The time had come to sell the family home. We'd been in this gorgeous 1903 Victorian for 16 years and I needed to scale right down.

Every home owner thinks their home is beautiful. There's not one that says to the agent: "What! I think we're asking too much. Let's ask for less!" I also think my home is gorgeous, but since my job is home staging, I had to put my money where my mouth is and prep it for sale.

It took three weeks of working on it almost every day. Updating plugs, painting walls, pressure hosing the roof, fixing, fixing, fixing.... There was a lot to do. Here are just a few of the things I did that might resonate with you:

Problem

My dressing room has open cupboards. Bad idea if you're not a neat freak. In its normal state, my multicolour clothes spill out.

Staging solution

Create uniformity and harmony. Make it look like open cupboards are a plus. I hid all my clothes except the black and white ones and used only white hangers.

Problem

Who cares about a laundry room, right? Wrong. The wooden floor on my laundry was looking tacky. I hadn't sanded it in ages. Laundries, like kitchens and bathrooms, need to look hygienic and pristine.

Staging solution

Paint, paint, paint floors and walls a gleaming white.

Problem

Dogs. I adore my two labs, but they f* up the garden. Alfie prefers to lie on soil than on tiles, so he digs out any plants in his way. Result: half depleted garden.

Staging solution

Curb appeal is enormously influential. As much as your prospective buyer may understand that dogs dig, they don't want to be faced with reality when buying a house. Plant, plant, plant in the days leading up to the show house, and send your pets away.

GUESS WHAT: My house sold on the preview night. Staging works.