As a new agent, your workload may seem endless, and you likely let it spill over into the weekend. But weekend productivity doesn’t always need to look like stacked listing appointments or hours logged behind a screen. Studying new staging trends is a great thing to tackle on the weekend—you can even bring your family or a friend along. Here are a few ideas.
Visit home stores. One easy (and fun!) way to study home staging trends is to take a trip to your local home or department store and analyze their layouts and designs. Bring a friend or your kids with the promise of lunch or a movie after you’re done and take notes of any specific trends—including color and design—that you may notice.
Study magazines. If you don’t already look at popular interior design magazines, now is the time to pick up a few and study them. You can grab them at the store, but a subscription will save you money over time. Spend an hour or two with your morning coffee perusing the pages and making note of trends.
Create a collage. This is a great task to do with your family, especially if you have younger kids. Once you’ve read your design magazines, cut out some of your favorite staging ideas to make a collage—a fun, creative way to practice putting together a home look.
Use an app. There are dozens of home staging apps available in the app store, and many of them are free! Download a few and swap that magazine hour with an app hour to create interesting and new layouts.
Practice at home. Another fun staging exercise to do with kids is to stage your own home. Once you’ve identified a few new trends in home design, practice a “use what you have” staging sweep. Pick a room, declutter it and reimagine the furniture, art, accessories and overall layout.
Zoe Eisenberg is RISMedia’s senior content editor. RISMedia is the residential real estate industry’s definitive source for news and information. Email Zoe your real estate news ideas at zoe@rismedia.com.