A home staging assistant loads furniture and decor at the warehouse, rides or drives to listed homes, and sets each room to the stager's plan. When a house sells, they take it all down, pack every piece and return it to the warehouse without a scratch.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, specialized design firms · BLS, May 2025
The Apprentice / Assistant supports our home staging team by ensuring the efficient transportation, setup, and teardown of staging items to create exceptional living spaces for our clients.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Assist lead stagers in setting up and arranging furniture and decorative items according to design plans.
Transport staging items safely between storage facilities and job sites.
Handle setup and teardown tasks to ensure each property is presented to its maximum potential.
Maintain a clean and organized work environment during all project phases.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Load and unload staging items and decor from company vehicles at designated sites.
Follow detailed staging plans to accurately position items in homes.
Liaise with team members to ensure timely completion of setup and teardown tasks.
Perform routine checks of equipment and staged properties to guarantee a professional presentation.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
On-Time Setup Completion: 95% or higher adherence to scheduled setup times.
Transportation Efficiency: Achieve 100% safe transit of items with zero damage.
Customer Satisfaction Rating: Exceed a 4.8-star rating on post-project surveys.
Setup/Teardown Accuracy: Maintain a 98% accuracy rate in following staging layouts.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High school diploma or equivalent.
Strong physical ability to lift up to 50 lbs and work on your feet for extended periods.
Excellent teamwork, communication, and time-management skills.
Basic understanding of home decor and staging principles.
6. Preferred Experience
1+ year of experience in home staging, interior design, or a related field.
Proven experience in customer-facing roles within the home services industry.
Prior work experience involving transportation and setup of furniture or decor items.
Familiarity with basic safety and operational procedures in a staging environment.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to lift and carry items weighing up to 50 lbs.
Prolonged periods of standing, walking, and physical activity.
Frequent bending, reaching, and stretching in varied work environments.
Exposure to both indoor and outdoor conditions, including variable weather.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Typical work hours range from 8 to 10 hours per day, including occasional weekends.
Moderate travel required between staging sites within the local service area.
Occasional overtime during high-demand projects or peak seasons.
Work takes place in a mix of indoor and outdoor environments, including varying temperature conditions.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Hourly wage ranging from $15 to $20 per hour based on experience.
Performance-based bonuses available.
Comprehensive benefits package including Health, Dental, and Vision insurance.
401(k) plan with company matching contributions and other fringe benefits.
10. Company Culture and Overview
We foster an inclusive environment focused on teamwork, professional growth, and creative innovation.
Our supportive culture ensures every team member is empowered to learn, excel, and expand their skill set.
We value transparency, open communication, and continuous improvement in our operations.
Join our dynamic team and contribute to shaping beautiful spaces while advancing your career in home services.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
A mover takes one family's things to one new house, once. A staging assistant moves the same sofas, rugs and art in and out of house after house, and every room has to look finished, not just full.
The truck's weight rating sets the license
For a single truck hauling furniture, federal rules require a CDL only when its weight rating, or its actual weight if higher, is 26,001 pounds or more. FMCSA's safety rules start lower, at 10,001 pounds, for trucks used in interstate commerce, and those drivers must carry a medical examiner's certificate. Your state may set its own rules for trips that stay in the state. Read the weight label on the driver's door before an ad mentions any license. Source: 49 CFR 383.5: Commercial motor vehicle defined for CDL purposes (Cornell LII).
Guarding a house that's for sale
The house is the client's product, and the crew is inside it for hours. Assistants lay floor runners, pad door jambs and banisters, and carry rather than drag. Before the first piece comes in, they photograph floors and walls so an old scratch isn't blamed on you. Anything they nick gets photographed and reported the same day.
Dollies, straps and stairs
Most of the day is carrying: sofas up stairs, dressers through tight doors, headboards and mirrors to upper floors. Teach two-person carries, shoulder straps, hand trucks and furniture sliders, and when to take off legs or drawers first. Bring heavy pieces in before small decor, and keep hallways clear so the stager can work while the truck empties.
The pull list is the plan
Each house comes with a pull list: which sofa, which rug, which art, which room. The assistant picks the items at the warehouse, checks them off as they go on the truck, and places them where the plan says before the stager fine-tunes. A forgotten lamp means a second trip or a bare corner in the listing photos.
Pickups come on the seller's timeline
Pickup comes when a home sells or the staging term ends, so leave room in the schedule for one called in close to a closing. The crew wraps art, glass and mirrors in blankets or boxes, counts each item against the list, and notes anything damaged or missing. That way the warehouse can clean, fix or retire pieces before they go back out.
