When you are preparing to sell your house, there are ways to decorate it that are both inexpensive and will help the house to sell.
First, remember that people who are looking at buying a house are thinking about how THEY will fit into the house. They need to imagine the house without anything in it. Yes, you want the house be "lived in" - but with as much free space as humanly possible. Talk to friends and family and see if they'll hold a few boxes of stuff for you for a while. Clear out some shelves in the cupboards, and any junk in the basement and attic. Move as much "extra" stuff as humanly possible out of your house. That way visitors will see all the empty space and imagine how THEY will fit it up.
Make the house as warm and inviting as possible. There's a story that a house sells better if you are baking chocolate chip cookies while people tour the house! People definitely respond to the smells and atmospheres that they find. Have the table set for a romantic dinner. The kitchen should have fresh lemons and oranges in it. Have fragrant candles lit in the living room. Put lovely bath salts in colored containers in the bathroom.
Get a new set of drawer pulls for fading drawers or kitchen cupboards. It's well worth it to get some wood cleaner, glass cleaner and counter cleaner and give a good scrubbing to everything, too!
Make sure the house looks "open and clean" but not "abandoned". Make sure there's a shower curtain in the bathroom, pillows on the beds and couches. Have fresh flowers on the table, and make sure that front walk is pretty and flowered, even if it means bringing in containers for the steps. You want the first impression to be a good one!
Finally, have a realtor or someone else show the house. People are always uncomfortable when they poke around "someone else's home". It makes them uncomfortable and unwilling to think about the place as "theirs". If you have another person show them around and make sure you completely leave for the tour, things will go much more smoothly!
