Staging My Kitchen

I'm so taking a small break from relating my adoption story. It's so intense that I have to be mentally prepared to write...which I'm not today! But I am slightly, um, affected by the metal cleaner I used on my kitchen cabinet handles this morning, so I thought I'd post some before and after pics of my kitchen as I get ready to put the house on the market.

I don't think our cabinet handles have EVER been cleaned. Cleaned, they bring a whole new look to the kitchen!

Okay, so here's what this area looks like when it's cleaned up (which isn't typical, by the way). You can't see the handles very well, but these are ones I haven't cleaned up yet.

First question: When showing my house, should I have the coffee maker out, like the photo above or not, like the photo below?

I had already cleaned and replaced the cabinet handles by the time I thought of taking pictures, so there's no real "before" photo for this area. However, this is what the sink area usually looks like: a crock pot or rice cooker out, papertowels, canisters, my cordless handvac (which you can't see well), etc.

This is what the sink area looks like with cleaned handles and less clutter:

Another view:

Oy, I had put all the clutter on the kitchen table when taking these pics. When we actually have to show the house, though, most of this stuff should already be packed away in storage somewhere, including the red wok on top of the cabinets.

Phew, this is going to be a lot of work!