Staged

Home staging as described by Wikipedia: The act of preparing a private residence for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property more swiftly and for more money..
My definition: Hide all the shit you don't want anyone to see and pretend like you live a life void of clutter and chaos.  Pretend that your two small children don't play with toys or make messes. Pretend like your bed always looks that way, and that you have fresh flowers in EVERY room EVERY day.  
Is staging your house necessary? Does it matter if my sheets are wrinkled and there is a fire truck in my kitchen? That you can't eat off the floor of my GARAGE?. That the leaves actually fall from the tree? If selling your house is the objective - yes.
After a weekend filled with rearranging furniture, painting walls, taking down family photos - putting up "neutral" ones - stripping our house of that trademark "Albertson" warmth, I am left feeling a little sad.  If we do too good a job someone might like our house enough to buy it.  Then what???  Then we have no house? Then we have to leave?  Leave our beautiful home.  A home that it has taken us just this long to make a home.  A home that has been host to countless parties and family gatherings -  The meeting place for our nearest and dearest.  So many happy times.  Momentous occasions  - milestone birthdays, first words, first steps.  Friendships rekindled and a deeper love found. A place that I and I think we called "home". 
Beds covered in soft cuddly teddy bears. Walls filled with beautiful pictures of our family - Bath tub and basement filled with toys - shelves filled with wonderful books. Vanished.  Staged.
I am thankful for the time we have spent here, and am kept moving forward with the knowledge that the love, laughter and memories can't be staged and will follow us wherever we go.


PS - Anyone want to buy a house?