Letting Go - of Houses - Staging

About a week ago, Nancy and I sold our estate down in Texas. Honestly, I was very glad to see it go. The place was big and complicated. It had seven outdoor decks. I used to brag that I had more decks than some casinos - that was until I found myself constantly sanding and staining decks. It had a pool - which still leaks. It has about 5 acres of land on the lovely San Gabriel River - which cost me a fortune just to keep mowed. Like I said - I was glad to see it go.

With that one behind us, we are now attempting to sell our home here in Memphis. The idea being to maximize our flexibility to move - whereever we want. Anyhow, we met with a Realtor, and have decided to try and sell the place on our own. However, we figured we could use a little advice on getting this place ready to sell so we consulted with a "Stager".

The "stager" showed up at 10:00 for our consultation on how to stage the house to sell. Rebecca, was our "stager" and she had developed an interesting way of explaining to women and men everywhere (but especially women) that staging a house to sell is not the same as "decorating a house to live in." This explanation basically allows the "stager" to tell you that your stuff is ugly and you have no taste, without being offensive.....because staging is different than decorating. Whatever.... Well we did pretty well downstairs, just gotta move things around a bit. Nancy is pretty much in charge of downstairs. Upstairs is / was a different story. Especially, my office. I got blasted by the "stager". For those of you who have never been here, my office is a multi-faceted, multi-functional, work of art. It has five major themes - it serves as a:
Real Office - I have state of the art computers and software up here
Library - which used to have 1200 books
Music Studio - complete with 5 guitars, tamborines, speakers, etc.
Texas History Museum
Beer Joint - complete with working refrigerator full of beer.
As best as I can tell, the "stager" thought my office was a FEMA Class A disaster area. You should have seen the look on her face. I can't believe - that after all the work that I have done - she asked me if I couldn't get down to just one bookcase. She also wanted to remove my Texas Flag autographed by Willie Nelson. Believe it or not, now this is a killer....she suggested getting rid of my beer frig!!!!
What's even sadder, with all the stuff she wants me to take out of here, I am going to have to rent another storage building - this will overflow the damn 20 X 10 that we got 2 weeks ago.
OK, so if any of you guys and gals want to understand "staging", it seems that the goal is to completely depersonalize the house, and replace it with the personality and polish of a Ritz Carlton. In other words, let go of your stuff!
I guess, I need more lessons in letting go....and another storage building.
All the best.....
mike