Home makeovers are popular, but they can be pricey. Now, you can give your house a lift without buying anything new.

Staging to live started on the West Coast.  Professionals come into your home, take photographs and then use what you already have to downsize, minimize and de-clutter.

Therese Robinson and her team from Staged 2 Sell, located on the Peninsula, have been doing just that for about a year.  

"They don't want to spend a lot of money. They don't want to go out and buy new things, buy new art and buy new accessories and that type of thing," she explained. "There's just so much you can do with your own things or what you might have in your garage or what you might have in another room."

We caught up with them on a one-day dining room “de-decoration, as Robinson calls it.

First, there’s packing up, permanently removing items from the room.

"When I go in, I ask people questions like ‘What do you want this room to be? What do you use this room for? How do you use this in your family or your life and what do we absolutely have to keep?" she noted.

In this case, a large piece of furniture from the dining room will eventually end up in the master bedroom, but for now, it's going to the garage.

In the china cabinet, some of what's in it and on it is removed.

“You can't go into a room and just say ‘okay, what should I just take out? You gotta take everything out, everything down and put it back together,” she said.

Now, with a clean slate, the staging begins.  Decorative plates from the kitchen find a new home on the dining room wall.  The table is set and is finished off with silk flowers that had been on the wall.

Therese says staging an average-sized home will cost between $800 and $1,500.  She will work with your budget and your time frame and she’ll even do one room at a time.

And one tip -- before you call a professional stager, figure out what you can part with so that hard decision isn’t made at the moment.