One of the rules of home staging is that you have to “depersonalize” your house. For many people, some of the most personal decorative items they have relate to their religion or culture. Faith-based artwork, sculpture, even a Bible on display serve as daily reminders of the depth of their beliefs.

However, the advice of most home staging professionals is to pick up all the religious items and put them away while your home is for sale. Many people find this offensive and unnecessary. But the reality is that not everyone in this world believes in the same things. So what’s the right answer?

If your faith is very important to you, then it’s understandable that you might be offended by the need to store your treasured religious items. However, just as you are unhappy about the lack of your items on display, potential home buyers might find their presence to be uncomfortable. “So what?” you might say. “I have a right to display them.” Which, of course, is absolutely true. And at the same time, they have the right to leave your home and buy one in the next block over.

You have to ask yourself what your goal is at this moment. Is it to profess your beliefs to everyone who visits your home? Or is your goal to sell your home at the highest price possible? Once you figure out the answers to these questions, then you’ll know what to do about your religious and cultural items.

Many people are puzzled by the need for making their home impersonal. Doesn’t depersonalized equal cold and uninviting. On the contrary, when you remove your personality from the home you’re selling, it allows potential buyers to project their personality into the home. You’ve left the basics and their imaginations can fill in the details.

If you show them a home cluttered with furniture, artwork and relics from your life, they might not be able to imagine living in it. Proper home staging prepares your home so they can’t imagine not living in it.