How much home staging assistants make
The closest BLS group for home staging assistants is laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand who work for specialized design firms earned a median of $22.21 an hour ($46,200 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $40,240 median for laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand in all industries. About 3,000 of the 2,950,280 laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand in that survey work for specialized design firms.
Hourly in the template, with performance bonuses. Staging crews have no BLS code of their own, so this chart uses hand laborers and material movers, and the template's whole range sits below that group's middle here.
Specialized design firms
$46,200$46,200 median Middle half $37,420–$56,480 10th–90th $35,360–$63,540
All industries
$40,240$40,240 median Middle half $36,090–$46,920 10th–90th $31,270–$55,140
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Specialized design firms
$35,360
$37,420
$46,200
$56,480
$63,540
All industries
$31,270
$36,090
$40,240
$46,920
$55,140
BLS doesn’t publish pay for home stagers on their own. These figures cover specialized design services, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Lifts and carries furniture as part of a two-person team
Follows a room plan and puts each item where it belongs
Packs glass, art and mirrors so they arrive whole
Shows up on time, since one late person holds up the truck
Works quietly and neatly in a home that's on the market
Teach these on the job
Your warehouse layout, tags and pull lists
Hanging art level and at the right height
Bed making, pillow styling and table settings
Truck loading order and tie-down straps
Your damage report and photo steps
Assistants work with furniture dollies, hand trucks, shoulder straps, sliders, moving blankets, stretch wrap, a drill and an art-hanging kit, plus a phone for photos and pull lists. If they will drive, give the truck's size and weight rating in the ad, and whether a CDL is needed.
Home staging assistant interview questions
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Following the plan, asking when it doesn't fit
The staging plan puts a king bed in a bedroom, but once it's set up it blocks the closet door. The designer is at another house. What do you do?
A strong answer: Sends the designer a photo and measurements, suggests an option, and waits for a decision rather than guessing or leaving it.
Behavioral · Care with others' belongings
Tell me about a time at work, school or volunteering when you had to handle someone else's belongings or valuable items carefully.
A strong answer: Names specific habits, such as wrapping, labeling, checking before moving and asking first, and what they did when something went wrong.
Count these per crew and per assistant from your job records, and set the bars from last season's installs and pickups.
On-Time Setup Completion
Installs done before the time promised to the stager or photographer, out of all installs. Log late trucks and warehouse delays apart from crew pace.
Transportation Efficiency
Items that leave and return without damage, out of all items moved, from the warehouse's check-in notes. Record each damaged piece with the job and the cause.
Customer Satisfaction Rating
Post-project survey scores from agents and homeowners on installs this assistant worked, read with comments about care in the home and timing.
Setup/Teardown Accuracy
Items placed where the plan says, and items returned against the pull list. Count missing, swapped or left-behind pieces on each job.
Career path
Home staging assistantLoads, moves and sets furniture to the stager's plan.
Home stagerPlans rooms and leads the install at each house.
Lead home stagerSets the company's look and coaches the stagers.
Does a home staging assistant need design training?
No. A basic sense of decor is all the template asks, and taste grows by watching stagers adjust rooms. Stagedhomes.com sells an Accredited Staging Assistant course for people joining a staging team; it is an industry course, not a license. Hire for care and reliability first, and teach the styling.
How much does a home staging assistant make?
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand who work for specialized design firms earned a median of $22.21 an hour ($46,200 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $37,420 and $56,480 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
How do you test a staging assistant?
Run a short working interview at the warehouse. Have them move a sofa, a mirror and a lamp onto a dolly and into the truck, then strap them. Next, ask them to set a small vignette from a photo. Watch how they protect corners, whether they ask questions, and how close the result looks to the picture.
What changes when the seller still lives in the home?
Less carrying and more care. In an occupied home, the stager may keep some of the family's furniture and add art, rugs and accessories. The assistant moves the owner's things only to spots the owner approves, handles them like company stock, and asks before opening closets or touching anything personal.
Is staging crew work seasonal?
It follows listings. The template expects overtime in peak seasons and some weekends. Give slower weeks to warehouse work, like cleaning, repairing and tagging returned pieces, so the crew keeps steady hours when fewer homes list.
What should a staging ad say about lifting and carrying?
Name the tasks: carrying furniture with a partner, taking boxes up stairs, loading a truck, hanging art from a step stool, working in homes without heat or air on. Put the template's 50-pound lifting line next to those tasks, and leave out words about the person's body or energy.
