These days, staging your home involves more than decluttering and inexpensive fix-ups. You can spend big bucks. Or not. The following tips can help you add value to your home:

1. Watch the trends and incorporate them in simple, effective ways. In 2019, buyers will be looking for extra storage and great laundry rooms. Declutter all your closets and add inexpensive but attractive storage in the laundry area. Fresh paint and attractive baskets can go a long way.
2. Position one of today's colors - any shade of blue from cobalt to turquoise, for example - against neutral walls, either by painting an accent wall or by adding hints of color with accessories.
3. For accessories, try light woods, brass and stone.
4. Switch down your lighting - dimmers create a warm, romantic mood in bedrooms and dining rooms.
5. Hardwood floors are still number one, but sisal and seagrass carpeting are becoming popular.
6. White or off-white kitchen cabinets are still in. Painting cabinets may be labor intensive, but you may avoid that "dated kitchen" label.
7. Stainless steel appliances remain popular, but building them in to match kitchen cabinets is very now.
8. Move out all but essential pieces of furniture. Buyers want to imagine their possessions in your home.

What do you do then? Maybe you find something else to pursue, and something else after that, and even then, you still want more. The irony is that eventually, all of these successes – the attempts to feel strong enough and worthy enough – start to feel like failure. NFL Long snapper Clint Gresham learned that lesson the hard way. He played six seasons in the NFL and won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks, but still found himself with the same growing sense of need.

Decluttering is in. A Google search on "decluttering your life" generated 1.16 million results in just a sixteenth of a second. Everyone from professional declutterers to Zen masters has something to say about it. Simply said, though, it boils down to this: Declutter, feel good, achieve more. Following are some tips to help you declutter:

• Many experts recommend you start small. A post at www.zenhabits.net recommends spending five minutes a day on decluttering. Before you know it, that junk drawer or hall closet will be a thing of beauty.
• As you're going through that junk drawer or closet, ask yourself if you've used items in the past six months. If not, get rid of them.
• Delegate a box for the undecided - items you might want in the future. If you don't open the box in three months, get rid of the contents.
• Everyone has things that don't live anywhere. Consider the often-lost TV converter or recharger for your electronics. Make it a mission to find these things.
• How many knickknacks do you really need? Pick your favorites and take memory pictures of the rest. Then pass them on to charitable organizations.
• Buried under papers? One suggestion: Every paper that comes in the door lands in a single place. Sort through the pile every two days and discard or file every piece.

Last but not least, learn to love the decluttered look. You'll stay decluttered for life.

Putting your house on the market this spring? Be ready to grab a vacuum and basic toolkit.

Keeping your home well-maintained and clean may be more effective - and economical - than attempting costly renovations.

So, mow the lawn; trim the bushes; weed the garden. Bring the spring weather inside with quality flower arrangements at the front entrance.

Paint your walls in neutral colors; it will make rooms look brighter, and it will be easier for new owners to paint over if they choose.

Put out fresh guest towels for tours by potential buyers. And keep your home clutter-free.

Some people hire professional cleaners to come regularly while their home is on the market, while others rent storage space. Or hold a garage sale. Just remember to store your sale items behind closed doors during viewings.

That is likely to both create significant economic value and change the nature of work for tens of millions of Indians.

These days, everything old is new again. In Cohen's lyrics ("Show me the place where the world became a man; show me the place where the suffering began.") and in philosophical texts turned popular reading (such as The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions: A Philosophical Adventure With the World's Greatest Thinkers by Nicholas Fearn) the world is rediscovering our debt to ancient thinkers.

Take Thales. This philosopher, who lived around 585 BC, was the father of the idea that everything is one.

Acknowledged as such by Nietzsche, Thales foreshadowed later Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, who effectively shaped our ideas of the universe.

In fact, our current notion of the holistic world had its origin with the ancient Greeks, whose worldview bound together philosophy and politics with culture and science.

Albert Einstein neatly summed up our debt to those who came before, stating, "We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium."

The distance from ancient Greece to the Middle Ages to our current iPad, the world is not as far as it seems.

Existing-home sales rose 11.8 percent from last month and the median home sales price rose 3.6 percent from last year.

It's all about the history of your home, and several companies have sprung up across North America to enlighten potential buyers as they begin their home search.

These organizations provide inexpensive reports that include a history of the home dating back years.

That means you can find out about additions and repairs through building permits and leaky roofs via insurance claims.

Previous selling prices and even some of the more unsavory aspects of the home, such as a history as a drug lab, are available.

Some firms also will provide names of the companies that made previous additions (such as swimming pools), so you can follow up if you like the workmanship, or if you don't.

In the U.S., one company offering this service is BuildFax; buyers can obtain a report through their real estate agent. But if you have time and energy, you can also conduct searches yourself; virtually all the information is contained in official records, available to the public at little or no cost.

History reports like these can help potential buyers avoid unpleasant surprises at closing time or later down the road.

A track record of problems might make a house a lot more expensive to insure, but if a potential buyer knows about the issues before purchasing, he or she could decide against buying the home or at the very least will be prepared for the additional costs.

Single-family homes are still much sought after; according to NAR, almost 80% of last year's buyers purchased a single-family detached home. It appears the American dream isn't dead; like previous generations, families have and will continue to seek a place of their own.

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