Virginia. “But when staging a home, you are looking to attract a mass amount of people, so you want the home to appeal to the buyers coming through, which sometimes may not be your specific look and feel.”

That’s why, in the kitchen, home stagers recommend putting away some items that might show off your style, your interests, or even your routine, to highlight the kitchen’s features and flow instead. And there’s one thing home stagers say you should always get out of sight.

While dish-drying racks are a great, functional choice for day-to-day living in the kitchen, Evans recommends tucking the drying rack elsewhere and putting dishes away in their cabinets when it comes to selling the space.

“I want potential buyers to feel as though they have lots of counter space,” Evans says. Counter space around the sink for easy chopping, mixing, disposing, and rinsing, is key.

Emphasize Counter and Cabinet Space

Plus, by ditching the dish rack, you’re actually emphasizing the counter and cabinet space. “If sellers have dishes out, potential buyers may feel there is no room for their items or not enough cabinets for storage of those items,” Evans says.
By keeping everything in cabinets, you’ll reassure buyers that there is plenty of storage space for even the most seasonal of dishes, and that it’s easy to keep the kitchen tidy. Cleanliness is huge, Evans says.

Don’t have great storage space in your kitchen? You’ll still want to heed Evans’ advice. She says it holds true especially if a kitchen is small; less is more.

Instead, highlight the coziness of your kitchen, and emphasize the storage and surface area you do have. A dish rack can really minimize that. Try these small-space friendly kitchen storage solutions, including moving some decorative barware and serveware outside the kitchen, or installing a drying rack/cabinet combo above your sink.

Knives (Not) Out

One bonus piece of advice from Evans for showing off counter space when your house is on the market is to stow away your knife block during showings. It’s “not only for aesthetics, but for safety as well,” she says.

What Can Stay on the Counters?

You don’t have to put everything away, Evans says. While your sponge should stay hidden, if your dish soap has a pretty bottle, you can leave that by the sink “to bring in a sense of home.” Evans says amber-colored soap bottles are especially popular right now. Try Aesop, Milk + Honey, or refillable dispensers on Amazon to get the look.

And, for small kitchens, even though mostly everything should stay off the counters, Evans says adding a plant can help bring warmth and coziness.