10 Easy Tricks to Shave Years off your MA Home

 Easy tips and tricks to make your Massachusetts home look fresh and new?  Here are 10 clever and simple ideas from top home designers and stagers:

1.  Take down all of the magnets and pictures on your refrigerator.  It will make the kitchen look instantly neater according to Megan Cudia, architectural designer.  File all of those takeout menus in a drawer or binder and frame your kids' artwork to be hung up elsewhere.
2.  Clean windows, mirrors and shower doors.  According to Cudia, natural light and clear windows makes the space more inviting.  
3.  Trim shrubs and bushes.  Tori Toth, author of Feel at Home: Home Staging Secrets for a Quick and Easy Sell recommends trimming back dead flowers, overgrown shrubs and other greenery.  A manicured lawn makes your home look nice and neat.
4.  Shake out the welcome mat!  So easy but often overlooked.  Living in Massachusetts can mean very dirty welcome mats and a mat covered in leaves and dirt does not make your home look very inviting.  Toth suggests shaking it out or replacing it altogether.
5.  Replace switch plates.  White plastic outlet covers can get worn out and discolored.  If you can't get them clean with a cloth, you're better off just to replace them.
6.  Brighten up dark furniture.  Natalie Moreno of Premier Home Staging says that dark furniture can suck up all the light.  She suggests adding a pop of color with pillows, putting two pillows on each side.  A stripe or solid in the back and then a print in the front.
7.  Unsheathe your knives.  Big knife blocks on your counter are dust magnets.  Moreno suggests putting knives in a kitchen drawer and recycling those blocks for an instant "de-cluttered" look.
8.  Sweep the fireplace.  Vaccuum out the fireplace and place pretty logs inside for clean, fresh look.
9.  Organize your art collection.  Moreno recommends hanging art on only one side of a hallway wall and always leaving one wall blank in a room.  You do not need to fill up every inch as the eye needs someplace to wander.  If you're displaying a collection, use the same color matte and frame for each picture.
10.  Style and de-clutter your coffee table.  For a classic look, Moreno suggests this look: "On the left, place a stack of two or three coffee table books.  Put a succulent in the middle, and then to the right we do a bowl with decorative balls."  Add a decorative tray to stash remotes.

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