EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE

Professional stager and organizer Ashley Rapp knows what goes where.

Sometimes we weed out our closets. Sometimes we replant our careers. After a decade spent working for a global supply chain company, followed by stints at a private school and a landscaping company, Ashley Rapp reinvented herself as a home staging and organizing pro. “When starting my business, I could not see just a staging or just an organizing company, I saw both,” says Rapp, who launched HELLO! Staging+Organizing post-Covid. “In my mind, you cannot have one without the other. When I’m organizing, I’m staging and when I’m staging, I’m constantly organizing.”

Starting a new business from scratch can be daunting and as she went about launching hers, Rapp turned to MBA— Ms. Business Association—for an assist. “I knew I would need a strong support group around me as I navigated a completely different career journey. So, I joined MBA, a women in business network in the Northwest suburbs. The members believed in me and helped hold me accountable for ultimately doing what I really wanted to do. And to this day, I know I would not be where I am today without the strong, smart, innovative, courageous, and collaborative females I have in my corner. Women supporting women is something I feel very strongly about and am very proud to be a part of this amazing community.”

Back in the day, someone selling a home could bake some cookies the morning of a showing and hope the scent would seduce would-be buyers into making an offer. Today, tactics are a tad more sophisticated, and a proper staging can go a long way toward making house hunters see your place for what it is and can be. “I do not have a large warehouse of staging furniture because my niche is being able to use a lot of what the client already has,” says Rapp, “and repurposing it into different spaces, grouping different items together. I’m respectful of budget and resourceful when it comes to staging.” Going into a stranger’s home and making decisions about their possessions and design style can be tricky. But Rapp says most folks are happy for this second set of eyes. “I’m empathetic and once the client sees the final outcome, they are blown away by the results. I often hear them say, “Why didn’t I have you come when I actually wanted to live in my home?”

Rapps’s roster of staging services ranges from a Staging Report—a detailed “punch list” listing out all the recommendations room by room that is generated within 48 hours of a walk-through—to a Day of Photography Support, during which she helps prepare the home so that it looks just right when the photographer arrives to shoot the property for a real estate listing. “Ninety percent of buyers look online first when searching for houses, and sixty percent of those buyers look only at photos, skipping the written description,” notes Rapp. “I arrive two hours before the photographer to prepare your home to look its best for photos that truly reflect the visual appeal buyers are looking for.”

When it comes to organizing—which, as Rapp says, often goes hand-in-hand with staging—she is equipped to address closets, kitchens, pantries, and any other area where things have accumulated, and can help declutter garages and basements and provide assistance in packing and unpacking. “This past spring,” relates Rapp, “I joined The Container Store as an In-Home Organizer. The idea behind this service is that when customers come into the store, the associates can only help so much because they can’t follow the customers back to their homes and help them. But I can.”

Now that she is established in business, Rapp delights in giving back, lending support to WINGS, Barrington Giving Day, and Saint Anne’s House of Hope. Each year, with “HELLO! Giveback Day,” she adopts a local family and, with the help of volunteers, completely reorganizes their home. “This year, I am partnering with CASA of McHenry County on the 12th Annual Little Black Dress event on October 10th at the Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of McHenry County is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring a safe, permanent, and nurturing home for children in the foster care system by providing trained and dedicated volunteers to advocate for their best interests.” CASA volunteers work within the courts in collaboration with key agencies, legal counsel, and community resources to represent the best interests of children in juvenile abuse, neglect, and dependency proceedings.

“The secret to getting ahead,” Mark Twain sensibly observed, “is getting started.” For some of us, busy lives and busy schedules make that easier said than done. For Rapp, it’s a snap. “Either you have the gift, or you don’t. And I’ve got it.”

For more information, visit hellostagingorganizing.com.